Let’s be honest. ‘The Fast and the Furious‘ franchise is automotive pornography. These films glorify the absolute worst driving behavior possible, making lavish sums of money in the process. By reducing conflict to its basest-level brute aggression, we see a meticulous refinement of ultra-violence mixed with muscle cars.
America perfected this brand of cinema, it’s now our chief entertainment export. Once a mere afterthought, international blockbuster revenue is now Hollywood’s driving market force.
Not to be outdone, the Australian Mad Max franchise has now officially been rebooted. Critics are raving what an adreneline-filled, nonstop massacre on wheels the new Tom Hardy/Charlize Theron vehicle is.
From A.V. Club: “The film unfolds like one long car chase, a feverish pursuit across vast, arid expanses of desert. Diesel and dust, blood and fire: Mad Max runs on all of it, flooding its fuel tanks to stay in perpetual motion.”
Just your typical Atlanta commute.
Even though USA is now post-peak car use, 100 years of four-wheeled jubilation has the rest of the world racing towards a post-apocalypic hellscape. Remember that 11-day long traffic jam in China? Not very Fast, but certainly Infuriating.