Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]

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It’s been thirty years since George Miller made his visit to Mad Max’s apocalyptic tundra, and with “Fury Road,” it’s almost as if he never left. The newest “Mad Max” is a spectacle of pure raw filmmaking, while also brilliantly carving out a new chapter in the world of Mad Max. In a time where most post apocalyptic films are more dread soaked than anything, Mad Max storms the gates once again as the hero of the end of the world that we need, and the man who unwittingly plays a huge role in a massive war, once again. “Fury Road” is an accomplishment on the part of Miller from beginning to end, exploring a world where Mad Max is a hero whose entire persona is carved out by his character and less by the person playing him. This makes it very easy for Tom Hardy to take on the role that Mel Gibson once made iconic.

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Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) [Fantasia Film Festival]

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FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

“Plan Nine” is often cited as the worst film of all time, but I tend to disagree. Say what you want about Ed Wood’s schlock disaster, but it at least has a narrative to it. It’s a pitiful narrative, it’s unnecessarily convoluted, but it’s something. Hell, even “The Room” has some kind of narrative to it that resembles the worst romance melodrama seemingly derived from a Spanish novella. “Manos The Hands of Fate” (or in English: Hands The Hands of Fate?) is the template of how not to make a movie.

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The Murders of Brandywine Theater (2015)

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It’s refreshing in this day and age that some indie filmmakers aren’t just content with splattering the audience with red ooze and goo and calling it a horror film. There are some filmmakers that really want to convey a story, and Larry Longstreth seems to be one of those directors who aren’t happy with just grossing people out. “The Murders of Brandywine Theater” is a complex, and very unique horror film that isn’t just eerie, but it’s also damn spooky to boot. To say Moxxy is a creepy antagonist really is underplaying the top notch puppetry that’s put to work here. Moxxy seems very rigid when we first see him, but soon enough he not only begins to take on his own life, but his limited expression make him a menace to be reckoned with.

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Mother & Brother (2015)

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Dustin Cook’s family drama is a brilliant and tragic picture of two sons forever strapped down to their mother. Too often has this image resonated where kids feel not only constrained to their parents, but dutiful despite their own unhappiness and lack of fulfillment. Cook’s short drama is immediately a compelling character study that explores how families can become a burden and how the children, grown or young, can be forced to forever keep their burden.

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Mad Max (1979): Collector’s Edition [Blu-ray]

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It’s nice to know that “Mad Max” is a film that still holds up, and is arguably an action masterpiece. George Miller directs an apocalyptic opus that’s set in the wasteland of Australia where the apocalypse always tends to eventually catch up with the environment. “Mad Max” is one of the best of its kind, it’s a revenge film, but a very complex cop film about the losing battle between a biker gang and a police force.

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Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

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By all accounts, “Fury Road” should not have been so good. The George Miller epic return to “Mad Max” is a film that snuck under the radar of many movie fans and comes in through the dusk to grab us by the throats once more. When it comes to post apocalyptic cinema, Mad Max is the crème de la crème of the sub-genre, and George Miller is bold enough to re-visit a universe that paved its way through cinema over thirty years ago. With “Fury Road,” George Miller doesn’t try to change the formula of his trilogy too much, opting for the same visceral post apocalyptic action epic that made Mel Gibson Mad Max. Yet he also strives for a visual stimulation that ushers in a new era that puts Tom Hardy in the seat of Mad Max.

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Meat (2015)

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I loved Jordan Wippell’s “Meat” if only because it’s the slow unraveling of the inner conscious of a suburbanite that’s been repressed likely since childhood. It’s the inner delving in to the mind of a man who is unraveling before our very eyes and all we can do is watch. “Meat” has a very simple premise, but one that’s effective and suggestive when it closes to its credits sequence.

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