Review of Turbo Kid (2015) by Steve W — 27 Aug 2015

This Canada-New Zealand production is a homage and love letter to the action adventure movies of the 80's. The Kid is a scavenger, looking for anything he can find to trade for precious water. After meeting an enthusiastic new female friend, she gets kidnapped by the evil warlord (a wonderfully hammy Michael Ironside), and discovers the remnants of his idol, Turbo Rider. Armed with a Turbo Gauntlet, he must set out and stop the badguys, and save the girl.

Turbo Kid can be commended for its effort. The highlights of the film are a foul mouthed cowboy, the female companion, and the villains. The young protagonist is rather boring, and so its the violence. Its fountains and geysers of blood, but this is more shlocky than suspenseful, and its played out for laughs instead of action. The result is a movie that is much better when there isn't violence because it gets tiresome, even in the awesome 20 minute finale. If Turbo Kid was more focused on just providing us with better, serious action sequences rather than gags, the result would be much better. Instead we get a mildly entertaining and overly cheesy/gory movie that has better emotional moments than action bits.