There are a lot of reasons why George Miller’s Fury Road pretty much breaks the awesomometer:  the presence of Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, the colors, the feminist take on the action film (Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, was a consultant), and of course, the Doof Warrior.  I suspect the biggest reason for Fury Road‘s success was that its director, George Miller, knew he had already made one of the greatest action movies of all time and knew he had to beat that or earn the reputation of “well he was great once but he lost it.”

The Road Warrior (aka Mad Max 2) set a benchmark for action and ownage in 1981 that may have been approached or matched a few times but really stayed in place until Fury Road.  (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome has its moments but isn’t playing on that level.)  It carries Max (Mel Gibson) forward from Mad Max but can really stand on its own (much like The Dark Knight) and tells a straightforward story:  in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, a community is under siege by marauders, and Max has to help them break out.  Like the greatest action movies, it’s about courage, loyalty and betrayal, the necessary physical tactics of achieving your goal, and blowing shit up and owning motherfuckers.  The landscape looks suitably blasted in true Ozploitation tradition, it’s peopled with comic-book characters (Lord Humongous, the Feral Kid) in the best sense of the term, and Miller never lets things slow down for a moment.  The final half hour, a nonstop chase through the wasteland, ranks with the bank robbery in Heat, the middle hour of Black Hawk Down, and the final battle of Seven Samurai for the best long-form action sequences in film history.

You’ve probably seen it (and if you haven’t, I will not tolerate excuses), so see it again tonight at 7 Eastern and Pacific on IFC.