The action movie Edgar Wright calls “the best of all time”
There are a few filmmakers who changed how the action genre was shot, admired and paced in contemporary cinema, with credit having to be given to the frenetic style of Quentin Tarantino, the technical innovation of the Wachowski sisters and the snappy resourcefulness of British director Edgar Wright. While Tarantino and the Wachowskis are often admired, Wright doesn’t always get the credit he so duly deserves.
Emerging at the cusp of the new millennium with the seminal TV series Spaced, Wright quickly took to the silver screen, creating Shaun of the Dead in 2004, an iconic genre mash-up that changed how filmmakers approached the horror genre. Years later, his distinctive style would be imprinted into cinema, creating Hot Fuzz in 2007, an action romp which fizzed with creativity and personality.
Easily making the list of the ten greatest action movies of the 21st century, Hot Fuzz would have a considerable impact on the industry, inspiring countless burgeoning filmmakers to pick up a camera and simply have fun. Wright’s desire to enjoy the thrill of filmmaking and establish a personal voice can be illustrated in his list of all-time favourite movies, where George Miller’s 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road makes a surprise appearance.
A truly manic piece of filmmaking, Miller’s film transformed cinema in the 2010s, forcing others to up their game thanks to the film’s eye-popping visuals and practical effects. Starring Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult and Zoë Kravitz, the film told the story of a wanderer in the post-apocalyptic outback of Australia where warlords, gang members and petrol-heads lurked around every shrub.
Such a vocal lover of the movie, Wright took to Twitter back in 2019 to state: “I had to test out a new home projector with a BluRay and I can confirm the results. Mad Max Fury Road is still the best action film of all time”. The accolade from Wright is high praise indeed, with the director rating Miller’s classic ahead of other genre favourites, such as John McTiernan’s Die Hard and John Woo’s Hard Boiled.
During a separate occasion, Wright heaped praise on one particular scene in the movie, opting for the moment when Tom Hardy’s titular character marches across the top of the convoy, taking down War Boys one by one. While he loves this moment, Wright later exclaims, “You could pick any three minutes of Mad Max: Fury Road as the best action scene”.
Take a look at the scene in question from Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road below.
