From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Apr 4 16:01:36 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!sunic.sunet.se!trane.uninett.no!nac.no!news.kth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.kei.com!newshost.marcam.com!zip.eecs.umich.edu!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!news.moneng.mei.com!uwm.edu!fnnews.fnal.gov!gw2.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: vghoward@delphi.com Subject: REVIEW: TANK GIRL Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.movies,rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03418 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Howard Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com Reply-To: vghoward@delphi.com Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Date: Sun, 2 Apr 1995 16:20:07 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 43 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2762 rec.arts.sf.reviews:740 TANK GIRL A film review by V. G. Howard Copyright 1995 V. G. Howard You *know* the movie you're about to see sucks when... 1) The theater isn't near full for a *free* preview screening. 2) One of the movie trailers shown is for an upcoming Chuck Norris film in which he plays a cop--who's partnered with a clever dog. (Some guy in the audience shouted, "Hey! Didn't they already make this movie ... *twice*??!" 3) All the music played throughout the movie sounds like the soundtrack from one of those crap-ola movies that Gilbert Godfrey runs on the USA Network ... and the songs are from well-regarded artists like L7 and Bjork! I have to give Lori Petty some credit, she did the best she could with a role she was never meant to play. Malcolm MacDowell was once again playing his generic sci-fi bad guy role. He looked like he came right from the Star Trek Generations set and was on his way to do the Wing Commander III CD. My God, can't this guy play any other character?? And I'm not even going to go into the movie's erratic editing and bizarre use of animation and art from the comic book (at first, it would seem this was done for artsy purposes, but it actually feels like they ran out of money for SFX and spliced in animations). Naomi Watts as Jet Girl was cool, and she was the only thing decent about the movie. I have to agree with comments on the Net that if not Emily Lloyd, Drew Barrymore would've been great as Tank Girl, as well as Claire Danes for the part of Jet. At the end of the preview, a guy said loudly, "Well, Honey, that certainly SUCKED." So, gang, save your $$$ this weekend for something more worthwhile. Like, say, food. Catch TANK GIRL at the $1 theater. You've been warned. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Apr 18 11:17:12 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!sunic.sunet.se!uunet!gatech!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!news.duke.edu!agate!ames!lll-winken.llnl.gov!fnnews.fnal.gov!gw1.att.com!gw2.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: null@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu (Christopher Null) Subject: REVIEW: TANK GIRL Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.movies,rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03437 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Null Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com ~Reply-To: null@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu (Christopher Null) Organization: Null Publishing Co. Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 13:41:44 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 39 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2806 rec.arts.sf.reviews:743 TANK GIRL A film review by Christopher Null Copyright 1995 Christopher Null Lori Petty, America's number one Madonna wannabe, is back in action as TANK GIRL, a comic book character come to life. Actually, the whole movie is a comic book come to life. Live action is spliced with still shots of comic strip panels and some full-motion animation, so if you get bored with the live-action part of this picture (and you probably will), at least you can look at the cartoons. Not that these bits are any more entertaining, but at least they're a change of pace from the dull storyline. The filmmakers use them any time there is the possibility for a neat special effect or some potential for plot development, so they don't waste any money on actually interesting footage, instead copping out to some goofball crayon scribbling. The thin plot goes like this: the earth is dried up, Malcolm McDowell is the bad guy, Lori Petty is Tank Girl, and she wants to kill him. McDowell barely saves this picture from being a complete failure, reprising his classic psycho bad guy role in fine form. His support is terrible, from Ice-T as a mutant kangaroo, to Petty herself, who I was hoping would get killed by the movie's end. No such luck. Petty ruins this movie with her bad acting, inability to crack jokes, and the ability to look stupid no matter what she is doing. I guess that was the point, but I can't understand why it needed to be made. Recommended only to fans of Petty: both of them. RATING: ** +---------------------------------------+ |* Unquestionably awful | |** Sub-par on many levels | |*** Average quality, hits and misses | |**** Good, memorable film | |***** Perfection | +---------------------------------------+ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Apr 18 11:17:12 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!sunic.sunet.se!uunet!