Tank Girl

Generous souls may try to blame this travesty of the Deadline comic-strip on the studio execs who forced director Talalay to tone down and re-edit her cut. But what remains of Petty's anodyne sexless heroine and the dull, episodic live-action sequences suggests we may have been spared something worse even than this movie. At least the dynamic, vibrantly coloured (and clearly inserted) animation sequences allow us to imagine a tougher, ballsier film. In 2033, our post-apocalyptic planet is a desert where water is jealously guarded by megalomaniac Kesslee (McDowell). Fighting a rearguard action is Tank Girl - here pathetically renamed Rebecca - a crop-headed punkette who guzzles beer, sucks on ciggies, tries to swear properly and, yes, drives a tank. Providing back-up are the fearsome Rippers, a gang of rubber-faced, mutant kangaroos led by an embarrassed-looking Ice T. The damage-control editing aside, the most chaotic element is a soundtrack that throws together Richard Hell's punk anthem 'Blank Generation', the theme from Shaft, Hole's 'Drown Soda', and a jaw-dropping song-and-dance number based on Cole Porter's 'Let's Do It'.