Mad Max: Fury Road

I can't believe it's taken me this long to see this movie. Believe it or not, I was following the production of this film for quite some time, particularly once the incredibly talented Tom Hardy got involved. After being blown away by the trailers when Mad Max: Fury Road was being marketed a year ago, I definitely wanted to see it... but at the same time, having never seen any other Mad Max films, it wasn't quite enough to get me into theaters during it's original run. Indeed, it took a long flight across the country to finally convince me to spend some time (if not money) watching the movie that had already been nominated for Best Picture. Given that the awards show is less than a week away, not to mention its strong popularity, I figured it was about time that I officially delivered my verdict on Mad Max: Fury Road. 

Room

Though I usually try to catch up on all of the Oscar-nominated films each year, I had to more or less be dragged to see Room. In my defense, I just wanted to go see Star Wars again... I feel like that's a pretty good excuse... But after my wife insisted that we go see this movie, I geared myself up for a pretentious indie film that was sure to be overrated. Things weren't looking up when the trailers showed me nothing but my worst fears of what Room would be, a shallow concept that has nothing else to offer beyond its initial premise. Not only that, but some idiot decided to bring his five year-old son to this R-rated movie, which led to 2 hours of non-stop questions from the confused child who probably just wanted to see Kung Fu Panda 3 in the neighboring theater. Anyway, as you can see from my star rating, I realized my fears were entirely unfounded once this movie got going. This is a hard one to discuss without talking about specific plot points, so SPOILER ALERT from here on out.