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!ames!lll-winken.llnl.gov!fnnews.fnal.gov!gw1.att.com!gw2.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: petry@ix.netcom.com (David Petry) Subject: REVIEW: TANK GIRL Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.movies,rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03438 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Petry Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com ~Reply-To: petry@ix.netcom.com (David Petry) Organization: Netcom Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 13:43:16 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 55 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2807 rec.arts.sf.reviews:744 TANK GIRL A film review by David Petry Copyright 1995 David Petry When I left the theater, I was shaking my head back and forth--and grinning from ear to ear. TANK GIRL is the goofiest movie I have ever seen, and I loved it. In the first scene, we see Tank Girl (Lori Petty) riding some kind of ox out in the desert. Both the ox and Tank Girl are wearing totally outlandish outfits, with gas masks and goggles for starters, and we hear Lori Petty in her cute childish voice introducing us to the story. It's the year 2030, and a comet has struck the earth and thereby upsetting the weather patterns so that it hasn't rained in many years. Of course, this makes water extremely valuable, and a ruthless corporation called the Department of Water and Power is working to establish a monopoly on what little water is available. Tank Girl is a one of a group of renegades resisting the Department. Along the way, she gets kidnapped and enslaved, but then escapes along with another slave Jet Girl (Naomi Watts) and teams up with the Rippers--half man, half kangaroo genetically engineered super soldiers--to ultimately defeat the Department and its deliciously evil leader (Malcolm McDowell). But what's important in this movie is not where they get to, but how they get there. They get there in style. To get a feel for the style they go in, Tank Girl wears HEAVY METAL clothes, has a shaved head, pierced body parts (at least I think she did) and drives around in a tank that comes complete with lawn furniture! You've got to see it to believe it. Adding to the general absurdity of this movie is the creative use of cartoons and special effects, wacky costumes and sets, and Tank Girl's incessant feminist wise-cracking. We get to see the kangaroo men hoping wildly all over the place, and we hear Tank Girl questioning men's adequacy. At times the movie almost seems to have a strong man-hating message. The men (except perhaps the men who are half kangaroo) in the movie are caricatured as evil, power hungry louts who want only one thing from women. But the actresses do such a good job of not taking themselves (or anything else, for that matter) too seriously, that it can all be taken in stride. It'd be easy to criticize this movie as being silly and senseless. And it is. But so what? It's good fun. I'd recommend that you take a chance on it. Oh, a rating? I have no idea how to give this movie a rating on a scale of 1-10. This movie is from another dimension. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Apr 18 11:17:12 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!sunic.sunet.se!uunet!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!ames!lll-winken.llnl.gov!fnnews.fnal.gov!gw1.att.com!gw2.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: throopw%sheol.uucp@dg-rtp.dg.com (Wayne Throop) Subject: REVIEW: TANK GIRL Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.movies,rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03439 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Throop Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com ~Reply-To: throopw%sheol.uucp@dg-rtp.dg.com (Wayne Throop) Organization: Alcatel Network Systems (Raleigh, NC) Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 13:49:22 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 56 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2808 rec.arts.sf.reviews:745 TANK GIRL A film review by Wayne Throop Copyright 1995 Wayne Throop Well ... Okay ... not to be too coy about it .... IT SUCKED, BAAAAAAAD! Worse than COOL WORLD. Most positive comment heard upon leaving the theater: "Wow, that movie was ... awfully long, wasn't it?" Intercuts to the comic book versions of scenes are erratic and badly edited, and scenes that should be light and whimsical are simply ... limp and motiveless as portrayed. There's a long (giving new meaning to the word "interminable") scene in a brothel with Tank Girl doing a song and dance number that's just bone-grindingly bad, and overdone. Not to mention several serious problems, such as Tank Girl's incompetence at guard duty and carelessness in the above mentioned brothel scene leads directly to the death of her entire