Every George Miller Movie Ranked By IMDb

From Guillermo Del Toro and James Cameron, many of today's greatest filmmakers idolize George Miller, the director who burst onto the scene in 1979 with the low-budget "Mad Max." Miller has left his mark with a career spanning a wide variety of films, including everything from over-the-top action movies to children's animated musicals and dramas. Perhaps if he'd stuck to action-adventure flicks like "Mad Max" — or had completed his infamously shelved "Justice League" movie — he might be considered more of a top-tier blockbuster director, but it's his unpredictability that makes him such a unique voice in modern cinema. 

During his 40-plus years in filmmaking, Miler has directed just nine movies and written two more, demonstrating his range of genres and styles. The good news is, there's not a bad film in the bunch. If you were to sit down and marathon every entry back to back, you'd go from a delightfully simple, fun little romp right up to one of the best films ever made. The celebrated director has taken several absences from filmmaking, but in 2015 he stepped back into the director's chair for the long-awaited sequel to his beloved franchise. He's now working on a fifth "Mad Max" film — a spinoff that delves into the "Fury Road" hero Furiosa, due in 2022. Where will it end up on the ranking of his best films? While we wait, here's a full ranking of every one of George Miller's big-screen efforts, stacked according to its IMDb score.

The second disappointing sequel on the list, this one is a follow-up to the 2006 CGI animated musical kids' film, "Happy Feet." George Miller returned to co-write and direct. Several of the superstar voice cast returned from the prior movie, with additions of Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Common, and others. Tragically, two cast members of the first film had died before the sequel, Brittany Murphy and Steve Irwin, both long before their time. Though it doesn't have the lowest score on IMDb, it is the only one of Miller's full-length films to be awarded a rotten "splat" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where it sits at 45%. 

Still, even Roger Ebert, in his critical review, praised the film's strong musical numbers. David Germain for The Associated Press also gave high marks to Miller's direction. "The sequel delivers the key ingredients that made its predecessor such a hit: lovable characters that audiences young and old will want to follow. A rich blend of pop tunes employed in show-stopping song-and-dance numbers," Germain wrote. It may not win any Academy Awards, but it works as a fun kids' movie, complete with some enjoyable pop songs and adorable dancing penguins. It's a safe bet that families will still have a good time with it.

If George Miller loves anything more than "Mad Max," it might be taking big risks and taking swings at new challenges. He could have stuck with action movies, having been so successful early in his career with them, but he boldly stepped into comedies, then dramas, then family films. His first movie in almost a decade, "Happy Feet" saw Miller once again stretching his filmmaking muscles and tackling another first for himself: an animated musical. Though the "Babe" movies had some special effects, the extensive use of motion capture and CGI was new for Miller. Despite the writer/director's relative inexperience, the result was another triumph for him.

Telling the story of a young penguin's struggle to find his soul mate, it's a typical underdog story, much like his prior efforts on "Babe" and "Babe: Pig in the City," but this time with several toe-tapping musical numbers — all amid dire warnings of climate change. It also featured a star-studded voice cast that included the likes of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, and Hugo Weaving. In their review, "The New York Times" noted that, although it was a "familiar story about a wee outsider forced to struggle against the usual odds and misguided adults to discover his inner penguin," Miller brought "an unusual depth of feeling to his work as well as a distinct moral worldview." Thanks in no small part to Miller's efforts, the 2006 film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, which remains Miller's only Oscar. 

The only full-length film that George Miller directed without writing himself, "The Witches of Eastwick" built upon the strength of his work on "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome," which garnered him a bigger audience with a wider U.S. release. The black comedy marked his first work in the genre and his first feature film without Mel Gibson. Instead of one superstar, he wound up working with four: Susan Sarandon, Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Jack Nicholson.

"The Witches of Eastwick" follows a group of recently single suburban women — two after breakups, one following the untimely death of her husband — who are struggling with loneliness and sexual frustration. Then the devilishly charming (and sexually aggressive) Daryl Van Horne — played perfectly by Jack Nicholson — struts into town. His arrival does more than get the women's libido's stirring; it also awakens the three women's latent supernatural powers. The three aren't just repressed suburban malcontents but also unwittingly powerful witches. Daryl's insatiable lust soon reveals that he, too, is more than meets the eye. The coven's newfound witchcraft and the revelation about Daryl quickly throw their little town into chaos.

The film was a strong outing for Miller, receiving good reviews as a successful dark comedy that skirted the edges of good taste. His efforts produced something rare for the time as well: a sex comedy that was designed primarily to appeal to women. The Hollywood Reporter called it "a perceptive and biting look at Puritanical repression as it affects modern women."

"Mad Max" wasn't just George Miller's first film; it was a landmark achievement in filmmaking itself, a watershed that shaped more than a decade of science fiction and action movies. It's impossible to understate its influence. Its shoestring budget and stellar critical reception showed studios and budding filmmakers alike that good storytelling and strong direction could make a great film without the expense of films like "Star Wars." In fact, it's not an exaggeration to say that it birthed an entirely new genre of movies, as its success spawned a veritable cottage industry of post-apocalyptic movies set in the desert, with roving bands of leather-clad villains. 

Released in Australia in 1979 with its then-unknown star, "Mad Max" arguably had a bigger impact on the career of Mel Gibson than on George Miller. Nevertheless, the revolutionary low-budget flick put Miller on the map not just in Australia but in the U.S. as well. Word of mouth quickly spread. Thanks to a distribution deal with Warner Bros., the film saw release stateside a year later and gained a cult following — despite its English dubbing — for its visceral action and startlingly fresh premise of a lone desert crusader hunting for gasoline. Three sequels followed: two with Mel Gibson, and one belated semi-reboot. What was once a cult classic has since become a premier Hollywood franchise.

Officially titled "Mad Max 2" in Australia, the film was, for most American audiences, the first in the series they'd see, where it was dubbed "The Road Warrior." (That's why you'll often see it referred to as "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.") Debuting to applause from critics and audiences, it was praised for its imaginative high fantasy, action-packed plot, and awe-inspiring visuals. It did well at the box office too, particularly considering its relatively small release, low budget, and limited marketing campaign. 

The movie continues the post-apocalyptic adventures of the titular Mad Max on his journey across the desolate, post-nuclear war terrain. This time, Max clashes with a gang at an abandoned oil refinery. This gang isn't just some group of random punks, though; they serve film's villain, Lord Humungus, a towering hulk of a man clad in leather and metal who seeks nothing less than total domination of the desert, and to that end is causing problems for the small surviving oil refinery. Max once again becomes involved by defending the refinery, putting him in the antagonist's crosshairs. Like its predecessor, it's a simple tale, but an incredibly effective one that Roger Ebert called "one of the most relentlessly aggressive movies ever made" in his 3.5-star review. Ebert remarked that watching it was an experience he could hardly forget, saying, "the experience is frightening, sometimes disgusting, and (if the truth be told) exhilarating. This is very skillful filmmaking, and 'Mad Max 2' is a movie like no other."