Books could be (and likely have been) written about what makes "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior" such a great movie: George Miller's unique vision of a dystopian wasteland filmed to perfection in the Australian outback, a litany of well thought-out characters even among bit players, the oft-copied but rarely duplicated way that Miller manages to set the mood repeatedly with little if any dialogue, and of course the cars and epic chase sequences. What you end up with is perhaps the perfect post-apocalyptic story: a lone man who lives by scavenging in the wastelands, hardened by the events of the first "Mad Max" film, and still driving the last of the V8 police interceptors. A series of events quickly leads him to an ethical crossroads: does he stay with the band of "civilized" people fruitlessly guarding the last working oil pump and refinery for who knows how far, against the band of marauders camped at their gates? Does he make a temporary bargain and run off with his small reward from them to once more disappear into the wastelands? Or can he find another option? The answer is well worth the time spent reaching it.

Spoilers follow, so if you haven't watched this yet, do please stop reading. :)

There is so much more to this movie than even the most detailed reviews here will reveal. The symbolism throughout: the distant raven's cry heard as Max enters each scene, foretelling the death which hollowed him in the past, and follows him thereafter. The beautiful, nuanced characters found on all sides of the conflict: the idealistic Pappagallo who leads the motley refinery crew, preaching hope and humanity all while being surrounded by death and futility; the opportunistic Gyro Captain who survives the wasteland through cunning and killing while exuding insanity from every pore, but who ultimately shines through as perhaps the most sane individual there; and perhaps the most brilliantly complex villain in non-"Batman" film history, The Humungus, a muscle-bound behemoth who lords over a band of ruthless killers yet quotes 18th century German poetry (in German), repeatedly shows patience and practical thinking in achieving his goal, and carries around an immaculate revolver in a case filled with military medals from numerous nations. Plus of course the scene-stealing dog (named "Dog"), who was rescued from a local animal shelter, trained for this film, and then retired to a life of luxury with one of the cameramen.

This is barely even scraping the surface. I've seen very convincing arguments that the entire story was a modern interpretation of ancient Greek tragedy (Miller's parents were Greek immigrants), lengthy commentaries on how avant garde the film was in casting women, homosexuals, and physically handicapped persons in strong roles (without dwelling on doing it), and of course numerous discussions on the political and environmental criticisms neatly wrapped into the back story of the picture (again, without being in-your-face about it).

In short, which truthfully would have been two paragraphs ago, this is so much more than just the quintessential post-apocalyptic action thriller, as evidenced by the numerous "best of" lists it continues to find itself on. This is a testament to exactly what a talented visionary with a (very) limited budget is capable of producing, and a film which rewrote its genre and redefined exactly what a "hero" can be in movies.

The best of the franchise...pure gasoline powered adrenaline soaked kinetic action...with real stunts...no CGI BS like Thunder Road...George Miller should have stopped after Thunderdome...Mel Gibson is great as the broken but not out hero, who redeems himself in a last bid for humanity...when this was first released in the USA it played in "art house" theatres, as no one quite knew what to make of it...so incredibly violent and high speed...after its commercial success, Mad Max, the first in the franchise made it stateside...great piece of cinematic history...truly a benchmark movie, that set the tone for an entire genre...and still looks as good today as ever...

I hesitated to get the blu-ray because I already have a DVD (which was made for older TVs), and my HDTV TV is only 32" and 720p, which usually can't display much difference between Blu-ray and any newer DVDs. Glad I decided to buy it. The picture is vastly superior. Worth the upgrade. My biggest complaint is that the movie starts with "Mad Max 2" as the title instead of "The Road Warrior," which is what I saw it as when it was in theaters in the US. Wish there was a choice, but not a "deal-breaker" by any means. Also, it's divided up into only around ten scenes, so it's a bit harder to navigate. But overall the improvement over the DVD is going to force me to upgrade the other two movies in the trilogy.

Yeah, this is an old movie. It shows. But you know what? With the "Fast and Furious" sequels, the producers seem to believe things can only get better if the stunts get more ridiculous and impossible. The best "Fast and Furious" film to me is still the first one. You can actually tell there is a guy hanging off the side of a truck. The stunts are real. They do not rely on computer graphics. This is what they do in "The Road Warrior" for the entire film. Fantastic.

The ultimate post-apocalypse movie! If you have not seen Mad Max 2 (a.k.a. The Road Warrior) then you have missed out on one of the best sci-fi action films ever made. This Blu-ray has a great price and offers a pristine letterbox version of the movie which is essential to take in the stellar cinematography of Academy Award Winner Dean Semler as well as the incredible 13-minute action sequence finale. Movies like Mad Max 2 are not made anymore. This film was made with no special effects trickery or CGI, everything is 100% practical and 100% dangerous. The movie is a terrific homage to classic Western movies like Shane and Eastwood's No Name Trilogy where a drifter gets entangled in a situation that will end up turning him into a hero/savior. It earns my highest recommendation.

This Blu-ray is light on extras but there is a audio commentary with director George Miller and an introduction from film critic Leonard Maltin. Recently the podcast Don & his Amazing Friend also did an online audio commentary of the movie which brought additional information about the rare sequel that raises the bar on the original. For under $10 this is a steal!

The movie itself wasn't bad, but I'll assume anyone looking at this product is familiar with this entry into the Mad Max Trilogy and focus on the Blu-ray instead.

Special features are pretty minimal, though I'm admittedly not sure if there are other versions of this movie with more of them. Likely not.

The audio was pretty crisp and solid. The video was overall pretty well done, though there were a few points where it kind of showed that it's up-converted and remastered. Still, they did a better job on it than a lot of older movies getting Blu-ray releases, that's for sure.

I'd say it's definitely worth picking up to upgrade off a VHS or DVD, and if you're just after a copy of the second Mad Max movie for the first time for your collection, the Blu-ray is probably your best option.