So here I am, back with another review, this time for the awesome Tank Girl starring the sadly forgotten Lori Petty and the Oscar winning Naomi Watts. I love this film and I hope my review will enlighten you to it's epic awesomeness too. Check it out after the jump....
There were a lot great films out in 1995, a lot were praised and a lot were not, one of the films that was despised by critics was Rachel Talalay's 1995 adaptation of Tank Girl. The film is based on the british comic book by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin. Of course Hewlett is also the man behind the Gorillaz, the virtual band with Blur's Damon Albarn. But in 1995 MGM/UA released the film adaptation of the comic under the direction of Rachel Talalay (Nightmare On Elm Street 6) with a script by Hewlett and Martin. Unfortunately the film was called a mess, a travesty and generally dismissed by critics as trash.
I was 12 years old when this came out so being a 15 certificate my parents were weary of letting me see films rated 15, I'd just started high school and was still in that stage of discovering who I was to become, I still loved movies of course but the stuff I liked varied from Honey I Shrunk the Kids to shit like Rock-a-doodle, you know, kids films and as embarrased as I am to say, I was a fan of The Spice Girls (I even saw their movie in the cinema), but by the time I hit 14 I was discovering new things, things that would shape me into the fat bearded nerd I am today. I started skateboarding although I was never very good and I started listening to punk, that's right I went from innocent pop jingles to shout in your face, anti-establishment punk rock in a space of 2 years. I also started to discover films that were not aimed at kids, by this time i'd seen Robocop so my folks were pretty much open to me seeing anything as that was one fucking violent film and I aint talking ITV's 45 minute TV edit. By '97 i'd started collecting VHS and as I was born in September I was one of the oldest in my year and was able to buy these 15 rated flicks before my friends. So I bet you know what I bought right? Mother Fucking Tank Girl.
And so began my secret love affair with Lori Petty, sure she was in Free Willy, and Point Break, but I hadn't discovered the joys of Johnny Utah and Gary Busey yet, But for me Lori Petty as the Punk Rock Tank Girl was the girl of my dreams, bad ass, takes no shit, funny as fuck and really really hot...And she drove a bloody tank, anyways this aint my life story this a review of Tank Girl.
So here's a brief and I mean brief outline of the plot...
The world was decimated by the a giant Asteroid and in the future Water is the most precious commodity much like Solarbabies (1987), The water is under the control of Water and Power, a mass powerhouse of greed and corrruption run by the awesome Malcome Mcdowell. Anyways Rebecca aka Tank Girl is arrested along with half the people she lives with and a young girl named Sam and taken to W&P as a prisoner. She is proposistioned by McDowell to work for him but she constantly turns him down. Here she meets Jet Girl (Naomi Watts) a geeky but hot technical wiz who is being harrassed by one of McDowell's officers. After turning him down once again he decides to use her as bait to help him find the lair of the Rippers, A group of Human Kangaroo hybrids disrupting McDowell's plans. Everything goes wrong and everyone dies, except for Rebecca, and when a jet lands she see's that Jet Girl has managed to escape. The two join forces and plan to take down Mcdowell and rescue Sam.
Well that's pretty much the plot of the film and as this is a review I don't want people to read the review and think that sounds shit because hopefully most of my readers are like me and these are the movies they wanna see but that could just be hoping I wasn't alone in the world. But hey there's more, well no more plot as I want you guys to seek this film out to discover what happens.
The Cast is pretty cool. Like I said, this film was the start of my secret teenage love affair with Lori Petty. Obviously after this I found the awesomeness of Point Break and re-watched Free Willy which by the way also stars Michael Madsen when he used to make real movies and not clag he does with Vinnie Jones these days, but back to Petty. Man I thought this woman rocked. For a start she was hot, had a really awesome punk rock hair style, millitary boots, Tattoos, that t-shirt with the red, blue and black target on the front and she had a fucking tank. But Petty is awesome in this, she delivers the lines In a child like manner, not like a kid would speak but more of a carefree way and also in a sort of I don't give a fuck way, which was pretty cool. Plus she could handle a gun. The last film I saw her in was Prey For Rock and Roll about an all girl punk band which was pretty good, it's a shame that Tank Girl wasn't the success the studio was expecting which is why I guess Petty never became a big star, but as a 27 years old I still, deep down think she's awesome, well maybe not as awesome as Kari Wurher of off Sliders, I still dream about me and her bouncing through the the vortex to alternate worlds but that's a story for another day...
