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Feds Jack (Lou Diamond Phillips) and Stephanie (Lori Petty) are on a routine assignment on Route 66 to apprehend Rabbit (Steven Williams), a snitch who's having second thoughts about testifying against the mob. Jack starts having weird visions of an old-time hiway chain gang. Agents P.T., Nick and Mary (Dale Midkiff, Alex McArthur, Mercedes Colon) arrive as backup, just as a Russian hit man is sent to silence Rabbit. To ensure Rabbit's safety, the Feds head onto an abandoned branch of the highway that was condemned and dubbed "Route 666" after several convicts were "accidentally killed" there in '69. Jack's visions become more clear: His daddy was a bank-robber, and he was one of the convicts whose deaths were hushed up - the others were homicidal killers. Literally hungry for company, the spirits of the slain criminals come up thru the concrete to slice & dice Nick and Mary. Jack decides he needs to find out how the cons died, so the ghostly vengeance-seekers of Route 666 and thrive on human victims will be appeased. Meanwhile, Jack confronts the corrupt locals who massacred the cons 3 decades earlier. Think of it as Night of the Living Dead meets "The Chain Gang." TV Guide calls it "creepy butchery galore" (like that's a bad thing)
Tank Girl (1995)
Tank Girl: "This comet came crashing into the earth. BAM! Total devastation.
No celebrities, no cable TV, no water!. It hasn't rained in 11 years.
Now, 20 people gotta squeeze into the same bathtub. So it ain't all bad."
"Creepshow" (1982) and "Creepshow 2" used the gimic of beginning and ending scenes as pages from a fictional comic book, loosely based on E.C. Comics Tales From The Crypt. This movie, based on a cult comic book, does the same, set in post-apocalyptic future year of 2033. Pop star Lori Petty, in the title role, drives a tank; and is helped by Jet Girl, who flies a ... oh, you guessed it. They are opposed by Malcolm McDowall of Star Trek Generations and the new Fantasy Island. With a global draught, he hopes to corner the remaining world's supply of water - this ain't no Waterworld future. Tank Girl and Jet Girl are helped in their fight by some mutant kangaroos(!), and the cast also includes Ice-T of MonsterVision's Surviving The Game and James Hong (the evil wizard of Big Trouble In Little China).
Directed by Rachel Taladay. Her two previous films were "Ghost In The Machine" (1993) and "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" (1994).
104 minutes, rated R. Cameo by Iggy Pop, soundtrack coordinated by Courtney Love. This was one of two underground cult British comic books turned into fun, over-the-top movies in 1995. The other one was Judge Dredd, starring Sylvester Stallone as cop, judge, jury & executioner of MegaCity One, on the run after himself being framed for murder.
Doc Hudson is the
Hudson Hornet
If anyone asks, I was smashin' mailboxes with
Lightning McQueen
Tank Girl/Route 666 Trivia
(courtesy the Internet Movie Database)
* Emily Lloyd was originally cast in the title role of Tank Girl, but turned it down after refusing to shave her head for the part
* Emma and Victoria from the Spice Girls also tried out for the role of Tank Girl
* Immediately after McDowell's first scene, Lori's costume (bowler hat, eye makeup) recalls McDowell's costume in A Clockwork Orange (1971)
* Rebecca (Tank Girl) wears 18 different outfits and hairstyles throughout the film
* Geri Halliwell auditioned for Tank Girl
* Lori Petty is also in the supporting cast of MonsterVision movie A League Of Their Own
* As for the other movie, there actually is a route 666. US Highway 666 runs from Gallup, New Mexico, to Cortez, Colorado, the gateway to Mesa Verde NP, and eventually toward Utah. Most of the route crosses the Navajo reservation and passes Ship Rock and near four corners (the only point in the US common to four states)
* Route 666 is so numbered because it was the 6th spur in the state of New Mexico off of Route 66
* In Missouri, Route 66 is separated from the new Interstate by Brush Creek Cemetery
* In December, 2003, highway workers on orders from Gov. Richardson replaced the 666 signs with "US 491" after protests from the Navajo. National Geographic Magazine says that 666 was never a highway to Hell, it led to Utah.
* Highway 666 is still called that in parts of Colorado and New Mexico, where it connects with 66 near the Arizona border, east of Albuquerque. It changes to 491 at the Colorado-Utah border according to Yahoo maps.
* According to Ripley's Believe It Or Not, there have been over 500 car accidents since 1984 on a 40-mile stretch of Alabama Highway that had been a Creek Indian burial ground.
* The date of June 6, 2006, will be 6-6-6. Some women in England have said that if their baby is born on that date, they plan to name it Damien just for the heck of it. I guess they don't believe in Omens
Monster movie description above
© Bill Laidlaw. All Rights Reserved. Court is adjourned
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