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Tank Girl

Tank Girl (1995) Movie Poster
  •  USA  •    •  104m  •    •  Directed by: Rachel Talalay.  •  Starring: Lori Petty, Ice-T, Naomi Watts, Don Harvey, Jeff Kober, Reg E. Cathey, Scott Coffey, Malcolm McDowell, Stacy Linn Ramsower, Ann Cusack, Brian Wimmer, Iggy Pop, Dawn Robinson.  •  Music by: Graeme Revell.
        In the year 2033, the world's water supply is controlled by Kesslee, a maniacal dictator who presides over the Water & Power company. Tank Girl, a tough punk water poacher, struggles alongside her comrades to deliver the valuable resource to parched persons around the globe. But when Tank Girl is captured by Kesslee, he makes her work as one of his human automatons in the W & P mines. Her fate goes from bad to worse when Kesslee makes her a proposition: She can go free if she agrees to exterminate the ravenous Rippers--half-man, half-kangaroo beasts. But before she's forced to answer, along comes Jet Girl, who rescues Tank Girl from Kesslee's clutches. Now these two spunky chicks will do whatever it takes to destroy Kesslee and hydrate the desert planet.

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Review:

Image from: Tank Girl (1995)
Image from: Tank Girl (1995)
Image from: Tank Girl (1995)
Image from: Tank Girl (1995)
Image from: Tank Girl (1995)
Image from: Tank Girl (1995)
Image from: Tank Girl (1995)
Image from: Tank Girl (1995)
Image from: Tank Girl (1995)
Image from: Tank Girl (1995)
He seems doomed to play villains in sci fi movies that feature such tiresome protagonists that you end up rooting for him. This is another in the series of big old messes to which he brings a much needed touch of class.

Nobody in this film (the weary veteran McDowell apart) seems to know what their character is supposed to be. There are few actual conversations, mostly confused monologues delivered to empty space; perhaps they're all too embarrased to make eye contact. There's too much budget to allow the raw charm of Repo Man, but not enough to make the FX anything other than embarrasing. Is the titular tank a tardis? Why is it the size of a winnebago inside, and is it a T-72, an M-47 or an M4? Why do bullets strike sparks when they hit sand? Everything about this film is desultory and barely adequate, and every opportunity to take a suprising direction or even provide a decent disjoint is missed. It's the slackness of indie filmmaking blended with the no-risk anodyness of Hollywood.

The biggest flaw is Petty. She switches from concussed to hyperactive more or less at random, and - while she does have a decent big eyed blank look going - she's simply too old to play a part that requires an almost unachievably idealised fantasy pubescent. Tank Girl needs the insane toothy over-confidence of youth, not the over-cosmetic and over-calculated maturity that Petty displays. She actually does manage to deliver some decently amusing one liners, but most of the time she falls slightly short of being genuinely winning.

I would have given this a full 410 for the (initial) geek chic of Jet Girl, and for the unapologetic premise that the only thing not in short supply in this post apocalyptic world are cosmetics and ammo. However, it gets dinged one because of the comic cutscenes. Not because they're bad, but because they're the BEST thing in this mess: that just reminds us there's a fair amount of flair and verve here, being suppressed under the stifling blanket of no-risk filmmaking. And then there's the matter of the Endearing Child Hostage. I know it's a genre convention, but it's supremely annoying and utterly, bone chillingly irrelevant and unnecessary. Then there's the slight problem that towards the end, Jet Girl discovers lipstick and suddenly seems not to need her glasses. That's so teen movie that it's not even funny.


Review by Ripe Peach from the Internet Movie Database.

 

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