TANK GIRL
A film review by Christopher Null
Copyright 1995 Christopher Null
Lori Petty, America's number one Madonna wannabe, is back in action as TANK GIRL, a comic book character come to life. Actually, the whole movie is a comic book come to life. Live action is spliced with still shots of comic strip panels and some full-motion animation, so if you get bored with the live-action part of this picture (and you probably will), at least you can look at the cartoons.
Not that these bits are any more entertaining, but at least they're a change of pace from the dull storyline. The filmmakers use them any time there is the possibility for a neat special effect or some potential for plot development, so they don't waste any money on actually interesting footage, instead copping out to some goofball crayon scribbling.
The thin plot goes like this: the earth is dried up, Malcolm McDowell is the bad guy, Lori Petty is Tank Girl, and she wants to kill him. McDowell barely saves this picture from being a complete failure, reprising his classic psycho bad guy role in fine form. His support is terrible, from Ice-T as a mutant kangaroo, to Petty herself, who I was hoping would get killed by the movie's end.
No such luck. Petty ruins this movie with her bad acting, inability to crack jokes, and the ability to look stupid no matter what she is doing. I guess that was the point, but I can't understand why it needed to be made. Recommended only to fans of Petty: both of them.
RATING: **
|* Unquestionably awful | |** Sub-par on many levels | |*** Average quality, hits and misses | |**** Good, memorable film | |***** Perfection |
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