Ten years ago if someone had given you $25 Million dollars and challenged you make the worst flick possible with the money (stipulating that ALL the money had to actually be spent making the movie), it is unlikely that you could have deliberately matched Rachel Talaly's "Tank Girl". I blundered into a showing of "Tank Girl" during its short-lived (and basically disastrous) release and found it memorable for its comic page scene transitions (borrowed from television's "Wonder Woman") and its spoof of the action/adventure movie genre. Unfortunately the animation just makes you wish that the whole thing was animation while the moronic nature of all the live action scenes makes you question whether spoofing the genre was by design or by accident.
Ten years later it has some retrospective interest relative to the disparate career directions of Lori Petty and Naomi Watts. It is simply impossible to make Petty sexy; no matter how glamed-up, erotically posed, or provocatively scripted. Conversely it is impossible for Watts to not be sexy, no matter how hard they try to detune, grime-up, and disguise her.
"Tank Girl" poses the question, why do so many people dislike it, both now and at the time of its release ten years ago? Lori Petty is the most obvious answer. Petty's basic personality embodies the most irritating qualities of Lucille Ball with none of Lucy's humor and charm. She is irritating even in her low-key roles ("A League of Their Own"). Apparently she was cast as "Tank Girl" for exactly that quality and Director Rachel Talaly managed to bring her full irritating potential to the screen. But the producers forgot to connect the dots before they spent $25 Million on production, irritating is sometimes good in supporting roles (insert Stiffer here) but not as the main character.
About two thirds of the way into the story Petty and Watts fall into the hands of a group of genetically engineered fellows called "The Rippers". At first this appears to be going in the direction of "Dark Angel" meets "Captain Kangaroo". But Talaly switches direction a bit and ends up with a post-apocalyptic version of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". For a few minutes the movie is actually a lot of fun. Then it is time to get back to the basic story, which by this time everyone (viewers, director, cast, and editor) has pretty much forgotten. This does not pose the post-production problems it does in other movies because Talaly seems committed to insuring that no element of "suspense" is present to distract you from Petty's irritating performance.
The Tank Girl comic strip embodied a freewheeling anti-authoritarian anarchism, with some feminist and even lesbian themes. Although Talaly faithfully captures a small amount of this spirit she fumbles big time with the basic storytelling (insert no suspense). Which is hardly a revelation given her other directorial attempts (including "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" and "Ghost in the Machine"-arguably even worse than "Tank Girl"). If she actually liked the comic strip she should have yielded control to a competent director or at least someone with a basic talent for directing actors and for making feature films.
Ten years later it has some retrospective interest relative to the disparate career directions of Lori Petty and Naomi Watts. It is simply impossible to make Petty sexy; no matter how glamed-up, erotically posed, or provocatively scripted. Conversely it is impossible for Watts to not be sexy, no matter how hard they try to detune, grime-up, and disguise her.
"Tank Girl" poses the question, why do so many people dislike it, both now and at the time of its release ten years ago? Lori Petty is the most obvious answer. Petty's basic personality embodies the most irritating qualities of Lucille Ball with none of Lucy's humor and charm. She is irritating even in her low-key roles ("A League of Their Own"). Apparently she was cast as "Tank Girl" for exactly that quality and Director Rachel Talaly managed to bring her full irritating potential to the screen. But the producers forgot to connect the dots before they spent $25 Million on production, irritating is sometimes good in supporting roles (insert Stiffer here) but not as the main character.
About two thirds of the way into the story Petty and Watts fall into the hands of a group of genetically engineered fellows called "The Rippers". At first this appears to be going in the direction of "Dark Angel" meets "Captain Kangaroo". But Talaly switches direction a bit and ends up with a post-apocalyptic version of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". For a few minutes the movie is actually a lot of fun. Then it is time to get back to the basic story, which by this time everyone (viewers, director, cast, and editor) has pretty much forgotten. This does not pose the post-production problems it does in other movies because Talaly seems committed to insuring that no element of "suspense" is present to distract you from Petty's irritating performance.
The Tank Girl comic strip embodied a freewheeling anti-authoritarian anarchism, with some feminist and even lesbian themes. Although Talaly faithfully captures a small amount of this spirit she fumbles big time with the basic storytelling (insert no suspense). Which is hardly a revelation given her other directorial attempts (including "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" and "Ghost in the Machine"-arguably even worse than "Tank Girl"). If she actually liked the comic strip she should have yielded control to a competent director or at least someone with a basic talent for directing actors and for making feature films.