Tank Girl

IF your looking for a movie that is intellectual, smart, sassy and leaves you thinking you have found the wrong movie. If you're looking for a movie that has its own type of humor, some good laughs, and leaves you thinking that was one silly movie- you've got it. Although this may not be a movie for the average type of person, if you have a sense of humor and adventure you can admire Tank Girl for the work it is and admire Lori Petty's performance in the role she was born for.

This movie may not be a masterpiece, but it is a testament to an era of movie making in which people still made movies for fun. Not all movies have to be high budget Hollywood movies trying to sell to China. Not all movies have to have serious plots, serious characters, and expensive action scenes. People's hatred of anything different is the reason why so many movies today are so unoriginal and dull. Anytime anyone tries anything outside of the standard formula, people rate it lowly and say it was the worst movie ever.

Based on the British cult comic-strip, our tank-riding anti-heroine (Lori Petty) fights a mega-corporation, which controls the world's water supply.

This film is a very unusual adaptation, comparable to "Super Mario Bros" in how bizarre it turned out to be. Perhaps luckily, the "Tank Girl" comic never had the level of followers as the Mario Brothers, so there were fewer people to complain.

The film has an interesting parallel with "Waterworld", coming out around the same time and both concerned with water: one film has too much and the other not enough. This one, however, has the great soundtrack. Not to mention Malcolm McDowell, Iggy Pop and a pre-stardom Naomi Watts. With all due respect to Dennis Hopper, this is the better lineup.

Interesting concept, creative art style, cute characters and a goofy tone throughout but that's about it. It's like the generic romantic comedy of light cyberpunk(ish?) movies, lacks real depth, has one gear and sticks to it and last but not least can't build on the universe. This is unforgivable in any movie which asks that little bit more from the audience to suspend disbelief, like one set in a post apocalyptic Australia ruled by the iron fist of a mega corporation in a fascistic regime. The creators probably thought the silly tone would make the audience overlook this lack of story building but as a result the movie ultimately falls short of the premise and fails to capitalize on the aforementioned positive aspects.

As a final note, this movie is not cyberpunk. It has some influences (just like the comic series) of cyberpunk but that is as far as it goes.

One of the best films ever based on a comic, Tank Girl should not be taken seriously, but it's enormous fun, and a badly needed send-up of all those testosterone-pumped action movies. Instead of the usual male buddies, you have two sassy young woman, while a genetically modified and not very bright kangaroo plays the part of the Bond girl. All the leads perform well, particularly McDowell as the villain, and the script has some great one-liners, even if the plot is pretty dumb (it's a comic, ok? Get over it.)