This is one of those peculiar movies which you either love or hate - or find
yourself agreeing with both the people who love and hate it.
Based on the cult British comic book series, it is a more interesting adaptation
than that other British comic book that saw life in the same year as this one:
Judge Dredd (1995). That doesn't make it good, however. The film tries very
hard to recreate the comic book's wild and wacky flair and in the end it is a
total assault on the senses with deafening rock music interspersed clips of psychedelic
animation. Even an over-the-top Busby Berkeley dance routine is thrown in! But,
alas, all to no avail: the main problem is that the main character of Tank Girl
has been toned down considerably (she is a lot less vicious) to make her more
likeable for a more politically correct 1990s audience.
Then there's newcomer director Rachel Talalay - perhaps Oliver
Stone's madcap visual flair of Natural Born Killers would have worked better -
but her film is uneven and she doesn't manage to sustain the good bits in the
movie. Or perhaps the approach was wrong: maybe they should have made it an animated
film altogether (the animated bits are good) or have left the whole affair to
the comics page from whence it came!
(There isn't much of a plot, some really odd moments and Malcolm McDowell
as the chief baddy looks like he is just reprising his role from Star Trek: Generations (1994).)
Review by James O'Ehley from The
Sci-Fi Movie Page. |
