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The Mad Max Anthology: 4K Ultra HD
(Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Leays-Byrne, Bruce Spence, Tina Turner, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, et al / 4K UHD Blu-ray + Digital / R / 2021 / Warner Bros.)

Overview: Warner Bros. is expanding their 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray catalog offerings this month with the release of this simply incredible quartet of all the Mad Max films, all reformatted to come alive even more now via 4K Ultra HD video format this November 16th, 2021.

For my money, this Mad Max Anthology [4K Ultra HD + Digital] set’s sharpness takes a fairly large step forward from others in their 4K Ultra HD catalog and even comes with HDR (High Dynamic Range) for the complete 4K Ultra HD experience, of course.

So, what we have is Injustice presented to us as a four-disc combo pack with a sheet for a Digital HD Copy. Other stand out points you should know are: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 4K (2160p), HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10, Aspect ratio: 2.40:1, 2.34:1 and Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1.

Featuring Dolby Vision and HDR10 for brighter, deeper, and way more lifelike colors, as with most all 4K UHDs, everything that we watch features these qualities - but somehow, this film gloriously shines within them all.

Noticeably crisp with the overall clarity receiving an obvious boost here on this release, what is more is that it is enjoyably seamless.

For as well as some new nuances to the somewhat drab palette courtesy of Dolby Vision we also get to witness sudden bright pops of color throughout now, along with truly enriched colorization overall, which all bring to the fore extremely fine facial crevices and expressions that previously lay diminished behind some of the cinematically-filmed yellow-graded material.

Up first is the classic itself, of course, Mad Max (1979) which was directed by Miller from a screenplay by Miller & James McCausland and a story by Miller and Byron Kennedy. The film was produced by Kennedy and stars Mel Gibson as Max Rockatansky, Joanne Samuel as Jesse Rockatansky, and Hugh Leays-Byrne as the Toecutter.

Taking place in a dystopian Australia in the near future, Mad Max tells the story of a highway patrolman cruising the squalid back roads that have become the breeding ground of criminals foraging for gasoline and scraps.

After some grisly events at the hands of a motorcycle gang, Max sets out across the barren wastelands in search of revenge.

When evaluating this film, I feel it really needs to be put into perspective just how brilliant a job director George Miller did with next to no cash to work with, in fact Miller edited the film in his own bedroom just to emphasize the low-fi nature of the beast.

The costumes are excellent, the cast are terrific, with Mel Gibson as Max particularly impressive, and here we have villains to truly fit the word villainous, but it’s the stunts and chase sequences that makes this film a rich rewarding experience.

The opening ten minutes alone are pure adrenalin pumping genius, but the film as a whole delivers a crash bang wallop punch that has often been imitated since its release, but rarely bettered, and although the heart of the film is a simple revenge story, it grabs your attention and delivers right to the corking finale!

Then we get Mad Max: The Road Warrior (1981) which was again, of course, directed by Miller and written by Miller, Terry Hayes & Brian Hannant. It was produced by Kennedy and stars Gibson as Max, Bruce Spence as the Gyro Captain, Mike Preston as Pappagallo, Max Phipps as Toadie, Vernon Wells as Wez, Emil Minty as the Feral Kid, and Kjell Nilsson as The Hummungus.

Wandering the deserted highways of an energy-starved dystopian Australia after eradicating the Night Rider’s followers in Mad Max (1979), the former patrolman, Max Rockatansky, finds himself roaming the endless wasteland scavenging for food and precious petrol.

Suddenly, in the scorched wilderness, the hungry for fuel Max chances upon a small oil refinery; however, the place is under siege by Lord Humungus’ barbarian horde of biker warlords, hell-bent on destruction and mayhem.

Now, to get his hands on as much gas as he can carry, Mad Max will have to provide the defenseless community with a powerful truck to transport the gasoline to safety; nevertheless, this is easier said than done. Is Max, the battle-scarred Road Warrior, up to the task?

