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Out on 5 October and 12 October
Max goes Mad and exceeds the speed limit. George Clooney tries to save the world which at one point involves a very advanced bathtub. Yes, heres this fortnights new DVD and Blu-Ray releases. Click on for our reviews of Mad Max: Fury Road, Tomorrowland: A World Beyond, The Final Girls, Gravity: Special Edition, Sparrows Can't Sing and Turbo Kid. For the best movie reviews, subscribe to Total Film.
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
Some films just make you want to scream. When the end credits rolled on the Cannes press screening for George millers monumental Mad Max: Fury Road, one viewer on the upper balcony unforgettably let out what can only be described as a guttural roar of approval. Its the sort of noise that seems entirely fitting for millers primal, post-apocalyptic world: like a battle cry echoing around the arena. In an industry where groundbreaking is common hyperbole, Millers movie earns it. No question, this year the action movie changed for good. MM:FRs $373m box office may not have bested Jurassic World or even San Andreas, but, when it came to sheer bravura, it roasted every summer blockbuster over a charcoal BBQ. such is the films general level of insanity, it ceased to matter that there hadnt been a Mad Max film in 30 years or that Tom Hardy replaced Mel Gibson in his most iconic role the leather-clad Road Warrior, Max Rockatansky. If they were ever issues, they were swiftly forgotten. This is the film where lizards have two heads; where humans double as blood bags; where a guitarists instrument conceals a flame-thrower. Rarely has a film lived up to the promise of its title (had it not been taken, The Madness Of King George wouldve been just as apt), with stunts so outrageous, there are times when you simply forget to breathe. The action largely real, with little CGi tinkering, its the biggest argument yet for old-fashioned in-camera FX (and for a Best Stunt at the Oscars). Yet thats only half the story. The real question is how Miller so enthralled us with a near- plotless, sparsely scripted film thats basically a chase and a race. And, for that matter, how he smuggled in a feminist agenda that, for once, didnt feel like calculated political correctness. Oh, and how he managed to make a Mad Max film where Max is almost a bystander initially little more than a muzzled emblem chained to the front of a moving vehicle. The star is unquestionably Charlize Theron as the mechanical-armed imperator Furiosa arguably the best shaven-headed female warrior since Ripley lopped her locks in Alien . Its Theron who drives the story, quite literally, by rescuing the five wives (including Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) belonging to the wastelands noxious leader Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne Toecutter from the original Mad Max). Stowing these brides in her armoured War Rig, Furiosas plan is Biblical a Moses-like exodus to a Promised Land, gleaned from a distant childhood memory. In pursuit is a desert armada led by Immortan Joe, riding his throne-like Gigahorse crafted from two Cadillac Coupe de Villes welded together. And Max? A luckless captive, hes been brought along for the ride, tied to the vehicle driven by loyal lieutenant Nux (Nicholas Hoult, fabulously unhinged), who, vampire-like, is using Max like a mobile blood transfusion unit. By the time this crazy fleet hits the spellbinding dust storm mid-point, youll be as high as Nux inhaling his chrome spray. Does the second half live up to the first? Not quite. But you have to admire Millers chutzpah, as Max and Furiosa get so far and turn back to storm the Joe-less Citadel. Themes of sacrifice, solidarity and survival loom large, but in a script of few words, Miller and co-writers Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris prefer to let the set-pieces do the talking; from bomb-throwing bikers to acrobatic polecat fighters, its like the most expensive circus youve ever seen. Amid all the carnage, Hardy makes for a solid Max (he notes in the extras how Gibson didnt seem that impressed) telling his story with his eyes even better than he did as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. Talking of the bonus bits, its a rather disappointing selection. Blu-ray offers three unremarkable deleted scenes and six featurettes of varying length, led by Filming Fury Road the highlight being Hardy admitting how scared he was to film the scene with the bendy poles (Respect to the polecat). The others deal with the cars, characters and crashes in more detail, though only Tools Of The Wasteland holds any real interest, showing the astounding level of detail that went into making the props and designing the sets. Where, though, are the stories of how the movie slowly but surely clawed its way out of development hell? You suspect a deluxe edition may be on the way in the future. But for now, theres featurette Crash And Smash: a compilation of all the very real, non-CGi stunts, its a frank reminder of the sheer barminess of Millers labour-of-love endeavour. Like he says, Just because its the wasteland, it doesnt mean people cant make beautiful things... EXTRAS: > Featurettes (BD) > Deleted scenes Director: George Miller Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zo Kravitz, Abbey Lee DVD, BD, 3D BD, Digital HD release: 5 October 2015 James Mottram
TOMORROWLAND: A WORLD BEYOND
