Ed's Top 10 Movies For 2022

By Little Eddie O'Hare

 

Greetings Wicked Theory readers! My Buddy Bill has been gracious enough to let me post my top ten movies list here this year. I saw 112 new films over the past 12 months. Below are my top ten (16 if you count the honorable mentions).

Quick note up front: THESE ARE MY OPINIONS! There were many other movies that I enjoyed this year. The ones on this list hit me in the feels.

 

So here it is. First, Honorable Mentions:

RRR (Raftar Creations) dir. S.S. Rajamouli, runtime 3h 7m – Available on Netflix

Tár (Focus Features) dir. Todd Field, runtime 3h 7m – Available on Theaters and on Video On-Demand

All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix) dir. Edward Berger, runtime 2h 28m – Available on Netflix

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Marvel Studios) dir. Ryan Coogler, runtime 2h 41m – Available in Theaters

Nope (Universal Pictures) dir. Jordan Peele, runtime 2h 10m – Available on Peacock

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix) dir. Rian Johnson, runtime 2h 19m – Available on Netflix

 

And now the Top Ten:

#10 - Troll (Netflix)

Dir. Roar Uthaug, runtime 1h 41m – Available on Netflix

This is Denmark’s stab at a Kaiju movie and boy, does it deliver. Most Godzilla movies leave me bored with the pesky humans and anxious for the big guy to show up again. Troll, on the other hand, has much more engaging human characters with real personalities and motivations for an audience to invest in. Finally, the creature effects were top notch and the reveal of the Troll was truly awe-inspiring.

 

#9 - The Northman (Focus Features)

Dir. Robert Eggers, runtime 2h 17m – Available on Peacock

Alexander Skarsgård stars in this fever dream of a movie about a Viking bent on revenge. While this story feels like it could have been adapted from ancient poetry, it offers different viewpoints of the narrative that make it feel modern and realistic. Plus, the music and visual ambience are moving enough to inspire one to tear off their shirt and run into the night wielding an axe!

 

#8 - Bullet Train (Columbia Pictures)

Dir. David Leitch, runtime 2h 7m – Available on Netflix

I would swear Guy Ritchie made this movie. It has all the visual flair, quirky characters and fast-paced dialogue of Snatch but with a more international cast and David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2) takes it to the next level with top-notch fighting and stunt work.  

 

#7 - Avatar: The Way of Water (20th Century Studios)

Dir. James Cameron, runtime 3h 12m – Available in Theaters

Never underestimate Big Jim. Many fanboys (myself included) have written off Avatar over the years but I’m willing to admit when I’m wrong. The Way of Water, like its predecessor, offers an immersive experience that should be viewed in 3-D on the largest screen available. Also, the family aspect of the film brings in great new characters and makes the story even more engaging than the first film.

#6 - Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (The Roku Channel)

Dir. Eric Appel, runtime 1h 48m – Available on The Roku Channel

Yes, I know it is shocking. “Ed, how in Hell could a fake biopic about a parody musician rank higher on your list than Avatar 2?” Weird is a rare breed of movie… Rarer than the White Stagg. It is a truly silly farce that harkens back to the great Zucker brothers’ comedies of the 1980s that does not bother with sentimentality and focuses solely on delivering as many jokes per square inch as possible. It is, pound-for-pound, the funniest movie I have seen in a decade. I hope to see more like it in the not-too-distant future.

 

#5 Prey (20th Century Studios)

Dir. Dan Trachtenberg, runtime 1h 40m – Available on Hulu

Predator, much like its cousins Alien and Terminator, is a seminal action franchise of the 1980s that has suffered a slow death as each new installment became bloated and convoluted. Prey is a refreshing turn in the other direction. Trachtenberg gets back to basics and takes us back in time to the 18^th century American frontier, where a young Comanche girl discovers something dangerous hunting in the forest. It is a simple story told with killer suspense and effects.

 

#4 - Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Pictures)

Dir. Joseph Kosinski, runtime 2h 10m – Available on Paramount+

Tom Cruise saved movie theaters this past summer. I can’t think of this movie without smiling. Pure Adventure.

