tek's rating: ¾

Tank Girl (R)
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Caution: potential spoilers???

So, this is based on a British comic book that I've never had the chance to read, so I can't say how faithful to or divergent from the source material the film may be. In any event, it's set in 2033, like 11 years after a comet had hit the Earth and left most of the world a desert. There's an organization called Water & Power that controls most of the world's water, so they have all the power. They're led by a man named Kesslee (Malcolm McDowell). Their main opposition are mutant creatures called Rippers. But the movie starts with a young woman named Rebecca (Lori Petty), who is among a group of people who live together, and who steal water from W&P. She kinda narrates the film as well as being the main character (Tank Girl).

Anyway, W&P stages a raid on the home of Rebecca and her friends. She manages to kill some of the soldiers, but her friends are apparently all killed, and she's taken prisoner. Or more like slave labor, though Kesslee is hoping she'll break down and start working for him. You know, as something other than a slave. But she is defiant. And sarcastic, caustic, whatever (mostly she's just a wiseass). After awhile, he decides to send her out to find the secret base of the Rippers, but the whole group of soldiers that accompanied them get slaughtered, with only Rebecca left alive. She steals a W&P tank, and joins up with a techie girl (Naomi Watts), a fellow prisoner who stole a jet (so she's now called Jet Girl). Reckon I'll refer to Rebecca as "Tank" from now on, even though I never heard anyone call her "Tank Girl" or anything like that. (But the only name I ever heard for Jet was "Jet." And no, not "Jet Girl." But whatevs.)

Tank and Jet then head off to rescue Sam, a young girl who had been among the group Rebecca used to live with, who had been imprisoned and was now apparently working for a sort of brothel. Meanwhile, Kesslee, who had been on the point of death, was surgically reconstructed with a much more deadly artificial body. Or whatever (at least a new face & arm). And while Tank and Jet had a chance to save Sam, they got sidetracked by a weird song & dance number, and Sam was captured yet again, and brought to Kesslee, as bait.

Tank decides they should find the Rippers, to use their army to help rescue Sam from W&P. Of course, Tank and Jet get captured by the Rippers, who are kind of like anthropomorphic kangaroos. The leader of the Rippers was apparently called "T-Saint" (Ice-T), which I never actually heard, I just read it online. There were a few Rippers we got to know just a little bit, the main one being Booga (Jeff Kober). Also there was a kind of beatnik called Deetee. Didn't get to know any of the others. The Rippers send the girls out to prove themselves by hijacking an arms shipment. That didn't turn out exactly as planned, but the Rippers did learn that W&P had killed the guy who had created them, so they decided to attack W&P headquarters, and Tank tries to save Sam.

Not sure what else to say. The whole movie was pretty weird. It all moved along pretty fast, and nothing made much sense. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It was kinda fun. And amusing, I guess. I dunno. Not really coherent or cohesive, but fun. Sort of. And weird. Oh, and I should say there were often points where they just inserted sort of animated comic book scenes, as transitions between live-action scenes. Or whatever. Ultimately, it's all sort of crazy and pointless and ends rather abruptly. I mean... there's a climax, a vague sort of resolution, but... nothing resembling an anticlimax, which seems kind of unusual. But I suppose it doesn't really matter. I don't suppose I can call it a "good" movie, but even so, I kinda liked it. More than "kinda," but... eh. I dunno. Whatever. I like weirdness and I like post-apocalyptic stuff and... whatever. *shrug*


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