circle of acquaintances (except for a juvie, no doubt protected only by the we-can't-kill-kids-or-dogs-now-can-we law of film). I mean, she's so blatantly at fault, when she gets into trouble later, you start to snap "yeah, what did you THINK would happen you STUPID BI ..." ahem, uh, I mean "you stupid Tank Girl you." The actors simply can't replicate the rubber-faced exaggerated expressions that gave the comic it's appeal (perhaps Jim (the mask) Carrey could have, but not *these* poor excuses for store-front mannequins). And above all, Tank Girl is supposed to be a *GIRL*, that is, young and wild and energetic and all that. In her near-Morticia-like makeup, this Tank Girl avatar comes across like a 35-year-old trying to mix in with her 15-year-old daughter's friends, and doing an embarrassingly bad job of it. Picture something like late-career Marlene Deitrich trying to play Kelly Bundy. Not quite that bad, perhaps. Perhaps. Plus the script-writing, comic timing, direction, and editing were all ... well, execrably bad is the kindest thing I can think of to say about 'em. The jokes all fell horrifyingly flat. You remember watching Hudson Hawk? If you're like me, you were thinking, hey, this is moderately clever, but why are all the jokes told with the timing and delivery so far off? Sort of "oh, haha, that would have been funny if delivered with a bit of panache," right? Well, Tank Girl's comic timing made HH look like a Marx Brothers movie. Oh, *man* was it bad. I can see the appeal of the comic, even from the poorly-intercut stuff in the movie. Sort of. But the "live" version ain't at all lively. -- Wayne Throop throopw%sheol.uucp@dg-rtp.dg.com throop@aur.alcatel.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Apr 18 11:17:12 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!sunic.sunet.se!uunet!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!ames!lll-winken.llnl.gov!fnnews.fnal.gov!gw1.att.com!gw2.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: AS.IDC@forsythe.stanford.edu (Scott Renshaw) Subject: REVIEW: TANK GIRL Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.movies,rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03440 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Renshaw Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com ~Reply-To: AS.IDC@forsythe.stanford.edu (Scott Renshaw) Organization: Stanford University Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 13:51:08 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 88 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2809 rec.arts.sf.reviews:746 TANK GIRL A film review by Scott Renshaw Copyright 1995 Scott Renshaw Starring: Lori Petty, Naomi Watts, Malcolm McDowell, Ice-T, Stacy Linn Rawsower. Screenplay: Tedi Sarafian. Director: Rachel Talalay. TANK GIRL is a movie made for the "you just don't get it" crowd. There is a segment of the movie-going audience, mostly young and mostly male, whhich takes a certain contrarian pride i championing oddball genre flicks which are generally met with critical disdain or indifference. These are the movies which come to be known as "cult" favorites, and are treated as something of a barometer of hipness. This is what TANK GIRL is almost certain to be, and I'll bet that the filmmakers are quite aware of it. Part ROAD WARRIOR, part ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI and part NATURAL BORN KILLERS, TANK GIRL is sometimes quirky and fun, but just as often merely loud and sloppy. In 2033, water is the most precious of resources after a comet causes a global drought. Most of that water is controlled by the fascistic Water & Power Company, headed by the evil Kesslee (Malcolm McDowell). However, scattered bands of rebels try to live without the W & P's control, one of which includes the feisty Rebecca Buck (Lori Petty). When the group's base is raided, Rebecca becomes slave labor, and befriends a W & P mechanic and pilot called Jet (Naomi Watts). They manage to escape in W & P vehicles, but Rebecca's young friend Sam (Stacy Linn Rawsower) is still a prisoner. With the assistance of the mutant Rippers, Rebecca--now Tank Girl--and Jet attempt to save Sam and shut down the W & P. I'll give this to director Rachel Talalay--she seems to know exactly what it is she wants to do with TANK GIRL. It is a hyper-kinetic piece of work that never seems to be taking itself at all seriously, from the comic book page stills that introduce several scenes to the goofy and diverse personalities of the supposedly ferocious Rippers (genetically altered human-kangaroo hybrids, designed by special effects make-up whiz Stan Winston). There is Malcolm McDowell, still resplendent in his spiky Sting-at-50 hairdo from STAR TREK: GENERATIONS, playing a much livelier version of the same megalomaniac. He also gets to play with TANK GIRL's niftiest gadget, a device which sucks all the water out of a human body. And of course, there is the bizarre production number in which Tank Girl leads a group of futuristic exotic dancers in a production number to Cole Porter's "Let's Do It." There is one thing of which you can't accuse TANK GIRL, and that is being conventional. What it can be accused of is not being nearly as