 

#3 - The Fabelmans (Universal Pictures)

Dir. Steven Spielberg, runtime 2h 31m – Available in Theaters and on Video On-Demand

Over the past few years, it seems like every big-name director has decided to make a semi-autobiographical film about a young version of themselves falling in love with movies. It should be no surprise that Steven Spielberg has directed the best example of these films. The coming-of-age story is paired with a heartbreaking narrative of a loving family that slowly grows apart.

 

#2 - The Batman (DC Entertainment)

Dir. Matt Reeves, runtime 2h 56m – Available on HBO Max

How do you make a Batman movie feel fresh and unique again? Well Matt Reeves decided to get back to basics and really focus on the caped crusader’s detective skills. This film has the big, giant effects extravaganza finale we have come to expect from superhero fair, but everything that comes before that feels like a ‘40s noir. The rain, the street lights… I also loved how Reeves built the world out and included many classic villains as supporting characters. The sequence where the Batmobile chases down the Penguin has to be my favorite cinematic moment of the year.

 

#1 Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24)

Dir. Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, runtime 2h 19m – Available on Showtime

The title says it all, really. This movie has the whole package. It uses high concept genre conventions to tell a deeply emotional story about family, love and the choices we make in life. Michelle Yeoh delivers a knockout performance and shows us that bravery comes in all shapes and sizes.

 

How Marvel Could Fold The Fantastic Four Into The MCU

"Johnny, that should NOT be glowing...."

Hello Marvel. Well, the crying over Avengers: Endgame has stopped, or at least slowed a bit, and we should have a talk. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has hit an age where it will soon start going through changes. It’s that awkward preteen phase, filled with insecurities, weird growth spurts and raging… Y’know what, let me start this over.

Ahem.

Now that I.P. omnivore Disney devoured Fox and Marvel has regained control of X-Men and Fantastic Four there’s been a lot of hope and speculation about when and how we’ll see them folded into the MCU. Figuring out how to smoothly cram Mutants into play requires a level of math I have only the slightest capacity for. The FF on the other hand, well, I think they will be much easier. There’s just less moving pieces. And therefore I have ideas. I doubt I’m wholly unique with these two possible paths but they revealed themselves to me in a fever dream brought on by overexposure to geek radiation, and I am now compelled by a tribunal of comically oversized cosmic entities, to share them with you. 

Or I just wanted to write this. Either or.

The Draper Plan

Look! It's Reed Richards and Howard Stark!

Long ago, I mentioned on my podcast an idea that an ongoing TV series might suit The Fantastic Four best, and further, that setting it during the pre or post space race era would work nicely. Think Mad Men with superpowers and, eventually, aliens. Place it firmly in the late 60’s early 70’s period and aesthetic, but, you know, with less nicotine and tar. The upcoming Disney+ service would be perfect for this. Give it 10 episodes that allow this series to exist on a respectable budget and we would get some rather amazing spectacles (even if they might have to be dialed down from grand expectations). An interesting angle this show could/should/would take is to operate in a similar way that the Agent Carter TV series did; as a MCU historical crossing point. Howard Stark could pop up, as could Hank Pym, or any other person or event previously hinted at or fully known to inhabit the time. 

But alas, “Marvel’s First Family” is more likely destined for the big screen, TV is for spinoffs and animated stuff! So let’s get into what I think is more likely to happen.

The Musk Approach

If the FF are to be inserted into the MCU in modern day, the original instigation for the team to head into space doesn’t exist. The Space Race of the 1960’s no longer applies, and so the motivation needs to update. Well, maybe it just needs to be re-contextualized.

New Yorker's really changed after this. For about 3 months.

Consider for a moment you are a civilian living in the MCU. Perhaps you know people who dismiss the arrival of aliens through a sky portal above Manhattan (as seen in the first Avengers flick). Now that may seem like a stretch, but in our world there is a contingent that has a hard time believing hard facts. So why wouldn’t some normies in the MCU see the “Incident in New York” as some master conspiracy? Despite facts and video footage. Some may think it’s a kind of grand obfuscation. 

