Unlike most franchises, the first “Mad Max” is surprisingly a weaker entry than the sequels (more are due so perhaps that statement won’t remain true) and that isn’t a slight at the first “Mad Max” but more praise for the sequels, which featured more developed environments. “Mad Max” lacks the fully realised world seen in the sequels but it has plenty of great car chases.

“Mad Max” is set in futuristic Australia where the highways are playgrounds for mad bikers. Policeman Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson “Lethal Weapon”, “Mad Max 2”) is out to get revenge after these dreaded individuals kill his partner, his wife and his child. As I say, the world here isn’t as great as it is in the sequels so I guess maybe the world hadn’t fully descended into chaos in this one.

Mel Gibson is alright here as Max, I felt the character became more fleshed-out as the series progressed and showed Gibson in a better light because of it; Max gets a lot less screen-time than I expected he would. I actually quite like Joanne Samuel as Max’s wife Jessie. The villains are a little forgettable in this one but they’re insane enough to work during the time you’re watching them and it’s great to see ‘justice’ exacted upon them in the end.

I like the car chases and I really like the ending. “Mad Max” certainly isn’t great if you take for what it is then I think it’s kind of hard not to like it. There aren’t many films with as many car chases (or at least seriously done car chases) as this so you may as well embrace it. The movie is a blueprint for the sequels in the same way that “Coogan’s Bluff” feels like a blueprint for “Dirty Harry”; it had enough good stuff in it for somebody to want to repeat it.