March 4, 2006
Tank Girl
Year: 1995
Directed by: Rachel Talalay
Written by: Alan Martin & Jamie Hewlett (comic strip), Tedi Sarafian (script)
Degree of Cyberpunk Visuals: Low
Correlation to Cyberpunk Themes: Low
Key Cast Members:
Overview: If you’re looking for an off-beat, low-budget cyberpunk comedy, Tank Girl is your movie. Talk about a weird flick! Lori Petty finds her calling here as an anti-heroine called Tank Girl, a light spirited soul living in a dystopic near-future caused by a comet hitting the earth. The evil water and power company, lead by Kesslee (Malcolm McDowell) has gathered up all the remaining water sources on earth (it hasn’t rained in 11 years) and is hoarding water (now the most valuable commodity on earth) in order to maintain power over the rest of the surviving stragglers. Tank Girl, while riding around in a tank, leads the resistance made up of some of the most bizarre misfits against the evil water and power company. With Jet Girl (Naomi Watts) in tow, there is nothing they can’t do, but first they want to have some non-sequitur fun!
The Bottom Line: Truly, this movie is just strange. We get everything from bizarre, over-the-top scenes, to dances, to massive killing, all wrapped in truly odd dialogue. Tank Girl and Jet Girl make a terrific combination, but this movie is just not meant to be taken seriously. NOBODY takes the plot seriously - the entire cast knows how wierd this looks and continually seem to provide meta-comments to that effect. While this movie does drag in places, the cast is truly seems to be enjoying themselves, and in the process, they make Tank Girl enjoyable. I must confess - I’ve never seen the comic strip that Tank Girl is based off, but I can’t imagine it’s as zany as the the movie is. Again, this isn’t a great movie by any stretch, but it is pretty fun.
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26 Comments on Tank Girl »
March 18, 2006
Case @ 6:40 pm:
Actually, believe it or not, the comic book is STRANGER. By far.
DannyV_El_Acme @ 7:44 pm:
Fun fact: Jamie Hewlett, the creator of Tank Girl, is now famous as the illustrator for internationally famous virtual band(and one of my favorite musical acts) Gorillaz. Pretty cool, huh?
Case @ 9:12 pm:
Ah, I did not know that…great “band,” too. I have both their albums, their remix album, and their DVD.
March 24, 2006
Stormtrooper of Death @ 7:58 am:
I like the scene where Tankgirl has sex with the kangaroo/men crossing thing. Thats quit amusing. I also have read the comics, and i love the movie.
Nexyde @ 8:49 am:
Hard to believe Naomi Watts played Jet Girl in this then went on to be in The Ring and Peter Jackson’s King Kong.
SFAM @ 1:54 pm:
I agree - Naomi Watts in this movie is just totally strange. Fun though - she’s pretty good.
DannyV_El_Acme @ 4:24 pm:
Here’s a fun fact about Lori Petty, AKA Tank Girl: according to the IMDB she “was originally cast as the main actress in Demolition Man (1993), but there were problems, and Sandra Bullock was cast instead.” Rumors say that the casting director thought she looked too much like a “Butch bulldyke.” I swear I’m not making this up!
HEY! Somebody review Demolition Man! Dumb movie, but dumb FUN movie!
SFAM @ 7:12 pm:
Unfortunatley, Demolition Man probably deserves to be in the cue.
February 17, 2007
David B. Taylor @ 5:23 am:
Damn Lori Petty’s hot.
March 13, 2007
Crystal @ 3:46 am:
tank girl wasnt really a big hit but i loved the movie. the movie was funny and just crazy and i love movies like that. the movies they put into theaters these days arent very good. i have saw alot of low budget movies that deserve to be put in theater but werent. i have to say tank girl is still one of my favorite movies. im no expert on movies although i have seen alot of them but i still think tank girl was one of the best movies i have saw but thats just my opinion.