But more importantly, that event might likely also inspire scientists, engineers, technicians (and even average joes and theologians) to re-examine their beliefs, leading some to re-focus on space research and exploration. Quantifiable proof of aliens (especially an invading armada of them) should rock the MCU’s human society to its core. In the real world, that day would change us irrevocably. So why wouldn’t it do so in the MCU? 

What Would Will Hunting Do?

The question then for me becomes: what would become of an Elon Musk type, or a Stephen Hawking type, in a world like this?

Maybe a brilliant young man, a scientist-inventor, fresh from college, already wide-eyed about the possibilities of a universe filled with life, sees the Incident in New York and discovers his true calling: unravelling the new mysteries of Outer Space. He joins, or is recruited by a group similar to Space-X. A private (or public, but not governmental) organization dedicated to space research and exploration. Perhaps, they are trying to figure out the workings of that crazy wormhole/portal. Reed is there for a short time and then The Snap happens.

His friend Ben, a test pilot for the Air Force, turns to ash and wafts away into nothing.

Then this scientist, we’ll call him Reed, becomes rather obsessed to understand how that happened his buddy. 

5 years go by. Thanks to the undeniable nature of the Snap, the world now fully believes in aliens and there is a call to arms by many who fear the obvious threats that exist in the vastness, and a new space race is born. One where private corporations and contractors are all vying to find ways to protect the earth externally. Stark Enterprises, A.I.M., Roxxon and other large MCU corporations all make cameos. Reed is now number two at the org but is terrible at the managerial aspects of the position, he’s too invested with his projects.

Relax Sue, it's just an eye exam.

Suddenly, Ben returns. As does all the other Snappers. And the Organization convinces Reed to convince Ben to come in for physical tests. Eventually Ben signs up with the org and joins a project Reed has been working on. There is a plan to re-create the portal/wormhole that appeared over New York, on a smaller scale, and to do it just outside earth's orbit, y’know, for safety reasons. They plan to send a small drone through, take readings, and pull it back. After original candidates all flunk out of Space Flight training Reed is left with a team not fully qualified, but still otherwise able, to pull off the mission.

New org additions, siblings Sue and John Storm, are put on the mission, much to Reeds dismay. They’re too green. She’s a shy research level scientist and Johnny is a hot shot pilot who got kicked out of the NASA training program. But this is all they have, and because the team is short skilled, Reed volunteers to go too.

They go. The first privately funded manned space mission. The wormhole opens and the drone goes through but the opening becomes unstable, radiation levels flux, a massive energy wave bursts through hitting their craft. The hole shuts, trapping the drone on the other side as their craft plummets to earth, wildly off-course. 

New game! "Is it Cosplay or is it Corman?"

They regain some control of the ship, avoiding hard earth, crashing instead in the waters just off the coast of Latveria. 

From there maybe you can guess the rest: they get powers, Latvarian soldiers arrive, The 4 freak out a bit, soon they meet a handsome young king named Victor, Johnny’s wise ass mouth causes a fracas, he loses control of his powers and horribly burns Victor. Reed’s guilt keeps him there long enough to suggest a specialized apparatus, a metal suit to make Victor functional again, helps design it and heads back to the states. Victors people misread Reed’s designs and the suit becomes a permanent for Victor, who goes a bit mad, and blames Reed and The 4 for his situation. 

More hijinks ensue, there’s a big, bombastic ending, , Victor does some evil stuff, gets defeated, Sue asks Reed on a date because he never would, Victor screams at the sky that vengeance will be his, credits roll and pause for a scene that ties to the MCU at large, in the post-credits the drone comes back through the wormhole and … something follows, aaaaand we’re done.

Sure, I could flesh out that third act a bit more, but I’m not getting paid for this. If you’d like to pay me to do that, contact me. 

Something like this, but much cooler. And Ben isn't doing a sexy pose.

