Mad Max: Fury Road

Back in the 1980s, George Miller had toyed with the idea of shooting a Mad Max movie in black and white, but it took the critical and commercial success of 2015's Fury Road to give him the clout to realise his vision. And this "Black & Chrome" edition is the result. The film places Charlize Theron in the driving seat as Furiosa, while Max (Tom Hardy, replacing the original trilogy's Mel Gibson) is her wingman. They embark on what is essentially one big, bone-rattling chase through the desert to escape tribal leader Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne who played Toecutter in the original 1979 film) and his hot-wheeled henchmen. Refreshingly, Miller keeps CGI to a minimum in favour of breathtaking choreographed stunts, but he does exploit modern cameras to weave between vehicles as they roar, crunch and groan with thrash-metal musicality. Theron's Furiosa is the beating heart at the centre of all this chaos. As well as being a formidable warrior, she's determined to find sanctuary for the women Immortan enslaved for breeding. Balancing her fury is the quietly magnetic Hardy, and if some fans are irked that he's riding shotgun, there's still more than enough machismo and machine-based mayhem to keep the adrenaline pumping.