Next up and in a very early role is Acadamy Award Nominee Naomi Watts, with black hair and glasses playing Jet Girl. Now it wasn't until a couple of years ago that I realised it was actually Naomi Watts, and she's pretty good in this, not 21 Grams Naomi Watts good, but as the sensible one of the two, she's great fun too watch. At first Jet Girl is Shy and timid but meeting Tank Girl she comes out of her Shell (get it, Tank and Shell, LOL), did I just LOL in my review, anyway back on track, like I said she comes out of her shell and plays well opposite Petty's in your face, anarchic Tank Girl. It's sad that she has had the career she has and Petty hadn't but that's the game actors play in Hollywood I guess.
Malcom McDowell plays evil villain Keslee, and what can I say about McDowell that hasn't already been said in his somewhat 40 years in movies. Here he plays the ruthless villain obsessed with getting Rebecca back and distroying her and his role is almost a more amped up version of his Star Trek: Generations villain, Dr. Soran. But it's McDowell, you expect the best in a villain and of course on the occasion, like many others, he Delivers.
Ah now to the one billed second on the dvd cover, the poster and even on the bloody credits, it's pimping, cop killing gangter rapper Ice-T or as he's known to his mother Tracy Morrow and who in his acting career has made some good films, New Jack City and some truly awful films, The Wrecking Crew, but has managed to sustain a career in the last 11 years by doing 250 episodes of Law & Order: SPV to which I tip my hat to him for. But here, I don't know why, but he's billed as the second main star even though he doesn't really do much except be grumpy and swear as the tough one of the Rippers; T-Saint. But he's ok I guess, I prefer his music and there's a great track of his on the soundtrack but i'll get to that in a minute.
So that's the main cast what about the direction?
Well the direction by Rachel Talalay is in my opinion pretty good but I know a lot of people would dissagree and it's probably the reason why she's only directed episodes of TV shows in the last 16 years, but I think it's good and im all for female directors, why should the movie business be a male dominated world. Infact going back to Petty, Point Break was directed by woman, an oscar winning female woman director of the oscar winning The Hurt Locker, but I aint seen that yet so can't compare the styles of the two. But Talalay's direction is good, she uses the minitures well and the action scenes are handled nicely and the film has some great editing too. I feel sad for her because she could have gone on to better things but I guess it's the same story as her lead in the film.
The Music:
Like I said earlier I was really into punk and the alternative side of music and this had the best soundtrack of all time when you're a 14-15 year old skater boy and much like the soundtrack of another great film from 1995, Empire Records, the soundtrack was full of these alternative bands.
On the soundtrack to Tank Girl you had everything from Bjork to Devo to Joan Jett and even a Cole Porter song, Let's Do It. I tell you, I knew the words to every song on that cassette (remember those) and my favourites were Devo's Girl You Want, Joan Jett's cover of the Cole Porter song and Ice-T's Big Gun which I blasted out last night and was still nodding my head like a little white wannabe gangster. Awesome stuff, infact at the end of the review i'll post the trailer and Girl You Want Video just to get a taster of what was on the soundtack.
And so I must end my review and while it was fun reminiscing about 1995 and seeing the film for the first time and seeing Petty in a lead role, does the film for me, 16 years later still have that same appeal it did have at 14? Fuck yeah, I enjoyed the shit out of it. Petty is badass, Naomi Watts was at the start of her Career, Ice-T made up to look like a fucking Kanga-Dude, the goddamn awesome soundtrack. It's all still so bloody cool to me. This could be that a) I need to grow up or b) that I respect the film for what it is and don't take it seriously but enjoy my tits off while watching it. I think it's option B. Sure the film aint gonna be for everyone, and it's gonna devide people, but for this tubby fucker it's still bloody good entertainment and you know what because I love this movie so much I throwing it five stars. Where on earth would you find a review for Tank Girl where it's given Five stars, here baby on Cine-Apocalypse.com, and as my motto says, im preserving genre cinema and if this review aint me preserving my love for this film then you can feed my hairy ass to the fucking rippers.
Peace Out....
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