Product Details

• Actors: Lori Petty, Ice-T, Naomi Watts, Don Harvey, Jeff Kober
• Directors: Rachel Talalay
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: March 24, 1998
• Run Time: 106 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (113 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304773382
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #17,818 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  Video > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Futuristic

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Year is 2033. Earth has been clobbered with a comet, civilization has been destroyed, and it hasn't rained in 11 years. Nearly all the water on the planet is controlled by the evil Water and Power company, which is in turn controlled by the even more evil Kesslee (Malcolm McDowell). Who stands in the way? Some mysterious mutants called the Rippers and, of course, Tank Girl. Lori Petty plays Tank Girl, the wisecracking, defiant heart of the movie, as kind of an inner child gone wild. Unfortunately Petty can't quite carry a movie on her own--her zingers frequently fall flat and she seems to be continually worried that we still like her. Luckily there's Naomi Watts as Jet Girl to save the day: smart, shy, and inherently way more appealing than Tank Girl. Tank Girl is based on the comic of the same name, and it is visually an eye-popper. It's worth watching for the insane set and costume designs alone. --Ali Davis

From The New Yorker

Lori Petty does her tough-talking best to breathe some life into the comic-book action, but it's not enough. The film, which bursts into musical numbers and animation from time to time, is meant to be anarchic, and there are some fun bits (Tank Girl's knee pads are made from crushed doll heads), but, like some other daredevil misfires ("The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai," "Earth Girls Are Easy"), it's underwritten and overdirected. It concerns a future in which water is power, and it's as dry as dust. With Malcolm McDowell, Naomi Watts, and Ice T. Directed by Rachel Talalay. Written by Tedi Sarafian, from the British comic-book series by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DVD's are supposed to contain MORE...., July 15, 2002

By	Kimberly Wells (Shreveport, LA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Tank Girl (DVD)

I adore this movie in a completely irrational, fan girl way. I know it's corny, I know that some people will hate it, and think it's stooopid. It fits the comic book style of punchy, fast action. Lori Petty quite effectively becomes the punk-girl she ought to be.

But like other reviewers, I am quite, quite disappointed in the DVD version of this film. From the trenches you hear grumblings that there was a lot of edited stuff that COULD HAVE been put on the DVD. Why don't DVD makers do more than reprint what we already have on video for us to (silly consumers we sometimes are) just rush out to buy anyway? The picture quality of the DVD is not significantly higher than that of the video-- the only real bonus is that you can do still pauses and get some cool screen shots for that conference paper presentation you're doing... There is nothing more than the video on this DVD. Not even any nifty "Making of Tank Girl" footage, or sketches of other rejected cartoon scenes, or whatever! Even an oldie/goodie Cherry 2000 has more than this one, and surely the DVD makers could have done better.

I'll just hope that Men In Black is correct, and someday, when we get the next alien form of media (I guess I'll have to buy the White album again) the next makers of whatever futuristic thing we'll all have to rush out and buy will heed this advice-- put more on your big media! There's no real reason for me to excercise my insane consumerism if you don't fill up my big old plate!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure entertainment, May 4, 2001

By	Lee Gaiteri (Syracuse, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Tank Girl (DVD)

Tank Girl is, make no mistake, a campy B sci-fi. It lives up to the genre perfectly, keeping a light, humorous tone in a world so dark that it would make most of us hide under the bed. It's probably no surprise that someone like Tank Girl would survive the apocalypse.

Lori Petty's character is perfectly witty, a girl who plays it large and in charge even when things are at their worst. She can kill an armed man and then answer the irritated stares of his buddies with "What?" While McDowell's character tries to break her in for a mission, she spends all her time coming up with lines to really get under his skin--and succeeds.

The complaints of some accusing McDowell of hamming up the role of the villain are unfounded; he not only plays the role perfectly, but does it so well that I don't think anyone else could have done it. He's playing the stereotypical megalomaniac bad guy, yes, but on top of that he adds a touch of class and intelligence. His repartee with Tank Girl proves he's nearly a match for her wit with flippant remarks. He's a very bright guy with an ingenious solution to an ongoing problem, who's simply flummoxed by the dauntlessly rude spirit of his opponent. McDowell is brilliant enough as an actor to get all these characteristics across. Bravo.

The plot gives us a nice, reasonable adventure without being overly simplistic; the campy tone prevents it from getting any more complex. The off-the-wall antics of Tank Girl bleed over at times from the character to the movie itself, which gets a bit goofy (in a good way) in parts where you'd never otherwise expect it to. In the middle of the film they break into a musical number in the silliest of venues--it might not be logical but it's a whole lot of fun. All this is carried along by a soundtrack pretty well suited to the film, arranged appropriately enough by Courtney Love.

For sheer entertainment (though not a family film, if that wasn't obvious), Tank Girl is really worthwhile. The DVD is noticeably light on features, but for the price I can live with it. If you enjoy a movie that doesn't take itself seriously, Tank Girl is for you.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's not masterpiece theatere, but.., July 15, 2000

By	Robin Orlowski "political activist" (United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Tank Girl (played convincingly by Lori Petty)is a fun grrrl action film.

Although the theme is supposed to be about human survival after a major geological/metorlogical nuclearish disaster, it pokes gender, and class relations.

A handfull of rich white men control the world's water supply with millitary force and apparently spend much of their leisure time at a girle club where all of the women (unsuprisingly) are altered to look alike) The women who ultimately engineer the saving idea are punkish (anarcha-feminists? ) who defy society expectations of what is appropriate for women.

Even though the graphic juxtapositions seem to be a cheap imitation of the comic book/reality style pioneered so well in the 1960's Batman TV series, and Ice T's inclusion in the cast, it is still a good story line.

I've seen this movie several times, and even though she is much less of a cultural compromise than Buffy (who also saves the world, but looks more conventional)Tank Girl rocks. When the movie came out, I was actually planning to streak my hair fushcia in homage to this great character.

The soundtrack (produced by Courtney Love) is also worth getting!