Max’s latest responsibility is to defend a group of settlers, who are trying to protect a compound which houses dozens of vehicles and a substantial amount of fuel, despite marauders attempting to overrun it, at one point succeeding and killing all but one settler.

While Mad Max felt like it was laying the groundwork for the series to operate on, etching in some social commentary in addition to illustrating its vast, barren setting, Mad Max 2 begins to pick up and actually have some fun with its premise.

It’s by no means reliant on momentarily substantive action, but it finds the charm in your average car chase, where the excitement is usually buried between two tons of clanking metal, fire, and murky camera shots.

Miller’s groundwork pays off for Mad Max 2, as we now know the setting we’re working with and have more time to enjoy our outing with this particular effort. The film is almost entirely focused on Max and his dog, whether they be rescuing the settlers or engaged in a hot pursuit chase.

The first film found itself more concerned with creating a dichotomous focus between Max and the motorcycle gang. Here, our focus is made more intimate, personal, and exhilarating thanks to it being limited in such a large world.

Up next is the spectacular Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) which was, oh yeah, you know, co-directed by Miller and George Ogilvie and written by Miller and Terry Hayes. It was produced by Miller and stars Gibson as Max, Tina Turner as Auntie Entity, Bruce Spence as Jedediah, and Angelo Rossitto as Master.

Left for dead in the unforgiving deserts of post-nuclear Australia, after defeating Lord Humungus’ barbarian horde of bikers in Mad Max 2, the former officer of the tough Main Force Patrol, Max Rockatansky, happens upon Bartertown: the remote market-town outpost in the middle of the dry Wasteland, and the realm of the autocratic Queen Aunty Entity.

There, a lethal challenge awaits Max, who, in return for his freedom and provisions, must engage in a bloody match to the death with the grotesque symbiotic being, the Master/Blaster.

However, an unforeseen complication after the brutal fight in the stronghold’s combat arena, The Thunderdome, will banish, once more, Max into the vast wilderness, only to discover the peaceful haven of The Lost Tribe: a community of marooned children who survive on their own, waiting for the arrival of the legendary Captain Walker.

Is Mad Max, indeed, their savior? Can he overthrow Bartertown’s ruthless tyrant?

A bit of contextualization, the film is set at a time where oil has become more than a luxury and in every part of the Australian wasteland, micro-societies are being built to ensure minimal chances of living. There’s no money, not much oil and people trade for food and water and insurance for survival.

In this definite setting, we meet Max, with longer and greyer hair in a remote city named Bartertown, a sort of advanced society in that post-Apocalyptic Australia where a sort of equilibrium reigns under the firm authority of Auntie Entity (Tina Turner) and where the energy is supplied by the Master Blaster - a composite of two persons, a little man for the brain (Angelo Rossitto, he was the loving cup dwarf in Freaks) and the muscle is Blaster, a giant who terrorizes the workers.

Those workers handle the main supply of energy, which is the waste coming from pigs and turned into methane. When a whole ecosystem depends on pig feces, you know humanity reached quite a low!

The now-infamous dome scene is just halfway through the movie and there’s more to come when Max is exiled in the desert that would have made Lawrence of Arabia go back to his native England, a desert where the sun and the quicksand leaves no chance to anyone crossing it and makes Bartertown a real-life Valhalla in comparison.

But Max is rescued by a group of kids who formed a new society, as if Bartertown wasn’t spectacular enough. The survivors of the crash formed a sort of Nevrland group waiting for their prophet Walker to make their plane fly again, they see Max as Walker the one who’ll fly them back to Tomorrow-morrow, another promised land.

Yeah, ok, obviously, the plot borrows some elements from Road Warrior but we still get many surprises including another heart-pounding chase scene between cars and a train (which is carrying a load of methane and headed, in one way or another, toward a little house), that is incredibly effective and thrilling from start to finish.

Lastly we get the latest entry in the Mad Max saga, Mad Max Fury Road (2015) which was directed by (yup, you guessed it) Miller and written by Miller, Brendan McCarthy & Nico Lathouris.

