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"Mad Max: Fury Road" reviews: What critics are saying

The first "Mad Max" movie in 30 years hits the big screen
"Mad Max: Fury Road" returns with Tom Hardy 01:18

Thirty years after director George Miller brought "Mad Max" to the big screen comes a new movie in the franchise helmed by the now-70-year-old director.

In "Mad Max: Fury Road," Tom Hardy steps into the road warrior role of Max Rockatansky, first played by Mel Gibson.

"I suppose you know Max does find humanity along the road and finds connection and tries to help but he leaves at the end as well because it's too painful to be close to people," Hardy told CBS News about his character.

The post-apocalyptic movie also stars Charlize Theron, Zoe Kravitz, Adelaide Clemens and Rosie Huntington Whiteley.

"Fury Road," which premiered Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival, has received rave reviews from movie critics, currently holding a 99 percent rating on movie aggregator site, Rotten Tomatoes.

See what some of the reviewers have to say:

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone: "Hardy and Theron make a dynamite team, but Theron is the film's bruised heart and soul. So get prepped for a new action classic. You won't know what hit you."

Ty Burr of The Boston Globe: "The shock, really, is how tender 'Mad Max: Fury Road' ultimately becomes. The film just wraps that tenderness in one of the most epic action extravaganzas of recent years. It's enough to renew your faith in movies. Witness it!"

Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly: "Souped-up motorcycles soar over Nitro-fueled muscle cars, Nitro-fueled muscle cars crash into tricked-out oil trucks, and all of them explode into glorious fireballs. 'Fury Road' not only captures the same Molotov-cocktail craziness of Miller's masterpiece, 1981's The Road Warrior -- it's also a surprisingly hypercaffeinated film for a director in his fifth decade behind the camera."

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter: "It can safely be said that this madly entertaining new action extravaganza energetically kicks more ass, as well as all other parts of the anatomy, than any film ever made by a 70-year-old -- and does so far more skillfully than those turned out by most young turks half his age."

Alonso Duralde of The Wrap: "There are visuals in "Mad Max: Fury Road" that won't soon be forgotten, from the sight of a trussed-up Hardy attached to a car like a ship's mast to the mother of all sandstorms to the heavy-metal guitarist and drummers that accompany the War Boys into battle to the secret of how the elites in Joe's kingdom stay so well-fed. Miller redefined action cinema with 'The Road Warrior,' and it's no stretch to suggest that 'Fury Road' ups the ante on what the genre might deliver in the future."

Check out the video above for interviews with the film's stars.

And tell us: Are you going to see "Mad Max: Fury Road"?

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