It's common these days for small studios to make cheap, direct-to-video films, that are designed to remind people of big budget blockbusters. It's less common for the same thing to happen in China. However, the growing box office power apparently couldn't wait for a sequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, so they made their native remake. Of course, they had to file off the serial numbers in order to at least try to avoid being sued, so this time Max is a woman named Shelia. Say hello to Mad Shelia.
What is there to say about Mad Shelia that has not already been said simply by watching the trailer? Not only is it an obvious rip-off of Mad Max: Fury Road , it's not even one that could be bothered to spend money. China's movie making capabilities are only growing and it won't be long before they rival Hollywood. This movie was made someplace else.
The plot appears to be about a bunch of desert dwellers' search for a virgin, who we can only guess is the lead character. The exact reason they need one is not clear, but we're guessing it isn't actually important to the plot. The point of this movie is to give a pretty girl guns and blow things up, not that we can't get behind that.
The apocalypse has never looked so good. The video camera quality of the movie gives everything a look like the characters came out of a music video. Everybody is so clean and pretty. The band of desert wasteland killers look like they may have been in a boy band together before the end of the world happened. Although, we have to wonder exactly what sort of end of the world this actually is. They apparently still have cell phones, as Shelia is apparently telling some dude to text her at one point. We have no idea what's going on.
Honestly, considering how quickly and cheaply this movie was apparently made we're more than a little surprised that it's only coming out now. Over here, when a "mockbuster" comes out it's usually released alongside the Hollywood film. They could have easily made a Mad Max rip-off that had this much to do with Fury Road based on the first trailer.
Mad Shelia was released online on November 25 so it's available if you're into watching terrible movies. With the right friends and the right amount of alcohol, it's not the worst way to spend an evening. If you watch it, let us know how it was in the comments below.