I doubt I’ve hit Marvel’s plans on the head, but I think I’ve found a fun way to set up The FF using some preexisting events as motivation. Heck, maybe they’ll make the space project a SHIELD related thing, have a Nick Fury cameo and all that. All I know for sure is that the FF are coming to a screen near you, after all, the MCU needs another scientist-inventor to replace the one we've lost, Banner can’t do all the heavy lifting on his own.

PS: Somewhere in there we could also establish that Reed might just be a new science mentor to a young kid from queens, but instead of a father figure, it’s more like a big brother? I don’t know. I don’t write movies.


Bill Sweeney was raised on a steady diet of comic books, Saturday morning cartoons and Stephen King. These days, when he isn't pretending to be too busy to answer his phone, he hosts The Wicked Theory Podcast, an ongoing audio travesty.

ED’S TOP TEN MOVIES OF 2018

 By Ed O'Hare

I watched 82 movies this year. After a very complicated system of ranking that Bill won’t let me write about because it involves math (shout out to tabroom.com) I have decided on my top ten (16 if you count the honorable mentions).

Quick note up front that I think should be obvious but I feel I have to mention. THESE ARE MY OPINIONS! When you break it down, all film criticism is theoretical. I do everything I can to justify my rankings but if you disagree with me, that’s ok. Human beings are allowed to have different opinions. We don’t have to fight about it.

[If you'd like to hear Ed and Bill break this list down further, they recorded just such a thing available only at our Patreon! Consider supporting us, maybe?]

So here it is. First, the Honorable Mentions:
Vice (Annapurna Pictures)
Incredibles 2 (Pixar Animation Studios)
Andre the Giant (HBO)
Black Panther (Marvel Studios)
Aquaman (DC Entertainment)
The Favourite (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

And now the Top Ten:

10. Game Night (New Line Cinema)
This is the first truly funny studio comedy I have seen in a while. There some hysterical moments (For future reference, your dog does not have to match your carpet) and strong acting from Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams and Jesse Plemons. However the real standout to me was Kyle Chandler, who I fell in love with on an old TV show called Early Edition and for the last decade or so he has been relegated to playing uptight suits in big prestige movies. It was nice to see him stretch his legs for a change.

9. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Columbia Pictures)
This isn’t just a throw-away cartoon Spider-Man movie. This is a sprawling story that could not be told in live-action and until I actually saw it, I thought could only be told in comics. Plus the visual aesthetic of this film is so unique that you can find new things to appreciate every time you re-watch it.

8. Bad Times at the El Royale (20th Century Fox)
This a fun throwback to ‘90s Tarantino films. I feel like it is what Four Rooms was supposed to be. The winding narrative and multiple perspectives lend nicely to this movie’s re-watchability. Chris Hemsworth also has a turn as one of the most charming and scary bad guys I have seen in a long time.

7. First Man (Universal Pictures)
I heard a lot of guff about this movie from people who didn’t see it and that’s a shame. It is not a big epic. This is a small film about a person in extraordinary circumstances. It explores the limits of sacrifice and really makes you appreciate the cost of human achievement.

6. Avengers: Infinity War (Marvel Studios)
I have always approached the MCU as the most expensive television series ever produced and this is the mother of all cliffhanger finales. There are so many payoffs to seeds planted over the last decade, and despite having a couple dozen main characters, pretty much everyone gets their moment.


5. Won't You Be My Neighbor? (Focus Features)
This movie came out at exactly the right time. We live in a world now that is filled with pain and doubt and this film reminds us of a person who devoted his life to teaching children that everyone is capable of doing good and bringing magic and excitement to the lives of those around them. Next time you encounter an angry person, try to get them to watch this film.

4. Annihilation (Paramount Pictures) 
Not enough people saw this film. It is dark, scary, mind-blowing sci-fi. It is one of those movies that leaves you shuffling like a zombie in the parking lot and leaning up against your car trying to understand what you just saw. I wish it had come out later in the year so it would have a better shot at awards consideration.

