Imagine a world without water. It’s the 21st Century and a huge asteroid has hit the earth and turned it, more or less, into the Sahara Desert. The people who have the water have the power — and you don’t have the water. Sound implausible? It is. It is also the basis of the 1995 movie “Tank Girl,” the typical story of an underdog fighting back against “The Man” to even out the power in the world. The odd part of the movie is that the heroine is a bleached-blonde punkette who steals a tank and her allies are a bunch of mutant kangaroo/mercenaries, one of whom is played by … oh yes, none other than Ice T. When Tank Girl (played by Lori Petty) within the first 10 minutes of a film rides an ox, steals a gun, gushes over Doris Day, gets arrested, breaks a soldier’s neck with her legs and is thrown into a freezer in a straight jacket — it’s a great movie. After being arrested, detained and working off her crime of stealing water and killing seven or eight Water and Power officers in a “work prison,” Tank Girl meets Jet, a technical genius and W&P prisoner who has been given the dubious honor of fixing all of the W&P planes. Tank Girl talks Jet into trying to escape and — after the W&P put trackers all over Tank Girl— they succeed. Then, they go on a mission to save Tank Girl’s young friend, who has been taken hostage by the W&P and enlist the help of the Rippers, a group of mutant kangaroo/human mercenaries who fight against the W&P’s control of the water. Through twists, turns and a masquerade as a fashion photographer, Tank Girl succeeds in saving her friend, freeing the world of the iron grip of the W&P and getting a little loving from one of the Rippers. “Tank Girl,” more or less, is nothing more than a comic book brought to life. The live scenes are intertwined with cartoon sequences (a la “The Wall,” except these cartoons don’t act like they’re on a bad acid trip) and characters and situations are more than larger than life — they’re larger than imagination. That’s not to say that “Tank Girl” isn’t an extremely entertaining and engaging movie. The comic strip aspect makes the violence in the movie tolerable, because it doesn’t seem real. “Tank Girl,” with it’s implausible plot and extreme characters gives a little of everything to provide pure entertainment. Sparkling intellectual stimulation it’s not — but “Tank Girl” does more than stimulate your mind. It allows you to sit back with a bowl of popcorn and a friend, turn off your mind for a little while, and just enjoy the film. |