clever as it is self-consciously different. Tedi Sarafian (sister of TERMINAL VELOCITY director Deran Serafian) has provided Lori Petty with a lot of one-liners, but none of them have any kick; in fact, I can't recall a single piece of dialogue from the entire film. Petty is a great cast as the tough and unflappable Tank Girl, but she has to carry far too much of the film with her cocky demeanor, because her supporting cast (excluding McDowell, whose part is really fairly small) is unimpressive. The film also flounders a bit when it makes token efforts to flesh out the characters, like giving Rebecca a boyfriend she watches die at the hands of the W & P or her mother hen relationship with Sam. TANK GIRL, both the character and the film, have attitude to spare, but often little else. Perhaps as much as anything, though, I was distracted by James R. Symons trigger-happy editing which, combined with a soundtrack compiled by Hole's Courtney Love-Cobain, makes TANK GIRL feel like a feature length version of MTV's "Alternative Nation." Entire sequences are composed of snippets of Petty posing and doing cute little things, apparently aware of the camera. The battle sequences are a real weak link, particularly one in which two separate battles are cross-cut ineffectively. Meanwhile, the made-for-playlists soundtrack blasts out riff after riff from Devo, L7, Paul Westerberg and other college radio darlings. It was after about the tenth song, sometime before the headache started to set in, that I began to feel that TANK GIRL was one of those movies that had been marketed, not made. I wanted to like TANK GIRL, but I kept feeling that the filmmakers kept daring me not to like it, daring me to be un-hip. Guilty as charged. On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 Rippers: 4. -- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Apr 24 12:51:01 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!sunic.sunet.se!psinntp!psinntp!psinntp!cmcl2!panix!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!news.sprintlink.net!uunet!in1.uu.net!walter!gw2.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: bfrazer@panix.com (Bryant Frazer) Subject: REVIEW: TANK GIRL Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.movies,rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03466 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Frazer Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com Reply-To: bfrazer@panix.com (Bryant Frazer) Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Date: Sun, 16 Apr 1995 22:26:29 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 82 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2849 rec.arts.sf.reviews:752 TANK GIRL A film review by Bryant Frazer Copyright 1995 Bryant Frazer Directed by Rachel Talalay U.S., 1995 How disappointed can we be, really, that TANK GIRL doesn't live up to the promise of its comic book origins? TANK GIRL the comic strip is a true brainstorm, a patchwork of edgy drawings that combine and create a montage that belies the scattershot narrative surface. The British export creates its own metasatirical planet, all the better to backlight the herky-jerky antics of Our Hero, a cute, punkish loudmouth genuinely unlike any other. If you're a comics reader, imagine the doom-saying of a Frank Miller opus getting wanked off by the low-level hijinks that give the X-Men their wacky charm. Mix in a whole lot of sexual innuendo, SF style, and you're distilling eau d'Tank Girl. TANK GIRL the movie falls short on all those counts except the wacky charm (Lori Petty exudes great sparkling dollops of wacky charm, much to her credit). At the beginning of the movie, we find the earth has been all but completely dehydrated by a near-miss with a nasty comet. The overwhelming majority of the world's water is controlled by the megacorporate Water & Power, with what's left over coveted by mutant renegades and bootleggers. Tank Girl's boyfriend (surrogate husband) is killed and she and a child (surrogate daughter) are captured in a raid on one of those bootleg compounds. She breaks free of Water & Power's clutches when they try to send her on a suicide mission into mutant territory, but returns (with the help of fellow ex-con Jet Girl) to rescue the kid. While director Rachel Talalay (previously responsible for the game but forgettable FREDDY'S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE and GHOST IN THE MACHINE) has a good eye for fun performances, she's not quite up to the action drill (the stops-out MGM-style production of "Let's Do It" is more like it). Meanwhile, there's no sense of the low-tech grit that permeates the original stories--this one's got lots of gloss and sheen, even if the budget ain't exactly WATERWORLDesque. While the comic book is very good (not great), the movie is only middling. What went wrong? Tank Girl got prettified by Hollywood (can't you just imagine her disgust at that idea?). Gone is any sense of the character as vagabond--by foisting a family off on the poor girl from the very beginning, the movie gives us a lame justification for her motherly wanderlust. By characterizing the bad-ass "rippers" (kangaroo mutants ably crafted for the screen by FX master