3. Assassination Nation (Neon)
Yet another movie that not enough people saw in theaters. I personally never thought I would be able to relate to high school age girls but this film proved me wrong. The plot-twists are gut-wrenching. Everything my friends have always told me a Punisher movie should be like, this film actually achieves.

2. Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna Pictures)
This movie is so screwed up. It made me afraid to daydream. The narrative structure and visual style are entrancing and there is a plot twist in act three that would break most movies but feels totally earned in this case.

1. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Paramount Pictures)
M:I is one of the few franchises that gets better with each installment. Every set piece is stunning and the use of practical stunt work should put every other contemporary action movie to shame. The Academy really needs to add an Oscars category for Stunts because movies like this deserve to be recognized. As Ethan Hunt would say “Figure it out!”

The Franchise Chronicles: THE MUMMY (1932)

By Edward O'Hare

Welcome to the Franchise Chronicles, a movie-by-movie look at the development and evolution of cinema’s most enduring sagas. I am currently exploring the classic Universal Monsters and this week’s movie is The Mummy (1932) directed by Karl Freund.

I know the Universal Monsters are a franchise in a loose sense. However, there is definitely a “house style” that runs through them. Much like the Marvel movies today, each film has unique characters and settings but retains just enough elements that you know they take place in the same world. The Mummy is a strong example of this idea. We move away from spooky European castles to exotic Cairo and encounter mystic legends of a different sort in a narrative structure that is very familiar.

Karl Freund, the director of this film, previously worked as the cinematographer of Dracula, and you can definitely see similarities in the visual style. The film takes place in Egypt and makes good use of stock footage to establish the setting but the interiors are dimly lit and Freund plays with shadow in a way that shows off his German Expressionist background. There is a large amount of exposition-heavy dialogue, but the key scary moments are filled with extended periods of silence that really pour on the eeriness. The museum is filled with artifacts and iconography that make it feel like a Mummy’s version of Dracula’s castle and the home of the film’s British characters looks almost identical to the home where the Count stalked Mina. The music that opens the film is the same excerpt from Swan Lake that opens Dracula.

We also get to see a couple of our old friends from previous films. Boris Karloff gets to headline his second Monster franchise and even gets credited with his full name instead of just a question mark. Edward Van Sloan makes his third appearance in a Monster film, once again playing a doctor trying to convince everybody that something supernatural is afoot. We don’t get Dwight Frye but his spirit is definitely present in the character of Ralph (Bramwell Fletcher) who meets the Mummy for thirty seconds and pretty much laughs himself to death.

I think it’s pretty obvious where I am going with this but I should probably say it plainly: This film is for all intents and purposes is a veiled remake of Dracula. It should be noted that this is the first film we have covered that is not based on a classic novel. Universal was eager to give Karloff a new vehicle so they took a proven template and gave it a fresh coat of paint. Both stories open with a quick introduction to our antagonist who manipulates someone into madness and then takes off. He returns to introduce himself to our heroes, seduce a woman and attempt to force her to suffer the same fate as himself before our heroes can find them both and save the day. Sound about right?

By the way, there is nothing wrong with cloning plot structure. The Mummy adds enough new toys to stand on its own. Karloff’s make-up as Imhotep’s wrapped corpse looks realistic and terrifying. It almost feels like a bait-and-switch that we only get him in the wraps for one scene but his disguise as Ardeth Bey, in which is skin looks worn and craggly, is just as striking. Karloff is not charming here, as Lugosi would be, but his size and stare make him very intimidating.

His hypnosis of the unsuspecting Helen (Zita Johann) is still frightening but for a completely different reason. The story is also padded out with an extended flashback of what brought Prince Imhotep to his cursed state. It pretty much dramatizes everything the characters had already learned about the Mummy over the course of the film. Still it does give the character better context and shows him to be a more tragic figure. Much like the Monster in Frankenstein, Imhotep does bad things but we can relate to his reasoning. In the end he just wants to find peace with the woman he loved.

Next week the director of Frankenstein will introduce us to a villain we cannot see: The Invisible Man.