How refreshing, in this age of reboots, remakes and franchises, for a film that looks forward rather than back. Ironically, the vision of tomorrow delivered by director Brad Bird and co-writer Damon Lindelof was created by Walt Disney over half a century ago, but still... heres a film whose characters are fresh and whose destination is hard to guess. Even as Tomorrowland begins, spunkily optimistic hero Casey Newton (Britt Robertson, in a charming breakthrough) and curmudgeonly inventor Frank Walker (George Clooney) are arguing over whos telling the story. After an awestruck 1960s-set prologue that indulges Birds Jetsons-friendly aesthetic priorities, the film fast-forwards to 2015. Cue NASA dismantlement, climate change and the iPhones vicarious thrills. Its fertile thematic ground, an implicit criticism of Hollywoods gritty blockbusters that ponders: is this what Walt would have wanted? The majority of the action takes place between two world(view)s; in cinema terms, the chronological mid-point is the laidback Amblin adventures of the 1980s. The non-stop second act is a throwback to an age of PG-rated peril and wondrous imagination. Could you just be amazed? Clooney asks, amid imagery that includes robots getting blown to bits in a booby-trapped house and a rocket that emerges from the Eiffel Tower. Amazed? Well, yes. It is only when the film catches up with present-day aesthetics, with its overt proselytising and overcooked explanations, that the film comes unstuck, but the downbeat final act feels deliberate, a self-reflexive commentary on changing tastes. The result is awkward yet fascinating, an arthouse adventure that melds Disney propaganda, Birds fascination with Ayn Rand-style supermen and Lindelofs preference for having fun today in case he hasnt figured out the answers by tomorrow. The lack of a commentary is a shame, but extras are plentiful and varied, if bitty. EXTRAS: > Featurettes > Deleted scenes > Animated shorts > Easter eggs Director: Brad Bird Starring: Britt Robertson, George Clooney, Hugh Laurie DVD, BD, Digital HD release: 5 October 2015 Simon Kinnear
TURBO KID
If movies have taught us anything about the end of the world lately, its that itll be chaotic, violent, and theres a chance Elizabeth Banks will turn up with a dead animal on her head. On that basis, Turbo Kid scores two out of three, but its far from a conventional post-apoca-pic. Grubby, lean and twinkly-eyed, its vision of a post-nuclear 1997 puts it firmly in Mad Max territory. Meanwhile, its love of 80s genre flicks buzzes through the synth soundtrack and BMX battles theres even a retro villain in the form of Michael Ironsides deliciously nasty one-eyed overlord. Canadian directors Anouk Whissell, Francois Simard and Yoann-Karl Whissel, collectively known as RKSS (road Kill super stars), also tip their crash helmets to old Italian B-movies and The Terminator, but their feature debut remains as triumphantly uncynical as its hero. Obsessed with 80s paraphernalia and comic-book hero turbo man, the Kid (Munro Chambers) is scrounging a living in a wasteland ruled by the tyrannical Zeus (Ironside) when he stumbles across chirpy apple (Laurence Lebeouf). When their friendship is threatened by Zeus and his lackeys, the pair attempt to take him down for good. The resulting geysers of blood ensure that theres humour in the horror, and Chambers and Lebeouf are both hugely likeable, gifting Turbo Kid the kind of sweetness that so many genre-riffing nostalgia trips lack. Working as both parody and science fiction proper, its an outrageous, ready-made cult hit. Even better, RKSS have promised its just the first in a trilogy. EXTRAS: > Featurette > Making Of Directors: Franois Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell Starring: Munro Chambers, Laurence Leboeuf, Michael Ironside DVD, BD release: 5 October 2015 Josh Winning
THE FINAL GIRLS
Imagine if Friday the 13th met Pleasantville down a dark alley. Thats the nutshell premise of this stylish deconstruction of the slasher genre, which isnt as clever as it wants to be, but still very funny and beneath all the self-awareness surprisingly emotional. As Max (Taissa Farmiga) grieves the death of her cult actress mother (Malin Akerman), she and her friends get sucked into the very same summer-camp horror movie that made her mothers name. The meta-movie commentary isnt as insightful as the satire of, say, Scream, but the laughs roll just as often as the severed heads. EXTRAS: Commentary > Deleted scenes > FX reel > Shooting notes Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson Starring: Taissa Farmiga, Malin kerman, Adam DeVine, Thomas Middleditch DVD release: 12 October 2015 Matt Looker
GRAVITY: SPECIAL EDITION
Alonso Cuarns stunning space-survival epic gets a second Blu-ray outing. The three hours of behind-the-scenes material included first time round are all present here, so why the double-dip? New extras are 40-minute doc Looking To The Stars a look at the evolution of space movies that just goes to show quite how groundbreaking Gravity was and a new Silent Space version of the film. Cuarn introduces it as a rewarding experiment, but the absence of Steven Prices subtle score does rob the films set-pieces of vital dramatic tension. An interesting experiment, then, but not one worth shelling out for if you own it already EXTRAS: Documentaries > Silent Space version Director: Alfonso Cuarn Starring: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney BD release: 12 October 2015 Richard Jordan
SPARROWS CANT SING
Joan Littlewood serves up a right old Cockney knees-up in this slightly-softened adaptation of her bracing Theatre Workshop success, notable not just for its stellar ensemble but also for the snapshot it takes of the post-war East End. Barbara Windsor, all brass and boobs as the Stepney lass caught out when volatile hubby James Booth returns from the sea, cuts a more reflective figure in the accompanying Q&A, recorded at the NFT shortly after the death of the films writer, Stephen Lewis, better known as On The Buses Blakey. EXTRAS: Featurette > Gallery > Interviews Director: Joan Littlewood Starring: James Booth, Barbara Windsor, Roy Kinnear, Avis Bunnage DVD, BD release: 12 October 2015 Neil Smith