It was produced by Miller, Doug Mitchell and PJ Voeten. The film stars Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky, Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa, Nicholas Hoult as Nux, Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe, Rose Huntington-Whitely as The Splendid Angharad, Riley Keough as Capable, Zoe Kravitz as Toast the Knowing, and Abbey Lee as The Dag.

An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and almost everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life.

Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order. There’s Max, a man of action and a man of few words, who seeks peace of mind following the loss of his wife and child in the aftermath of the chaos.

And Furiosa, a woman of action and a woman who believes her path to survival may be achieved if she can make it across the desert back to her childhood homeland.

Simply put, and although not my own personal favorite of the quartet, Fury Road is a nitro fuel-injected, high octane, smash your face and kick ass bold action movie of the highest level!

Not a sequel or even reboot (not even a retread), Max is back for another post-apocalyptic life threatening trip in the Wasteland. Max Rockatansky (now Tom Hardy) is captured by desert raiders called War Boys and shuffled back to an outpost where his uninfected blood can be harvested as fuel for the captors. These savages are under the rule of a masked ruler named Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne).

Max will reluctantly befriend a relentless driver Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), who has accomplished a getaway for herself and five of Joe’s wives, including Capable(Riley Keough) and The Splendid Angharad (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley).

Max will help Furiosa fight off Joe’s minions and other marauders on the way across the Wasteland to an oasis called the Green Place.

Elaborate vehicle chases and crashes now occur randomly, but frequently as all hell breaks loose! Perilous and adrenaline-pumping rushes back and forth along the Fury Road come jam-packed with oodles of bloody mayhem, aggressive carnage, and at times, blatant and grisly death scenes (that I feel have never been done quite the same ever before!) This is a Widescreen Presentation (2.39:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and The Mad Max Anthology Ultra HD Blu-ray contains the following previously-released Special Features:

Mad Max: The Road Warrior:
• Introduction by Leonard Maltin
• Commentary by Director George Miller and Cinematographer Dean Semler
• Road War: The Making of Road Warrior

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced today that The Mad Max Anthology, featuring 1979’s acclaimed post-apocalyptic action film Mad Max, 1981’s Mad Max: The Road Warrior, 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and 2015’s Mad Max Fury Road will be released together on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Digital HD on November 2nd, 2021.

Created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy, Miller directed or co-directed all four films. Mel Gibson starred as Max Rockatansky in the first three films and Tom Hardy took over the lead role in the fourth film.

Additionally Mad Max: The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome will also be available individually in 4K, joining Mad Max and Mad Max Fury Road which are already available in 4K.

The Mad Max Anthology 4K UHD release, along with the 4K UHD releases of Mad Max: The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, are from scans of the original camera negatives. The 4K UHD remasters were supervised by the mastering team at Motion Picture Imaging (MPI).

4K Ultra HD** showcases 4K resolution with High Dynamic Range (HDR) and a wider color spectrum, offering consumers brighter, deeper, and more lifelike colors for a home entertainment viewing experience like never before.
The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc of the Mad Max: The Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and Mad Max Fury Road will feature a Dolby Atmos® soundtrack remixed specifically for the home theater environment to place and move audio anywhere in the room, including overhead.

To experience Dolby Atmos at home, a Dolby Atmos enabled AV receiver and additional speakers are required, or a Dolby Atmos enabled sound bar. Dolby Atmos soundtracks are also fully backward compatible with traditional audio configurations and legacy home entertainment equipment.

The Mad Max Anthology will be available on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack for $89.99 SRP and features Ultra HD Blu-ray discs with the 4 feature films in 4K with HDR and remastered Blu-ray discs of Mad Max, Mad Max: The Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and Mad Max Fury Road.

Mad Max: The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome be available on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack for $33.99 SP each and feature an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc with the feature films in 4K with HDR and remastered Blu-ray disc of the films.

Fans can also own the Mad Max Anthology, Mad Max: The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 4K Ultra HD via purchase from select digital retailers beginning on November 2nd, 2021.

www.WarnerBros.com





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