Action/Adventure, 2015
1 hour, 33 minutes
Written and Directed by
François Simard, Anouk Whissell, & Yoann-Karl Whissell
This film is unrated.
Starring
Munro Chambers
Laurence Leboeuf
Michael Ironside
Aaron Jeffery
Edwin Wright
"Around here, we like to do things with a little more... joie de vivre."
Science fact: the human body contains 4.7 liters of blood. That's one and a quarter gallons, which I suppose doesn't seem like much. The filmmakers behind Turbo Kid obviously misread that decimal point, mistaking it for 47 liters of blood, or 12 gallons, because whenever someone gets killed in this movie, blood spurts for days on end. Death by flying saw blade, intestinal removal via bicycle chain, laser beam... Allow me to explain.
Remember when the apocalypse happened in 1997? Yeah, neither do I. But Turbo Kid sure does. Set in an unspecified area of the word, supposedly America, we are introduced to The Kid (played by Munro Chambers). He lives alone in an underground bunker surrounded by enough knick knacks, relics of the old world, to impress even Wall-E. The Kid has certainly earned his namesake, as he has an ever-growing obsession with an old comic book superhero - Turbo Rider. One day, he randomly meets an overzealous girl named Apple (Laurence Leboeuf) who begins to follow him around. The two bond quickly until Apple is captured by the land's ruler, Zeus (Michael Ironside). While on his way to rescue his new friend, The Kid stumbles upon a mysterious ship and the suit of the actual Turbo Rider. He takes the suit and becomes Turbo Kid. Armed with his trusty Turbo Glove and aided by a tough-as-nails armwrestling cowboy named Frederic (Aaron Jeffery), Turbo Kid sets out to save Apple and defeat the evil Zeus.
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| Munro Chambers and Laurence Leboeuf |
The filmmakers behind Turbo Kid set out with one thing in mind: to make a love-letter to Grindhouse films of the 1980s. The genre is still practiced today in smaller circles of the film community, but Turbo Kid shatters the bar for what the genre has evolved into. Today, Grindhouse films are more like homages to films of old, and only a specific audience acknowledges them. Unfortunately, the same will be said for Turbo Kid, as its release does not send it to many theaters. Even casual moviegoers might get something out of the film. It's goofy without being stupid, gory without being scary, and heartwarming without being cheesy.
Actually, I take back what I said about it being cheesy. This movie is so cheesy it makes Chicago style pizza jealous. But in a 1980s kind of way. The score is all synth pop and the opening credits song sounds like it should be played over a training montage. Some of the visual effects, like exploding bodies, look incredibly fake, but it works with the amount of blood shed across the entire film. Costumes are varied, as the central characters wear colors that pop and villains wear makeshift garb of the wasteland. Zeus' henchman wears a creepy skull-like mask made of metal while slinging a gun that shoot saw-blades, and his only other protection is football pads. Even Zeus carries a golf club instead of a cane! And it's probably worth mentioning that instead of cars or horses, everyone rides BMX bikes. Not regular bikes. Small and awkward BMX bikes. So yes, it sounds cheesy. It's supposed to have a retro feel with a splash of ultra-violence, and it wouldn't work any other way.
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| Edwin Wright as Skeletron |
Like the first paragraph alludes to, it's gratuitously bloody. Remember in Kill Bill when Lucy Liu decapitates that guy and blood spurts like a fountain? Yeah, that ain't got nothing on Turbo Kid. A dude gets his hand chopped off, he's spurting red stuff like Niagara Falls. A dude gets sliced with a saw blade and his body falls apart in chunks. It's almost unbelievable. My personal favorite: Frederic rips off a dude's jaw with his bare hand and stuffs it in his eyes. Like, what? I had to rewind to make sure I got that right. And I did. Absolutely brilliant stuff, and that's just a couple of creative kills among dozens. It's all in good fun and it adds to the pulpy and moody atmosphere.
Yet through all of the chaos, Turbo Kid has a lot of heart. You can make a movie as goofy as you want, but what is it without a thick layer of emotion spread over the toast that is character? The Kid has a tragic past, and by the end of the film, he is no longer a Turbo Kid; he is a Turbo Man. Apple manages to keep The Kid grounded, giving him a greater purpose than just existing in the wasteland and an even greater purpose for donning the Turbo Rider suit. When all is said and done, before the credits roll, The Kid has completed his journey as successfully and with as much loss as he requires for his story to be complete.
Turbo Kid is a movie that will be overlooked. It deserves better. I can only hope it achieves the deep cult status that it deserves. It's pulpier than freshly squeezed orange juice, and I'll be damned if it's not one of the best glasses of OJ I've ever had the pleasure to drink. But instead of Vitamin C, it's filled with retro nostalgia and enough ultra-violence to make Alex DeLarge shit his knickers. Even though some may be off-put by the excess, you can't deny it's not quite like anything you've seen before.
If you're on the fence, I'll tell you what I tell people going into Mad Max: Fury Road: "Don't overthink it. Just sit back and enjoy it for what it is."
9.3/10
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