Review of Turbo Kid (2015) by Jan V — 19 Jul 2015

In short: Mix a young hero on a BMX, his odd girl friend, comic-book-like weapons, all within a post-apocalypse world. But there is much more to admire in this surprising movie.

Saw this at the IMAGINE film festival 2015 in Amsterdam. When reading the synopsis on IMDB as well as the festival website, we all know beforehand that it is to become utter nonsense, that being said without criticizing the end result. It is beautifully made and entertaining for the full running time. Like most post-apocalypse movies this one seems to revolve around survival-of-the-fittest struggles.

Luckily there was much more, which makes this one stand out, partly due to the unusual protagonists, partly due to the robots that play an important role as per this year's festival theme. These robots show a remarkable amount of resilience, paling the weak and inefficient humans in comparison. Of course, the robots were limited in scope, only capable of executing what they were programmed for. Nevertheless, they did it with remarkable easiness, making us forget soon that they were robots under the skin. And finally we have a surprise-robot, someone who we never thought not being human, in my opinion more than surpassing the well known Turing test to tell humans and robots apart.

Relax and sit back in your comfy chair, to witness every plot twist and unexpected turn of events. Our young hero overplays his hand several times, but still survives very well throughout the running time, when making several attempts to rescue his former odd girl friend who involuntarily got the role of the proverbial lady in distress.