Buckle up. George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” races its way to the cineplex this week, and you’re in for one heckuva hard ride.
Also weighing in is a new animated installment in Netflix’s “Jurassic World” series.
Here’s our roundup.
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”: George Miller’s road-ragin’ prequel to “Mad Max: Fury Road” spins its dystopian wheels nearly 2½ hours with sweat-inducing, blood-splattered ferocity from beginning to end. So much so, you’ll catch yourself flinching and squirming in your seats and blurting out ouches and ow’s as it pumps out an arsenal of intense moments. Is it better than 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road,” one of the best action films ever? No way. But it is expertly shot, crafted, edited, and directed, and features a skyscraper-high stack of breathless action sequences as well as a pulse-pounding, metalized soundtrack. All the stunt performers — racing about in the Aussie desert on motorcycles, jumping on and off tank-like vehicles, and dangling off cliffs and ledges — more than earn their paychecks. As for the story, well, it sticks to the slim basics, wanting to be more about action than talk (star Anya Taylor-Joy, in fact, doesn’t speak much), Miller and his “Fury Road” co-writer Nico Lathouris give Furiosa — the child/teen version played by the excellent Alyla Browne and the 20something version by Taylor-Joy, a good fit — a traditional revenge backstory. She endures all sorts of brutality after her mother is killed in front of her eyes by the brawny, despicable meathead biker warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth, playing against type and doing it well). Furiosa — made iconic by Charlize Theron in “Fury Road” — is a shrewd and athletic survivor, and as she gets older earns props from a potential adversary, a rugged but easy-on-the-eyes Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke, a welcome addition). Both of them get caught up in a tug of war for power between Demetrus’ crude, odious minions and the vile Citadel’s leader Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) and his motley, creepy crew. To give this apocalyptic vision some legit narrative oomph, Miller and Lathouris douse their “Mad Max” saga — as they did with “Fury Road” — in feminism and add in this time more biblical references and metaphors. It does give the proceedings more thematic heft, but let’s be honest about all of this: “Furiosa” is first and foremost an R-rated popcorn spectacle, and it’s one not just slathered not just in butter but a $168-million budget. Details: 3½ stars out of 4; in theaters May 24.
“Jurassic World: Chaos Theory”: Netflix’s 10-part “Jurassic” animated spinoff began with 2022’s “Camp Cretaceous” and now advances six years after that feature’s storyline. Each short (20 minutes or so) episode contains better character development and proves to be more sure-footed than the live-action 2022 theatrical blockbuster “Jurassic World: Dominion.” The focus here is on The Nublar Six — the teens who wrangled with dinos on Isla Nublar in 2022 ‘s “Camp Cretaceous” — and are now on the edge of being 20. The main protagonist is grief-stricken 18-year-old Darius (Paul-Mikel Williams), a former employee of the Department of Prehistoric Wildlife who has grown suspicious that he and his friends are being targeted in the wake of the death of 19-year-old journalist Brooklynn — slain in a dino attack. After a too-close encounter with dangerous dinos, Darius sets out, along with 19-year-old animal lover Ben (Sean Giambrone), to warn other members, a road trip that more than hints that Brooklynn might have uncovered something she shouldn’t have. In between suspenseful dino and human attacks, this series executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Oakland native Colin Trevorrow and Frank Marshall, takes the time to give these older teens distinct personalities and backstories that pertain to hidden desires, anxiety, family dysfunction and sexuality. Showrunners Scott Kreamer and Aaron Hammersley archive something the later “Jurassic” films lacked: giving us characters that are just as compelling as the action sequences. Details: 3 stars; drops May 24 on Netflix.
“Sight”: Angel Studios’ solid biopic tells the true story of an eye surgeon wrestling with a painful past as he administers to helping an orphan from India, and has its heart and intentions in the right place. Actor Terry Chen is the film’s sturdy anchor as Dr. Ming Wang, a media sensation/workaholic Chinese immigrant who’s so busy he can’t remember his brother’s birthday. That fast-track life hits an introspective snag when 6-year-old Kajal (Mia SwamiNathan), a Calcutta orphan blinded by her stepmother so the child could make more money from begging, is brought to him by a nun (the great Fionnula Flanagan in a too-small role) to his Memphis office. Wang and his medical partner/friend/mentor Misha Bartnovsky (Greg Kinnear) hope to restore her sight, an against-all-odds goal given the horrible damage done to her eyes. Wang parallels helping Kajal to his perceived failure in doing the metaphorical same for childhood friend Lili during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Director Andrew Hyatt (a co-writer too) doesn’t manipulate, a good choice that allows Chen the chance to be more nuanced in expressing the surgeon’s inner-strife. Hyatt handles the frequent flashbacks to China with aplomb, but the film often feels too somber for its own good. Regardless, “Sigh” — based on the good doc’s autobiography — realizes its goal handedly: To inspire us to do something for others. Details: 2½ stars; in theaters May 24.