March 18, 2007
Neurotica Divine @ 5:32 pm:
Ugliest production / costume design ever. For one thing. And this, after such fabulous source material was already laid out. I loved the comics and thought Tank Girl was the hottest thing since scalding coffee… alas, the teeth were pulled from the comics by LA-Land again. The stories in the comics have a meandering nonsensical feel… whereas, Hollywood, once again, decided it must have some stupid simple narrative… and she must be a hero, blah, blah, blah… vs. a bad man blah blah blah… nothing to do with the tone of the comic book. I wouldn’t mind Lori Petty, I think, if all the stuff around her worked better. And how can Malcolm McDowell ever be faulted? And where was the grit?!… all wrong for me. Well, those are my vitriolic two cents.
March 19, 2007
InnateMalk @ 8:35 am:
McDowell always manages to play really evil bad guy characters, it’s just part of his persona. I grew up loving this film so I can’t really say much bad about it, I also loved the comics but I think it’s the comic and the film have the same relationship towards each other that the original Ghost in the Shell manga and movie had to each other.
The population at large tend not to like complex and insane stories that bounce back and forward, which is why for GITS and Tank Girl they took the most profitable characteristics and just built with those. Tank Girl could have been made more gritty I agree, but it would have made even less of a splash (bad lack of water pun) than it did with the mass media. So in the end all it becomes is a fun movie that you can watch whenever you feel in need of a laugh.
March 20, 2007
SFAM @ 4:35 am:
Hi Neurotica Divine, I never got to see the comics. I’d like to though. and yeah, InnateMalk, McDowell has been typecast as the smarmy bad guy for a loooong time.
Regarding the grittiness, Tank Girl was made more tongue and cheek than anything - I think if they had gone grittier, they might have been forced to try to make a serious movie. I don’t think the script was good enough to do that, not to mention the acting.
March 21, 2007
Ramiz @ 1:05 am:
The comic is strong and just PUNK. The movie is a pop-flick, easy to digest, lots of fun and less kick in the teeth. Didn’t like it.
March 25, 2007
Stormtrooper Of Death @ 4:45 pm:
Tankgirl is hot as hell. I like the movie and the chick. DL-it some weeks ago, and enjoy it, even if it got bad critics and didn’t become a big box-office hit.
And imagine, having sex with a mutant kangaroo, having to take a bath with 10 other people crammed in a bath-tub, thats not that bad, is it ?
October 31, 2007
mandy nelson @ 2:59 am:
THIS MOVIE ROCKS SOOOOO WICKED HARDCORE ROCKED MY WORLD AND MY BED!!!
November 17, 2007
Jackie @ 6:09 am:
Lori Petty was just so freaking cute in this film. I also liked the kangaroo thing. Also, the person who played the cop/dog character was Ice-T. It’s funny, cause now he plays as a cop named Fin on Law & Order.
January 4, 2008
Danny @ 11:33 pm:
the comic is way more absurd than the movie.
March 14, 2008
blah @ 1:44 am:
i remember this film from back in the day. wait a sec, wasn’t ice t in this
March 19, 2008
Synthoid @ 10:58 am:
Malcolm McDowell was the only reason I watched this film. Everything else about it was just painfully awful to me, I felt like that bloke from the beginning of the film who was forced to walk barefoot over those shards of broken glass.
April 6, 2008
chad @ 7:34 pm:
she is gay
chad @ 7:35 pm:
she is gay and fat and stupid
chad @ 7:36 pm:
and a fucking bitch ass nigger and a cunt
chad @ 7:37 pm:
she has a dick not a pussy pussy i really luv ur moms pussy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
April 7, 2008
someone @ 1:06 pm:
Oo
April 15, 2008
Basicmouth @ 4:06 pm:
Recently had the twisted glee of watching this for a film writing class, and I’m doing the cyberpunk genre… my teenaged children watched it with me, and when it was over, they all looked at me, tipped their heads to the side like puppies and said, “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT????” I never laughed so hard at so much insanity in one small space. I liked that no one took it seriously, they all had fun, and so we did too. It is a horrible movie, but horrible in a way you just can’t stop watching, because you are waiting to see exactly how bad it can get.