Review of Tank Girl (1995) by Ola G — 13 Dec 2015

In 2022, a comet strikes Earth causing an 11-year drought. By 2033, most of the little remaining water is held in reserve by Kesslee (Malcolm McDowell) and his Water & Power (W&P) corporation, which uses the water to control the population. Rebecca Buck - "Tank Girl" (Lori Petty) - is a member of a commune in the Australian outback that operates the last water well not controlled by the corporation. In an attack on the commune, W&P troops kill Tank Girl's boyfriend, Richard (Brian Wimmer), and capture Tank Girl and her young friend Sam (Stacy Linn Ramsower). Rather than killing her, Kesslee tortures and enslaves the defiant Tank Girl. Jet Girl (Naomi Watts), a talented but introverted jet mechanic who has given up trying to escape W&P, urges Tank Girl to make less trouble for their captors, though Tank Girl refuses. They finally break out and steal a tank and a jet. Eventually they bump into the mysterious Rippers, half animal/half humans that does what ever they can to destroy Water and Power. Together with Tank Girl and Jet Girl they will try to end the reign of Water and Power...

Based on Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett cult comic "Tank Girl" we get a a comic-book-style action-adventure that goes over the top, but still manages to keep it together to be an enjoyable and fun ride in my point of view. The film has a perfect balance with a tough heroine loaded with sharp comments no matter what difficult situation she might be in, evil villains, humanlike mutants, cool vehicles, big sets, humor and solid stunts. The props are well-designed and imaginative and creates a feeling of "authenticity" to the scenes, and the visual and special effects are very much ok for being 1995. I haven´t properly red the comic "Tank Girl", but as far as I know it contains a lot of sex, nudity, violence, strong women and a base with a lot of dark humour. Some topics have obviously been toned down in the movie version, but the general look and vibe is portrayed in a great way. Malcolm McDowell is good as Kesslee, Naomi Watts great as Jet Girl and Lori Petty manages to really give life to Tank Girl. She´s loud, aggressive, a one-liner machine and she never seems to give up no matter what. Financially unsuccessful, "Tank Girl" recouped only about $6 million of its $25 million budget at the box office and received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Martin and Hewlett have since spoken negatively of their experiences creating the film. Talalay blamed some of the film's negative reception on studio edits over which she had no control. Despite the negative critical reception and box office failure of the film, it has been cited as an example of a comic book film with a cult following, and it is noted for its feminist themes. Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett, the creators of the Tank Girl comic have since spoken poorly of their experiences in creating the film, calling it "a bit of a sore point" for them. Hewlett said, "The script was lousy; me and Alan kept rewriting it and putting Grange Hill jokes and Benny Hill jokes in, and they obviously weren't getting it. They forgot to film about ten major scenes so we had to animate them ... it was a horrible experience." The reviews as said were more or less negative. Owen Gleiberman gave the film a C- rating, praising Petty's performance which he said was the only good part of an otherwise "amateurish" film. Janet Maslin wrote: "Chief among its strong points is Lori Petty, a buzz-cut fashion plate in a Prozac necklace, who brings the necessary gusto to Tank Girl's flippancy." Leonard Klady from Variety gave a mixed review, saying: "What's missing from the mix is an engaging story to bind together its intriguing bits. And Lori Petty as 'Tank Girl' ... has the spunk but, sadly, not the heart of the post-apocalyptic heroine." I don´t agree to all these negative comments, I think that "Tank Girl" has that solid mix of everything to make the comic come alive on the silver screen. I found myself having a big smile on my face during the whole film so to me this was an enjoyable experience.