Edward O’Hare, nickname TBD, has been poking around the deep caverns of pop culture for some years now. His hobbies include making Starfleet org charts and badgering people who haven’t seen the Adventures of Captain Marvel movie serial from 1941. He one day dreams of teaching Bill Simmons that superheroes and pro athletes are not all that different.

The Franchise Chronicles: Frankenstein (1931)

By Edward O'Hare

Welcome to The Franchise Chronicles, a movie-by-movie look at the development and evolution of cinema’s most enduring sagas. I am currently exploring the classic Universal Monsters and this week’s movie is Frankenstein (1931) directed by James Whale.

While Dracula can be seen as a good film for its time, Frankenstein is timeless. Even its effects and stylization hold up and it has an emotional center that is still heartbreaking and relevant today. All of the horror films Universal put out over the next quarter century were attempting to recapture what this film achieves.

Based on Mary Shelley’s novel the film tells the story of Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive), a medical student who becomes obsessed with the idea of re-animating dead tissue and winds up bringing to life a Monster (Boris Karloff, credited here as “?”), made from sewn-together body parts and an abnormal brain, that escapes Henry’s castle and unwittingly terrorizes a small mountain town. It is worth noting that this, like all of the ‘30s monster films, take a story that today would be a two and a half-hour movie or a ten-part Netflix series and whittle it down to 71 minutes but still keeps the key essence of the novel intact.

Aesthetically the film definitely feels like it comes from the same universe as its Transylvanian cousin. Much of this is due to the fact that it mostly takes place at night in the mountains of Europe. However Whale and Art Director Charles D. Hall take it to the next level. We get to see the dark and stormy backgrounds and the detailed foregrounds but they throw in trees and rock formations in between them to create levels and depth. This makes the landscape look much larger than it really is. The gothic details of the architecture and interior design also add to the overall mood of the film.

The cast helps to build the cinematic universe these films are creating but the star is a stark contrast from that Vampire we discussed the last two weeks. Two actors who played major parts in Dracula show up in Frankenstein. Edward Van Sloan, who played Van Helsing, appears here as Dr. Waldman, another knowledgeable scientist who is unfortunately not as heroic in this film. Dwight Frye, who played Renfield, also shows up as Dr. Frankenstein’s deformed assistant Fritz. Frye looks very different in this part but is just as scary and intense. His wretched disdain for the Monster is so raw. He is the real villain of the piece and his hate extends through the film long after his character is killed. While today it may seem contradictory to cast the same actors in different roles, it does give us the sense that these films belong in the same family. Frye and Van Sloan are in the same company of actors, much the same way the Coen brothers re-use actors like John Goodman and Frances McDormand.

Boris Karloff’s performance is the real jewel of this film and everything he does right distinguishes him from Bela Lugosi as a completely different type of horror actor. Lugosi’s Count is a charming and menacing villain who stalks his victims in an effort to prolong his own vile existence. Karloff’s Monster is hideous with cold, dead eyes that couldn’t charm anybody. The Monster is a tragic figure with the mind of a child that did not ask to be brought into this world and only encounters hatred and pain. He only hurts people in retaliation or because he does not understand his own strength. Given his druthers, He probably prefers he had never been created in the first place. It is the juxtaposition of these two performances that has linked them in viewers’ minds for the past 87 years and it is the triumph of both of these films that allowed Universal to expand into other monster stories and eventually begin linking them together.

Next week Karloff returns to claim his second monster mantle in The Mummy.


Edward O’Hare, nickname TBD, has been poking around the deep caverns of pop culture for some years now. His hobbies include making Starfleet org charts and badgering people who haven’t seen the Adventures of Captain Marvel movie serial from 1941. He one day dreams of teaching Bill Simmons that superheroes and pro athletes are not all that different.

The Franchise Chronicles: Mad Max: BEYOND THUNDERDOME

 By Edward O'Hare

It’s dying time this week on the Franchise Chronicles as we step into Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985), George Miller’s third venture into the crazy world of Max. Once again Miller ups the ante visually but the story gets a little muddled. This movie may not be as impressive as The Road Warrior (few films can be), but I feel like it has been unfairly made the whipping boy of this franchise and overall it is still a great accomplishment that people should see.

