With its Laserdisc-inspired intro, synth-heavy score, and hair
band soundtrack, everything about Turbo
Kid screams retro. And that's
before we really even get into the plot; a patchwork homage of '80s genre
riffs, bursting with just as much heart as it bursts with gushes of fake blood.
While retro cinema has long become an overexposed trend in itself, Turbo Kid is one of the best examples, working
as a nostalgic love letter and a cheesy spin on Mad Max, making its timing
pretty darn perfect.
Set in the distant future of 1997, the
earth has been rendered an inhabitable wasteland, with water a rarity and what's
left of humanity living in the Wasteland zone. That's where we find our hero,
known only as The Kid (Munro Chambers), a BMX-riding scavenger trying to
survive the brutal regime of Zeus (Michael Ironside), a warlord who controls
the flow of water and commands an army of masked goons. Zeus gets his kicks by
tossing his victims in a giant pit (really an empty pool) and having them fight
to their deaths gladiator-style. The Kid has been on his own ever since his
parents were brutally murdered, but he finds companionship upon encountering
Apple (Laurence Leboueuf), a wild, pink-haired girl with a screw loose in more
ways than one. Inspired by finding the suit of his favorite superhero, Turbo
Man, The Kid, Apple, and an arm-wrestling drifter set out to put an end to
Zeus' reign of terror.
With its campy gags, shoestring budget,
and reluctant hero, Turbo Kid resembles all of those terrible
post-apocalyptic wannabes from the '80s. What makes this film so much fun is
that it isn't taking itself seriously at all. There's a lot of winking going on
here that genre fans will recognize; everything from Army of Darkness ("This is my
gnomestick!"), to Soylent
Green, and of course, George Miller's Mad
Max movies. The film was
written and directed with obvious love for the time period by Anouk
Whissell, François Simard, and Yoann-Karl Whissell, who created it originally
as a short movie. It's easy to see how that would have been the case, and it
shares more than a few stylistic similarities with Jason Eisener's violent B-movie, Hobo with a Shotgun, which
makes sense considering Eisener exec-produces and has a small cameo.
While there aren't a lot of big names to
be found, scoring a veteran like Michael Ironside, a staple of many a bad '80s
action flick, was a tremendous coup. His enthusiasm only seems to skyrocket as
the geysers of blood shoot into the air and the corny dialogue flows. He gets
exactly how this kind of cornball film is supposed to be played, and
undoubtedly he spread that wisdom to his younger co-stars as both Chambers and
Leboueuf are terrific. As enjoyable as the performances and numerous sight gags
are, there's still barely enough here to pad out the 90-minute runtime, which
probably goes back to this being a short movie before it became a feature.
It's probably safe to say that Turbo Kid's goofy exterior and
odd sense of humor won't be to everyone's liking, but this movie wasn't made
for those people, anyway. There's an audience out there who will lovingly
embrace Turbo Kid, and for
them they'll look at it as a modern day cult classic.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