Stan Winston) as a bunch of likable goofs, we're given obligatory comic relief as well as a sense of injustice at their plight. And while Malcolm McDowell's evil tormentor is a perfect foil for Tank Girl (straight outta central casting!), in the end there are a few too many formulas and too few surprises. But what did you expect? One reason comic books still enjoy a reputation as an "underground" art form is that you can still find books, like TANK GIRL, that fly in the face, surprise, and delight. Tank Girl's brash immodesty and vulgar predilections couldn't be translated intact to a studio film and, indeed, the character we see on screen is but a shadow of the vibrant comic book creation. Someone, of course, is to be commended for giving a green light to the project in the first place. Certainly nothing else at the multiplex looks or sounds quite like TANK GIRL. It's a minor stroke to cast Ice-T as a ripper, indistinguishable yet unmistakable underneath his makeup. And Hollywood isn't usually wise enough to hire someone like Courtney Love (Cobain) to oversee a rock soundtrack. This one features jewels like Devo's "Girl U Want" and Joan Jett and Paul Westerberg duetting on "Let's Do It." Comic book frames are cut into the film while the soundtrack throbs underneath to give TANK GIRL the rough-and-tumble momentum that propelled the original stories. In this way, the film reinforces its own second-class status. Artist Jamie Hewlett, after all, didn't have someone else's work to rely on to fill the gaps in his own readers' experience. And while a rock and roll soundtrack may have enhanced your own reading experience, the comic book proved on its own that it had music in its soul. -- Bryant Frazer http://www.panix.com/~bfrazer/flicker/ Retransmit freely in cyberspace. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Feb 11 16:28:52 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.xcom.net!newsfeed.cwix.com!18.24.4.11!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!netnews.com!newspeer1.nac.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: James Brundage Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Tank Girl (1995) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 24 Jan 1999 21:33:13 GMT Organization: None Lines: 71 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <78g3ip$1cuk$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: "Mr. Brundage" NNTP-Posting-Host: homer15.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 917213593 46036 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #16310 Keywords: author=brundage X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer15.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:15494 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2244 Tank Girl (1995, R) Directed by Rachel Talalay Written by Tedi Sarafien Based upon the comic book. Staring Lori Petty, Naomi Watts, Ice-T, and Malcolm MacDowell. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's just that I'm a New Jersey mallrat. Maybe it's the fact that I'm a lifeless film geek who can fall in love with a story about a girl and her tank. Then again, maybe I'm just insane. But, really, with a movie as fun as Tank Girl, who gives a damn? Tank Girl could be viewed, if you want to put it intellectually, as a parody of post-apocolyptical nightmare movies. Hell, it's a lot more fun that watching The Postman. If you want to put it intellectually, Tank Girl could be taken as an anti-facist document. It could be taken as a warning of the evils of greed. It could be taken as a feminist protest, or as a showing of lesbian idealism. It could be the new film for the group that boldly states "I am woman, hear me roar", whoever they are this day of the week. But, you know what, that's all bullshit. Tank Girl isn't intellectual, it isn't literary, it isn't philosophical in any way shape or form that I could discern. Then why did I enjoy it? Because I'm human and it was fun. Tank Girl follows (*gasp*) Tank Girl (Lori Petty) and Jet Girl (Naomi Watts) on their battle against Water and Power, headed by an evil mad scientist played by Malcolm MacDowell, who revives his unique insanity that he displayed in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. The year is 2033 and, ever since a comet struck the Earth 14 years ago, it's been a little different. No celebrities, no cable TV, NO WATER. But, in the words of Tank Girl herself, "about 20 people have to shower together, so it ain't all bad". Tank Girl is about like any other Gen-X heroine, sarcastic, sexy, able to kill people using her legs without breaking a nail. She's beer drinking, she's boxing, she's going around as a rebel stealing water from the notorious W&P (Water and Power). Of course, W&P decides to take them out and she barely survives. She's captured, but not before seeing her boyfriend die and killing eight W&P soldiers. Oh, well. Tank Girl's put to work as a slave in W&P and still keeps her sarcasm. The evil scientist in charge wants her to work for him, but, being the hooker with the heart of gold that she is, she refuses. And, of course, she befriends a disgruntled jet technician, Jet Girl. Jet Girl's just fitting in, trying not to let her