Tank Girl is an energetic and extremely quirky little post-apocalyptic film. Most people I know who have seen it either love it or hate it, with no one taking the middle road.

Based on a British comic strip by the same name and originally released in 1995 with a 25 million dollar budget, Tank Girl only made back a couple million before disappearing from theaters without hardly anyone noticing. Directed with a lot of flash and style by Rachel Talalay (whose credits up to this point included only Nightmare on Elm Street Part 6 and Ghost in the Machine), the movie seemed to be initially trying in a lot of ways to be an Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai for the 90's. Over the years the movie has developed a cult following and stands as one of the more energetic and unusual movies to be released in the 90's.

The film has a plot that seems at first to be way too similar to Mad Max (but in the form of a pseudo-parody). In a post-apocalyptic future, the earth is a barren, desert wasteland (of course!) that is almost completely devoid of water. Kesslee (Malcolm McDowell) runs Water-&-Power which is an evil corporation that controls and regulates all water storage and usage. It seems that there is almost no water on the whole planet to be found. They capture people who violate the water restrictions and force them to work for the company as slaves digging through the earth in search for water. Lori Petty plays "Tank Girl" a sassy and fast talking woman who lives in a house with her boyfriend, some other refugees and a few children. They've got a water pump in the basement of the house and end up getting busted by Water-&-Power's soldiers. Before she gets captured her boyfriend gets killed by the soldiers, a little girl in the house gets captured and Tank Girl kills 8 or Kesslee's soldiers before they subdue and capture her.

Kesslee is impressed by her fighting skills and gives her an opportunity to work for him. She refuses so he proceeds to torture her in various ways to try to get her to accept her offer. Tank Girl ends up befriending "Jet Girl" (Naomi Watts) while working in the excavation pits. (Jet Girl is more of a nerdy introvert at first, but I actually found her to be quite sexy). Meanwhile, it turns out that Kesslee and his organization are trying to eliminate a group of mysterious creatures who are part kangaroo and part human called "Rippers" who sabatoge and get in the way of Kesslee's operations. When Kesslee and his soldiers find the entrance to the Rippers' hideout, they are ambushed out of nowhere by the Rippers. Tank Girl and Jet Girl end up finding themselves free and Kesslee had his face ripped off and one of his arms ripped off, but he's still alive. Tank Girl steal a tank and a jet and proceed to try to find the little girl that was captured near the beginning. They find her being held at a sort of brothel and just as soon as they find her, she is captured by Kesslee's goons.
Tank Girl and Jet Girl set out to find and befriend the Rippers (in which one of them is played by rapper Ice-T!) in an effort to rescue the captured little girl and end Kesslee's evil empire once and for all.


Yes, this movie is crazy and very silly at various points. But for the most part it works. Most of that is due to the fantastic performance by Lori Petty as Tank Girl. She manages to be tough, independent, funny, fast-talking and sexy simultaneously. What I loved most about her performance was the infectious Bronx-accent. I've always had a weakness for great New York accents and her's is awesome and dripping with attitude. It really gave her even more spunk. Tank Girl is a very over-the-top character and she embodied it perfectly.

Naomi Watts (who has gained fame recently for her star-making turn in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive) doesn't have as much to work with, but she makes Jet Girl initially shy but sexy in her one way. At first her character is caught off guard by Tank Girl's in-your-face attitude, but as she gradually gets used to her she begins to open up a bit more as the movie progresses. She has some funny moments in dealing with sometimes overachieving Tank Girl.

Malcom McDowell does his usual solid work as the evil Kesslee. It is evident that he was having some fun with the role and thankfully he didn't take it too seriously.
Rapper/sometimes actor Ice-T is unrecognizable as the Ripper leader named T-Sanit but once you hear his voice anyone will know exactly who he is.

What makes the movie so cool is the very irreverant nature of almost everything in it. Tank Girl's costumes are extremely colorful and borderline garish at times in how nothing goes together and once the Ripper's make their appearance (courtesy of excellent makeup by special effects maestro Stan Winston) the movie goes even more over-the-top.

For a somewhat low-budget film, the special effects and set design are quite good. A lot of the miniature, model and matte work is very convincing and well done throughout. Though the movie isn't exactly special effects heavy, when there are effects they look very well integrated with the live action.

The cinematography is also great with a more subdued color palatte for the outdoor scenes and some truly garish and eye-popping color and design work for a lot of the interior scenes.

I guess how much your enjoyment of this movie ends up being is how Lori Petty's performance comes across to you. Some people claim that she's extremely annoying in the way that she's constantly firing off one-liners to anyone she meets and that she was trying too hard to be hip and tough.

Other people, like myself, find her performance to be perfectly in line with the character. This is especially since I have read some of the original comics strips and Lori Petty is Tank Girl. Despite the fact that the movie isn't nearly as bizarre or extreme as the comic on which it's based, her performance and attitude is what really gives the movie its own identity and style, and the movie seemed to be molded almost entirely around Tank Girl's personality.


There are a couple of instances where the movie falls flat. One is a really bizarre song/dance number in which Tank and Jet Girl make the female owner of the brothel sing a Cole Porter song. All of a sudden the whole crowd and dancers join in and the movie suddenly becomes a really bizarre musical for a moment. The other gripe I had is that the Rippers initially are shown to be very vicious creatures before we actually meet them up close. Once they meet Tank Girl they come across a little bit too goofy and dopey at times. They just didn't seem to end up being what I thought they would. But that's just a minor quibble.

The editing also gets a little too quick in a couple of places but overall I found the flow and pacing of the movie to work extremely well. I liked how each scene was segued by comic book style art work reflecting what was happening on screen.

The soundtracks was also really cool and fit the mood of the movie extremely well. It should be noted that the musical director of the movie was none other than Courtney Love.

Tank Girl is definitely a cult-classic in every sense of the word and a lot of people probably won't like it. But if you like your movies with a lot of spunk, attitude and over-the-top performances I highly recommend this film. It's not perfect, but it does enough things right for me to warrant giving it a 5 star rating.

(I highly recommend checking out this movie on DVD since the extreme color palatte really jumps off the screen compared to the washed-out VHS version. The movie also makes great use of the 2.35:1 widescreen format. The only extra is the theatrical trailer and a scene index, but for only 10 dollars it's a steal for fans of the movie.)

Tank Girl is rated R and contains violence, language and brief nudity.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age