Austin finally remembered to bring me Tank Girl, as well as several other movies he wasn't sure if he told me he'd let me borrow or not. Since this is the first one I remember him saying he'd let me see my name, I thought I'd review it first and then work my way down the pile to a movie I know I'll enjoy. As such, the next blog entries should be about those movies, provided they don't get interrupted by something.What do you get when you mix the humor of a horny Harley Quinn from the Batman: The Animated Series show, that girl and her moped from FLCL, and the style of Gwen Stefani? You get Tank Girl. Well, kind of. You actually get mindless entertainment consisting of things blowing up and kangaroo-mutants killing people, but I'm trying to be nice here.
Anyway, the story goes that it is 2033. Eleven years prior, a big-ass comet crashed into Earth and made the planet a big ol' desert. What little water is available is under the control of an evil corporation called Water and Power. And because the government was nuked in the blast, nobody is around to enforce the monopoly laws. Enter a group of people that steal water as well as another group of creatures hell bent on getting rid of the W&P for raping the land.
Heading one group is none other than Malcolm McDowell who plays the evil villain of this 1988 comic book turn mid-1990's movie. He carries the part well. Looks the part, walks the part, even sounds the part. Which bugged me. I'm not really all that keen on type casting, but I know I've heard his voice play several villains before. Where, however, is another question.
On the other end of the spectrum of main characters is Lori Petty. She's pretty much that Harley-Quinn-meets-Gwen-Stefani-with-whatever-her-name-is-from-FLCL girl I told you about. Again, looks the part, acts the part, and surprisingly sounds like the child of Harley Quinn and Gwen Stefani. I could tell she probably had a blast playing the part.
The character, however, that caught my attention more was Naomi Watts's character. I don't know, but I seem to be more in favor of character development, which she has. She starts off as a nerd, but by the end of the film, she's pretty much a smarter-yet-just-as-ballsy version of Petty's character. I blame anime for that kind of appreciation of character growth.
Speaking of which, I believe this movie would have been a hell of a lot better animated. What little animation there is in the movie looks really fun to watch. Think Ren & Stimpy during their prime and add in about a kilo of crack. Mix in some LSD for color, and you have the animation sequences of the movie. Then again, this was filmed during the Disney Golden Age of Animation where anything animated pretty much bombed, so I guess the inter-cutting of comic book panels is justified more than the animated sequences.
To be perfectly frank, I was told this movie has some "I. Q. lowering" moments. And boy, does it. There were just too many sequences that were too strange to watch. For example, they completely break movie genres when they force the owner of a strip club to sing "Let's Do It" (You know, "Birds do it/Bees do it/Even educated fleas do it/Let's do it/Let's fall in love"). While funny, the sequence just lasted too long given that this was suppose to be a mindless action comedy. And that's just one of many.
Another thing that bothered me was the way this gang of mutant kangaroo people called "The Rippers" were presented. They didn't look all that threatening. They just looked goofy. And when you saw comic book images of them or that brief animated part of one of them, they just looked like something out that really bad Kangaroo Jack animated movie they had on Cartoon Network last summer. Then again, this was made in 1995, and anything back then that looked like the live action Ninja Turtles was considered decent.
Overall, I liked the characters and some of the humor in the film, but it just falls flat on its face as far as substance goes. It's pretty to look at, but that only goes so far. However, if you like mindless entertainment, I guess this movie is good for you. Just keep in mind, you'll be watching a really skinny punk girl with a really big gun most of the time. But if that gets you off, more power to you then.
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