supervisor get in her greasy overalls, but she's about to fail at that goal when (*all guys cheer*) lesbian kiss! Ok. Since I've laid it out in pure English with more sarcasm than Imus, I'm only going to ASSUME you're following me. Basically, Tank Girl steals a Tank and Jet Girl steals a jet, and they get away from W&P. But we're not done yet, gotta kill the bad guy. So the evil scientist takes a little girl that's a friend of Tank Girl's, holds her hostage while he waits for Tank Girl to come and save her. Tank and Jet, ever out of their minds and cracking jokes, get the help of the Rippers, an army of half-kangaroo, half-man soldiers who all believe their someone reincaranted (one of them believes he was Jack Keorack, another believes he was a dog). I'll be the first to admit that Tank Girl has absolute zero as far as redeeming value is concerned. But, you know what, I find that if I expect a drama each time I go to the theatre, I just get pissed off. So, you know what, I'm looking at Tank Girl as a comic book movie, as a sarcastic dark comedy. And, as far as those go, Tank Girl's an 88mm. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 26 17:16:33 2002 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news.lth.se!news.solace.mh.se!newsfeed1.swip.net!swipnet!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-06!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Dragan Antulov Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Tank Girl (1995) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 20:17:43 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 33441 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 816876 X-RT-TitleID: 1059295 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 6/10 Summary: r.a.m.r. #33441 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Lines: 72 Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:5273 rec.arts.sf.reviews:416 TANK GIRL (1995) A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2002 Good literature usually results with bad movies and vice versa. Same thing can be said about comic books. There are plenty of fine pieces of Ninth Art that were ruined whenever someone tried to put them on the big screen. And there are bad comic books that could be adapted into good films. One of such examples is TANK GIRL, directed in 1995 by Rachel Talalay. It was originally based on British comic book by Alan Martin and Jamey Hewlett - work that didn't left much impression on the author of this review. So I expected very little of this film, especially after hearing the expert opinion that those two artists had probably been under influence while making those comic books. The plot of the film is set in year 2033 AD. The Earth has been struck by a comet and the catastrophe disrupted the eco-system, turning the planet into one huge desert. There wasn't any rain in last eleven years and the precious water is held by Water & Power Corporation, headed by tyrannical Keslee (played by Malcolm McDowell). Few freedom-loving people, including the movie's heroine Rebecca (played by Lori Petty) live in isolated communities. One day Rebecca's people are murdered by W&P thugs and Rebecca brought to Keslee who wants to use her martial skills to solve huge problems - Rippers, genetically engineered crossbreed of human and kangaroos, who roam the desert and massacre W&P troops. Rebecca, instead of co- operating with tyrant, decides to use Rippers' help to fight him. She escapes W&P compound and steals tank, helped by Jet Girl (played by Naomi Watts). Critics massacred TANK GIRL after its original release, probably because director Rachel Talalay failed their expectations and didn't deliver some serious pseudo-feminist futuristic action piece. Instead this film is pure camp. Instead of characters, this film features one-dimensional caricatures (especially the crazed villain, played for the umpteenth time by Malcolm McDowell); instead of using CGI or anything resembling realistic locations, this film doesn't hide the fact that it was made in the studio. The plot is almost un-existent and every time things slow down, Talalay brings few usually unrelated animated sequences or pictures taken from the original comic book. More efforts were invested in the soundtrack, which features strange combination of contemporary alternative rock and Cole Porter (the latter provides charming little song and dance number). As a result, TANK GIRL is one of such movies that simply can't be enjoyed if they are taken a little bit seriously. Quality of jokes might leave something to be desired, Ice T can't be recognised under Ripper make-up and Lori Petty tries too hard to be another Madonna, but in general TANK GIRL represents something of a rarity in modern Hollywood - film which is unique and funny in the same time. RATING: 6/10 (++) Review written on November 24th 2002 Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://www.purger.com/users/drax/reviews.htm - Movie Reviews in English http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society ========== X-RAMR-ID: 33441 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 816876 X-RT-TitleID: 1059295 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 6/10