Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is set in a post apocalyptic Australia where a man named Max (Mel Gibson) is traveling through the vast desert, Max is attacked & his camels & wagon's full of his stuff are stolen. Max makes his way to a settlement known as Barter Town looking for his stolen goods, there he causes trouble & Barter Town ruler Auntie Entity (Tina Turner) is impressed with his fighting skills. Auntie Entiry offers Maxa deal, kill a man & he goes free with his possessions returned to which Max agrees. After his opponent is defeated in the Thunderdome arena Max is banished & left to die in the desert but is found by a tribe of children living in a valley who think Max is their saviour...

This Australian American co-production was directed by George Miller & George Ogilvie, not many films have two credited director's but it is generally thought that Miller handled the action side of things while Ogilvie handled the drama & people moments. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is a very different type of film that came before, the original mad Max (1979) was a violent revenge drama with some brutal action scenes while Mad Max 2 (1981) is surely one of the best action films of the decade with some stunning stunts & inspired the whole post apocalyptic action film genre while Mad max Beyond Thunderdome is widely regarded as toning the action & violence down to appeal to a more mainstream audience & it's hard to disagree as everything that made the original two mad Max films so special has been watered down. The first third of the film is set in Barter Town & is reasonably good as far as post apocalyptic action films go but then it changes direction & a tribe of children are introduced that Max feels compelled to protect as they help him regain a bit of humanity, these kids are a bit annoying actually especially with their broken English mixed-up dialogue that does get irritating quite quickly & their silly myth about an airplane pilot that they go into great detail about (lucky us...). At well over 100 minutes it does drag at times & while it's watchable it feels predictable & the action scenes can't really compare to those in Mad Max 2.

Again there's the whole end of humanity post apocalyptic look, while in the other two Mad Max films it looked quite real here the production design is very elaborate & a bit showy. The final chase revolves around a train & various bad guy's chasing it, it's OK but not as exciting or dramatic as the chases in the other Mad Max films. The violence is tamer here, in fact apart from a few fights there isn't any. Just as the end credits start it says on screen 'For Byron' which is a reference to producer Byron Kennedy who was killed in a helicopter crash while scouting for locations for the film in 1983.

The film looks good if a little staged, the stunts & action are good but nothing spectacular & that just about sums up the whole film, good but not spectacular. Filmed around New South Wales in Australia. The acting is alright, I didn't like the little dwarf Angelo Rossito as you can barely understand what he's saying while pop star Tina Turner doesn't really do anything other than deliver a few lines.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome isn't a terrible film by any means, it's not exactly great but it's watchable. It's just that the first two & Mad Max 2 in particular as so good that this watered down vision of Max was always going to disappoint. A Rumours of a fourth Mad Max have persisted over the years but I doubt it will ever happen.

Max (Mel Gibson) is driving his camel wagon train across the desolate wasteland. Jedediah (Bruce Spence) and his son flying their plane steal his vehicle. Max tracks Jedediah to Bartertown which is run by Aunty Entity (Tina Turner). He makes a deal with Aunty. She wants him to take on MasterBlaster who run the Underworld. Master is the midget riding on top of the giant Blaster. They produce methane from pig manure and have become arrogant. Max fakes a confrontation with MasterBlaster and they settle the dispute in the Thunderdome. "Two men enter, One man leave." After ripping Blaster's helmet off, Max is unable to finish him off and Aunty's minion kills Blaster. Max is banished for not completing the deal. He is rescued by Savannah Nix and her band of children river dwellers.

I love all the camp. This one fully embraces it. Tina Turner is a great diva to play the top dog in Bartertown. Bruce Spence's return does confuse me a little but one must ignore any possible disconnection. The franchise may have started as a violent B-movie but this is a fully fun campy B-movie. I even love the Goonies and their cryptic English. It's a movie where the audience either love the fun or roll their eyes in disbelief.

They try to recreate the magic of the second one, but they don't succeed entirely. The action sequence this end on, is almost as good as the one in the second, but it's the things in between that might not be to most of the viewers liking. But let's recap a bit. We have Mad Max once again, who was never to be seen again by those who survived the second outing/movie. Strangely enough one actor from that movie still returns in a different role. Unless it's the same role and he had some memory loss happen to him - hard to tell.

Whatever the case, you get a new bunch of people that will rely on Mad Max and again a Max who is reluctant to help. Again a female who's very pro-active and so on and so forth. You also get Tina Turner to play one main role. For those who never heard of her: She didn't have to do a whole lot of Make-Up and Hairstyle change for her role here (at least to her singing personality/celebrity persona). She seems excited and doesn't hurt the movie as much as I thought she might have.

The movie is not really that bad, but not as good as it could and maybe should have been, considering the cult Mad Max has/had achieved. Apart from the end action scene, we also have a very good action scene inside the "Thunderdome". If that's good enough for you, than so shall be it