Charlize Theron's Imperator Furiosa joins a proud line of female ass-kickers.
I've heard a lot of stupid stuff in my day. True, most of it has spilled from my own mouth. But recently there's been plenty of shining examples of stupidity spewing from the mouths of others.
"Auckland does not have a housing crisis."
"This is a routine review of Campbell Live."
"Do yourself and all men across the world a favour. Not only REFUSE to see the movie, but spread the word to as many men as possible."
Wait... wut?
In what has to be one of the more asinine and loathsome arguments ever posted online - and there's some incredibly stiff competition for that crown - a mob of monumentally moronic men have gotten their knickers in a twist over the new Mad Max movie.
Frothing at their keyboards like a pack of rabid dogs, a group of Men's Rights Activists - which is apparently a thing now - used that last example to call on men to boycott one of the best action flicks of the decade because... you know, women.
I'm not gonna name and shame their site because beasts like this tend to feed off misplaced notoriety. If you're curious about them, don't be.
But specifically the gist of their argument is that this explosive, exciting, don't-miss-seeing-on-the-big- screen film is simply a "Trojan horse", a $50 million front for a "feminist piece of propaganda" that "Hollywood leftists" are using to dupe freewheelin' guys like me into seeing so they can push "the trope that women are equal to men in all things, including physique, strength and logic".
In other words their argument is nonsensical garbage. Nothing more than the damaged gibberish of deranged lunatics. It'd almost be funny if not for the dangerous fact that they believe every word of it.
There was, however, some small inspiration to be found in their repulsive rhetoric. So credit where it's due: their descriptive prose really sold me on the film. These misguided idiots promised that the movie was full of "explosions, fire tornadoes and desert raiders". Fire tornadoes? Hells yeah, I wanted to see me some of that.
There'll be no spoilers here, mainly because there's not much to spoil. The flick is as straightforward as it gets: Max gets in a fist fight and then there's a ridonkulously awesome car chase for two hours. That's pretty much it. But within that the movie absolutely bursts with narrative. It's populated by uniquely grotesque characters and features visceral brawling, pumping action scenes, insanely cool stunt driving and the most heavy metal band of all time. You should definitely go see it.
What it's not filled with is some sort of underhanded feminist agenda. All I saw were two totally dope heroes pulling off a whole lot of brutal heroics. One happened to be a woman. So what?
Imperator Furiosa, as played by Charlize Theron, is the latest in action cinema's proud lineage of strong women who are defined by their ability to kick ass rather than their ability to be rescued by men. Alien's Ripley, Terminator's Sarah Connor and Serenity's River Tam are just a couple of others that spring quickly to mind. Theron owned her action scenes. She believably kicked ass, she nailed that sniper shot and she drove her battle truck like a total badass. At no point did I not believe that messing with her would be anything other than a terrible idea.
There are a lot of things in this world to get worked up about; terrorist atrocities, dirty politics, KFC's Double Down burger only ever being available for a limited time. But Mad Max? Really? That's the call? Bloody hell guys .. get some real problems already because this MRA nonsense is pure hate-mongering hiding behind the false trappings of a cause. As a man living in the Western world I'm certain my rights aren't exactly under threat. I don't even know what my men's rights are but I'm 100 per cent confident they're totally safe. We're not yet at the point of needing a dedicated group vigilantly keeping an eye on them. My men's rights are going to be all right.
But let's just pretend that they're not. That these MRA clowns have got it right and a shadowy cartel of feminist super villains are hiding in the shadows, plotting, pulling the strings in Hollywood and making extremely enjoyable, highly entertaining movies like Mad Max.
Um ... I'm sorry. What exactly was the problem again?
Reporter Grace talks to the Halton Hart Family Band, a group of 8 cousins who are gearing up to rock the New Zealand Country Music Festival with their original country songs.