The stakes gets raised again in this film and the world-building continues. If Road Warrior had a big Australian budget, Thunderdome got the big Hollywood budget and an American star to boot in Tina Turner as Aunty Entity. All of the green pastures have now become desert wastelands. Yet each new locale has its own specific look and feel. Bartertown is a horrible, mud-filled mill. The Waiting Ones’ forest camp has a Neverland vibe. The harsh yellows of the road feel more unforgiving than ever. My personal favorite is the night desert Max wanders in and how the cool blue moonlight beams off the white sand creating images that look almost painterly.

It's never too hot for chain mail.

The only aesthetic element that does not seem to jive with this series is the heavy use of the Saxophone in the first act. If you remember, Max’s wife played the Sax in the first film but its use here does not feel like a conscious reference to that moment and this world has become so “metal” that R&B feels out of place. Of course, I realize that Turner is an R& B singer and headlines the soundtrack. This may be one of the first clear compromises that Miller had to make. Maybe he was just a fan? Who knows?

The Jugger-not.

Max is not the only character to carry over from the last film. Bruce Spence returns as the Gyro Captain, who not only gets promoted to an airplane pilot, but also gets a first name: Jedediah. Jedediah has a young assistant he calls Junior that looks suspiciously like the Feral Kid but is played by a different actor (Adam Cockburn). However the narration at the end of Road Warrior makes clear that the Feral Kid never met Max again. Do they not recognize Max? Are they completely different characters? In the end it does not really matter. Miller continues in the spirit of the franchise by only revealing what’s necessary and does not get bogged down in exposition. He trusts the viewer to figure it out for themselves.

I stated before that I felt the story got muddled and I mean that literally. It seems as if Miller took two separate Mad Max stories and mashed them together. The first is Bartertown. Max winds up in a backwards town run by a power-hungry debutante, takes down a big dumb guy and rescues a small smart guy. The second is the Waiting Ones. Max encounters a group of children who believe him to be their savior, gets tempted with authority, leaves some behind and leads the others to a so-called promised land. Either one of those stories would be compelling on their own. Put together, they feel disjointed.

Best Substitute teacher, ever.

The first act is both a condensed and amped up version of the last film. All of the set pieces are there. The vehicles are crazier and the action is just as powerful. The second act has a very different vibe. I wonder if fans in 1985 treated the Waiting Ones the way Star Wars fans treated the Ewoks. From a certain point-of-view it feels like the filmmakers went “Well they loved one feral kid. Let’s throw in a whole pack of them!” For some reason these scenes reminded me of the weird TV movies the Disney Channel pumped out in the 1990s. That is not a knock. Everyone thinks of Disney as squeaky clean but many of their properties have a dark underbelly to them. These aspects make the film feel more family friendly (or as family friendly as a post-apocalyptic action movie can be). Watching this it started to make sense to me that George Miller would move on from here to the Babe and Happy Feet movies.

I also noticed that the third act tones down the carnage a bit and some of the deaths are not as grizzly as they might have been in the first two installments. This may have been because kids were involved or it might have been Warner Bros. trying to soften the film a bit for American audiences. This is the only film in the series rated PG-13 instead of R and that definitely takes away some of the classic Mad Max edge.

While this film is not perfect it is definitely still Mad Max. It takes the franchise in a different direction and many of the choices are questionable but I guarantee this film will leave you thinking about it for a long time afterwards. Next week we jump ahead 30 years to a new pinnacle for this franchise on the “Fury Road.”


Edward O’Hare, nickname TBD, has been poking around the deep caverns of pop culture for some years now. His hobbies include making Starfleet org charts and badgering people who haven’t seen the Adventures of Captain Marvel movie serial from 1941. He one day dreams of teaching Bill Simmons that superheroes and pro athletes are not all that different.

