Furiosa: a Mad Max Saga review – striking film has an achingly cool lead, stunning action & tremendous Anya Taylor-Joy

FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA

(15) 148mins

★★★★★

“WE don’t need another hero,” warbled Tina Turner as the end credits rolled on 1985’s Beyond Thunderdome.

It was a tuneful end to the final instalment of Aussie director George Miller’s original and wonderfully grim Mad Max trilogy.

But Miller would change his mind about those lyrics.

Nine years ago, his post-apocalyptic series roared back to life with the thrilling Fury Road.

Tom Hardy replaced Mel Gibson’s Max, but most of the heroics were performed by Charlize Theron’s one-armed warrior Furiosa.

In the striking fifth film in, what is now, a “Mad Max saga”, Miller ditches Max to focus on his brilliant new heroine.

Furiosa, a Theron-free prequel to Fury Road, has all the ingredients of a classic Mad Max movie.

We are served stomach-churning carnage, sun-blasted desert landscapes and hi-octane chases.

Crucially, it also has an achingly cool lead. Furiosa is a heroine of few words.

She does her talking with her fists, her trigger finger and, after Anya Taylor-Joy takes over from child actress Alyla Browne, a pair of huge, unblinking eyes.

There is, though, a noticeable change of pace. The 2015 movie was one, long action sequence that played out over 36 hours.

Here, the action spans around 15 years and is split into five episodic “chapters”.

Chapter one is a belter. A pre-teen Furiosa (Browne) is kidnapped by a gang of leather-clad bikers from her secret community of normally dressed farmers.

Her mum grabs a sniper and gives chase, picking them off as they make their way to Dr Dementus, their hammy leader, played by Chris Hemsworth with a dodgy prosthetic nose.

The first half of the movie chronicles Furiosa’s troubled childhood as she witnesses Dementus crucify her mum, vows revenge and then is forced into the service of the warlord, Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme).

The most jaw-dropping stunts appear in the second half, after Furiosa (now Taylor-Joy) partners up with “war-rig” driver Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) to ferry Joe’s petrol down Fury Road.

The time jumps between chapters can be confusing. But the revenge plot is propulsive, the action stunning and Taylor-Joy tremendous.

THE BEACH BOYS

(16+) 114mins

★★★☆☆

PULL up your deckchair, put on your rose-tinted sunglasses and soak up what is a pretty sedate take on the career of The Beach Boys.

This Disney Plus film about the band attempts to pack six decades of history into less than two hours.

For that reason it was never going to be possible to include all of the US vocal group’s less harmonious moments.

Sure, there are recollections of Murry Wilson, father of band members Brian, Carl and Dennis, beating his sons and selling off their songs without asking first.

It delves briefly into chief songwriter Brian’s experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs and Dennis’s association with the murderous Manson family.

But there isn’t a mention of drummer Dennis’s severe drug issues and drowning after diving into a marina from his boat while drunk. Director Frank Marshall prefers to focus on the group’s musical development.

The main talking heads on show, singer Mike Love and guitarist Al Jardine, give the impression that in general all was well with the quintet.

This film could have done with someone kicking up a little bit more sand.

• Grant Rollings

THE GARFIELD MOVIE

(U) 101mins 

★★☆☆☆

WHAT do you get when you cross a Monday-hating, lasagna-loving orange tabby named Garfield with a popular Marvel actor?

The answer is: a disappointingly unremarkable adaptation of a much-loved cartoon creation.

Created by Jim Davis almost five decades ago, popular comic strip, Garfield, is on its third movie.

The first and second came out in 2004 and 2006, respectively, with each film garnering less enthusiasm than its predecessor.

The Garfield Movie, follows our favourite lazy tabby, voiced by Star-Lord himself, Chris Pratt, as he is unexpectedly reunited with his long-lost father Vic (Samuel L. Jackson).

As he and his canine best friend Odie are forced out of their pampered life with owner Jon (Nicholas Hoult), the two must battle Jinx, an evil mastermind kitty voiced by Hannah Waddingham, to help Vic out of a tight spot.

Sadly, director Mark Dindal often fails to grasp the nuances of Davis’s original work in a film that feels out of its depth in its storytelling.

For an origin tale, there is little here that’s truly reminiscent of the simple comic strip about a lazy cat and his long-suffering owner.

• Linda Marric