Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome 1985

Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune: This middle portion of the picture becomes dangerously preachy, but just before we and Max are bored, director Miller returns Max to his roots, a screaming chase sequence through a desertlike Australian landscape. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times: Beyond Thunderdome is the third in George Miller's Mad Max series, and it closes the trilogy like a lightning blast followed by the ominous, resonant drone of thunder. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome isn't a bad movie. It has entertaining sections, decent performances and more than a few provocative images. But it also has a major shortcoming: It's too darned sane. Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: This film has showier stunts than its predecessors, and a better sense of humor. It also has Tina Turner, in chain-mail stockings. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: The punky energy of the earlier films has given way to a self-conscious striving for significance, obscuring Miller's considerable kinetic talents in favor of a lumpy didacticism. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Miller never falls back on the formulas that have become the bane of too many recent action films, and his sustained cuts lend a clarity to the proceedings. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: More visionary and more entertaining than the first two. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: An astonishing display of virtuoso cinema that is destined to take its place among the most vivid and freshly imagined fist-to-groin contests in the medium's history. Read more

Don Atyeo, Time Out: Enough imagination, wit and ingenuity to put recent Spielberg to shame. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: Gibson impressively fleshes out Max, Tina Turner is striking in her role as Aunty (as well as contributing two topnotch songs, which open and close the picture) and the juves are uniformly good. Read more