“Outer Range”: If you thought the first season of Prime’s Western/sci fi hybrid with Josh Brolin and Lili Taylor got weird, wait till you dive into Season 2 where the plot. What remains consistent about this intriguing series surrounding a feud between Wyoming ranching families and a mysterious time-traveling hole that appears in a field is that it’s original, at times daring. True to form, Season 2 hews to the unpredictable. But given how it’s been two years since the first season dropped, a primer would have helped. The cryptic first season ushers in a season that’s more focused, as Royal Abbott’s (Brolin) connection to that ominous hole and deputy sheriff Joy Hawk’s (Tamara Podemski) experiences plummeting into another era make more sense.
Meanwhile, a growing frantic Cecelia (Taylor) searches for granddaughter Amy while the mysterious, rather airy Autumn (Imogen Poots) inserts herself into the lives of the Abbots’ wildly dysfunctional, wealthy neighbor family, their enemies, the Tillersons – evil patriarch Wayne (Will Patton) and his two psychologically unmoored sons (Noah Reid, Shaun Sipos). Amber is a big presence in the lives of the Abbots, including their two sons – the estranged Rhett (Lewis Pullman) and the town pariah Perry (Tom Pelphery). Each of the seven episodes speed by, but the final one let me hoping that Prime renews this one pronto to tie up its many threads. (3 stars, available now on Prime)
“Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever”: Director Ole Bornedal’s 1994 horror thriller “Nightwatch” was set in a creep-you-out Denmark forensic department and turned into a surprise hit – a success that even shocked its creator. A young Nikolaj Coster-Waldau of “A Game of Thrones” starred as the morgue watchman hounded by a notorious, particularly nasty killer. It did so well that Bornedal remade it into a mediocre 1997 American version, starring Ewan McGregor. Thirty years later, the sequel arrives and it’s even better than the original film. It too stars Coster-Waldau as Martin who has turned into an emotionally fragile survivor plagued by the nightmare attack he and his girlfriend experienced at the hands of police inspector Wörmer (Ulf Pilgaard). Martin’s girlfriend-then-wife couldn’t cope with it all and killed herself, leaving him a single dad with a curious 22-year-old daughter Emma (Fanny Bornedal, the director’s talented daughter). She’s also a medical student and takes on the same gig as her dad so she can get more intel about what happened, and she even visits Wörmer in his cell (one of the film’s more unsettling moments). Bornedal skips over jump scares and outright gore and leans more on moody cinematography and some surprises to make this a must watch. Details: 3 stars; available now on Shudder, which also has the 1994 original.
Find of the Week
“Thelma the Unicorn”: There’s no need to fear that Jared Hess and Lynn Wang’s tuneful adventures about a cute pony with big dreams and an even bigger set of vocal pipes would be a shameless “Sing” knockoff. It’s better than that. This sweet, funny family animated adventure is written by “Napoleon Dynamite” dynamos Jared and Jerusha Hess and features newcomer Brittany Howard belting it out the park as Thelma, a pony on a ranch that turns into an overnight sensation when a truck spills paint on her while a handy carrot doubles as a horn, turning her into a unicorn that upstages the vain whale superstar Nikki Narwhal (Ally Dixon) who doesn’t want to relinquish her crown. Thelma and “band,” including wary donkey Otis (voice of Lafayette native Will Forte), get into the clutches of an insincere talent agent (Jermaine Clement hamming it up). The soundtrack – with some original songs – is surprisingly good as is the animation. But it’s the commentary about the Teflon quality of fame and the cult of celebrity and out-of-control creative egos that make “Thelma” sing. Details: 3 stars; available on Netflix.