The Franchise Chronicles: THE ROAD WARRIOR

By Edward O'Hare

 The Franchise Chronicles moves into high gear today. Last week, I reviewed the first Mad Max installment and today I am going to blaze through The Road Warrior (1981) or Mad Max 2 if you saw this outside of America, directed by George Miller. My goal for this series is to examine how a franchise evolves over time and since this is the first sequel I am covering, I feel like it is the first real test for this mission. The two things that really hit home with me during this viewing were the filmmakers’ success at world-building and raising the stakes.

The only real reference to the events of the previous film comes in the form of a prologue montage of scenes mixed with smoky filters, stock footage and voice-over from some guy we don’t know yet. It paints the film in a very different light. The narrator goes into detail about how World War 3 ravaged the planet and led to an oil shortage that threw society into chaos. This is all new information. Some of it was implied in Mad Max but none of it was spelled out (it didn’t have to be). I have to applaud the restraint used in this opening. It is just enough connective tissue to link both films but still allows each of them to stand on their own.

Once the movie starts in earnest, we can immediately tell that a fair amount of time has passed and the world has gotten much crazier. The production and costume design are taken to the next level. Everything looks like a bunch of bikers took aspects of steampunk aesthetic and made it look cool. We have dune buggies, a gyrocopter, flamethrowers the size of spotlights and hairstyles I only ever thought existed in ‘80s cartoons. It’s as if Mad Max was a pilot presentation George Miller put out saying “Look how insane I can be with no money. Imagine what I could do if I had an actual budget.” Then he got that budget and made Road Warrior.

It is also worth noting that Miller did not let all of his new toys distract him from telling a compelling story. We meet a bunch of new characters like the Feral Kid and the Gyro Captain. It’s funny how this is the kind of movie where you don’t really need to bother learning anyone’s names. It’s perfect for anyone’s Grandpa with a terrible memory. Max himself is once again reserved and passive for most of the film, only entering the fray once it is advantageous for him and he does not attack the marauders until after they have mangled his car and killed his dog.

The thrust of the story is very simple: Max needs gas and learns about a group of nice people with tons of it that need protection from a group of bad people. The magic comes from the way Miller builds on those elements and soups them up with non-visual storytelling. We get a handful of jaw-dropping set pieces, most of which involve Max getting in a vehicle and racing with Humungus and his followers.

There are two specific elements I want to focus on that I feel this film uses masterfully and I wish contemporary films used more often: Wide landscape shots and practical stunts. This movie was shot in the middle of nowhere and Miller uses that to show the scope of the action and the sparseness of this world. In one frame we can see Max staking out the refinery from the rocks AND the marauders attacking from the road AND off in the distance is nothing but green pasture for as far as the eye can see. This also helps to elevate and extend the final chase. We start with about a dozen hellfire cars racing to catch the tanker and then gradually close in until all the action rests on Max and the Feral Kid scrapping to keep control of the cab. Suddenly we move back out to see the action from the gyrocopters perspective as the villagers pull up to assist Max. Then we go back inside the cab and the scene gets a second wind before racing to the big finish.

Watching this for the first time in a few years, I can see how The Road Warrior influenced an entire generation of action movies that followed. It still holds up today and I would point to it as one of only a handful of sequels that surpasses its predecessor. Next week: THUNDERDOME!

Edward O’Hare, nickname TBD, has been poking around the deep caverns of pop culture for some years now. His hobbies include making Starfleet org charts and badgering people who haven’t seen the Adventures of Captain Marvel movie serial from 1941. He one day dreams of teaching Bill Simmons that superheroes and pro athletes are not all that different.

WTPC Ep. 15 - Our Best Most Favorite Films!

This week there's a lot of movie talk as each of us run down our Personal Top Ten Movies!
Before that: Dom saw Straight Outta Compton, Bill mentions the 7 Days A Geek podcast and the fun he's had with them lately! Next he reveals some WTPC listener stats! And we read Emails, a bunch, from one person - which includes Elvis in superhero movies!? We do the usual pop news chatter: Marvels Most Wanted, Preacher pics, and more! Then we do our movie lists and we close with a listener suggested topic that takes all over the place - eventually to Star Wars!