Finale of Film Epics Week

Felt a bit bad for missing out on watching an epic film yesterday, so I sent off the week by watching 3 films instead! First two aren't really fully fledged epics, but are pretty dang good films in their own right. And funnily enough, they are both about cars.

If you have seen the great 90's action film Speed then you may consider it a spiritual successor to The Wages of Fear. Four men are tasked with transporting a mass shipment of nitroglycerine 300 miles across South America without the proper safety precautions. As a result, the slightest bump along the journey could cause a mass explosion. It's genuinely terrifying to watch at points, while Speed is a lot more high-octane, this film provides a slower, more cerebral experience where at any second, you think their truck could blow up. Even when their trucks are going 5mph your heart will be racing.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum Mad Max: Fury Road is a grand return to the franchise, George Miller has clearly been sitting on ideas on how to top Road Warrior, and he succeeds in nearly every aspect. The action is huge here, and really, really good. It surpasses the standard set by Michael Bay since a lot of the stuff actually feel very creative, especially when paired with the astonishingly good visual and character design. You are always seeing something new and it'll either make you go 'wow' or 'phwhhaa' when you see it. All round good stuff, especially if you see it with friends - it's not a complicated film by any means, just a damn good ride.

Lastly, to round off Film Epics Week Louis and I tucked into Seven Samurai. If you are unfamiliar with the plot a user on Icheckmovies summed it up perfectly: 'It's basically A Bugs Life without the bugs.' While some consider it the grandaddy of many action genre tropes, it does feel slightly dated at times. That said, it was a lot funnier then I expected and that really assisted in developing the characters. Kurosawa complete achieved what he set out to do here but I would hesitate to call it his finest work, as several online sources claim. Currently that honour goes to Rashomon.

Now that Epics week is over it also marks a point when I can officially say I have seen the first 114 films on the IMDB top 250, without gaps. Every single film I saw this week was on that list and I'm slowly closing the gap on what many consider to be recommended viewing.