Is it a filmic disaster or just your average post-punk Riot grrrl Sci-fi epic that got lost in the margins?  Lori Petty nails the title character with a stylishly manic-defiant hellraiser battling the forces of repression. Naomi Watts and Ice-T co-star, but the functioning auteurs may be production designer Catherine Hardwicke and costumer Arianne Phillips. The lavishly appointed boxed set has a stack of new extras, with input from Ms. Petty and director Rachel Talalay.

Tank Girl
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Vinegar Syndrome Ultra
1995 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date February 24, 2026 / Available from Vinegar Syndrome / 69.00
Starring: Lori Petty, Ice-T, Naomi Watts, Malcolm McDowell, Don Harvey, Jeff Kober, Reg E. Cathey, Scott Coffey, Stacy Linn Ramsower, Brian Wimmer, Ann Cusack, Iggy Pop, James Hong, Doug Jones, Richard Schiff, Ann Magnuson.
Cinematography: Gale Tattersall
Production Designer: Catherine Hardwicke
Art Directors: Jim Dultz, Charles Dwight Lee
Costume Design: Arianne Phillips
Ripper Design: Stan Winston
Choreography: Adam Shankman
Film Editor: James R. Symons
Composer: Graeme Revell
Music Supervisor: Courtney Love
Written by Tedi Sarafian from the comic by Alan Martin, Jamie Hewlett
Produced by Pen Densham, Christian L. Rehr, John Watson
Directed by Rachel Talalay

MGM / United Artists began doing some good things around 1994. They helped reboot of the 007 franchise with Pierce Brosnan, and they distributed a number of smart movie projects that either paid off well or earned industry respect: Get Shorty, Richard III, Leaving Las Vegas, Rob Roy, The Birdcage. But other ambitious movie deals didn’t have happy endings.

From 1995, Rachel Talalay’s Tank Girl is one of those projects that sounded good in a pitch meeting. It’s from a British comic book inflected with a punk sensibility, a graphic commitment to irreverence, crude sex, and violence. Tank Girl is Rebecca Buck, a survivor of an apocalypse who roams the wasteland in a tank, ‘doing her thing.’ She’s a renegade agent dispatched on missions by a vague authority that also considers her an outlaw. Her main boyfriend is Booga, a mutant kangaroo; her allies have names like Sub Girl and Jet Girl. The comic stresses graphic excess, not structured narratives.

The ambitious director Rachel Talalay interested Pen Densham of Trilogy Entertainment Group in the project, which they eventually co-produced with United Artists. Perhaps Talalay convinced her backers that Tank Girl would open up a new vein of success, tapping the  Riot grrrl art/music/lifestyle movement.

Tank Girl trumpets female empowerment, yet was created by two male comic artists. That doesn’t sound compatible with the aggressive feminist drive of Riot grrrl. Nor does a multi-million dollar movie that investors surely hope will become the next Star Wars. You know, like  The Ice Pirates and  Solarbabies.

Actress Lori Petty (A League of their Own) must have seen Tank Girl as a breakout opportunity. She’s got energy to spare and the sassy attitude that defines the character. The end product is a bit like Robert Altman’s  Popeye … the key characterization hits the right note of vulgar irreverence. But why put Tank Girl in such a conventional, by-the-numbers Sci-fi action fantasy?

Talalay’s movie retains the original’s graphic-novel anarchy and hip-cynical dialogues. But it drops her into a standard resist-the-evil-empire storyline. The year is 2033. A comet has destroyed civilization, and the few nomadic survivors are dominated by The Water & Power Company, run by an evil mastermind, Kesslee (Malcolm McDowell).

Kesslee’s W&P troops are fighting a losing battle against ‘Rippers,’ savage bandit monsters that keep destroying the company’s outposts. Captured by Kesslee’s men and put to hard labor, Tank Girl conspires to escape with Jet Girl (Naomi Watts), a mousey mechanic who also wants her freedom. But Kesslee instead dispatches Tank Girl to infiltrate the secretive Rippers, so he can destroy them from within. To their surprise, Rebecca and Jet Girl discover that the Rippers are mutated kangaroos with their own rebel spirit and counterculture attitude. They’re murderous phantoms — but also quite congenial.

The movie version of Tank Girl is lumbered with woefully unoriginal story elements. Rebecca’s introduction is swiped from the opening of Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid gag of a rape scene that’s really consensual foreplay, only this time it’s the hunky boyfriend who must strip. The Evil Empire conflict is a non-starter. McDowell’s villain Kesslee demonstrates his ruthlessness by executing his own generals, like a bush-league Darth Vader. The post-apocalyptic setup makes us think a bit of the  Mad Max franchise. What with several road chases with trucks, the kangaroo mutants, and the occasional UK accent, we expect to find out that the show was made in Australia. But the desert scenes were all filmed in Arizona and New Mexico.

Rebecca Buck effects a fashion statement that might be called Melrose Avenue Punk Chic. Her costume changes in most every scene, the same as her crazy hairdos. She of course sports oversized boots, that were big with teens in the ’90s. Her makeup is just as meticulous. When in motion she’s often accompanied by punk & rap tracks, from Ice-T, Björk, Veruca Salt, Bush, Portishead, etc. Everything’s there but the core of a real characterization.

To create a contrast, Naomi Watts’ Jet Girl is an introvert who needs Rebecca’s example to break out. On this dry planet people bathe with sand; Rebecca and Jet Girl share a shower scene that teases girl-girl eroticism. But Jet Girl ends up a career misstep for the mighty Ms. Watts, the future star of  Mulholland Drive,  King Kong and  The Impossible.

The Hollywood law of ‘movie by committee’ also enforces some lazy sentimentality. Tank Girl has a heart as well … a big motivation at the finale is to save a pre-teen sidekick named Sam, who looks like the little girl from  Aliens.

Tank Girl strives to be different. It leads with its graphic-comic look, which is erratic but arresting. The millions to make the show are on screen, with numerous elaborate sets. Every room is cluttered with trendy décor, ephemera collected from the lost 1990s. Rebecca makes jokes about things like the Broadway show Cats. Her main tank does cruise at 30mph, as she hangs onto the barrel. It’s remote controlled and programmed to perform rescues, like a ‘wonder horse’ or Lassie.

Jet Girl’s hover-jet also looks like a fugitive from Aliens. That points us to the credit for the Skotak brothers, masters of practical-magic visual effects. The jet scenes are all good; the miniature sets and models look great.

Tank Girl’s effort to front an appropriately chaotic style is hampered by the dull storyline. Scenes are punctuated with quick-cut montages that show off details in the art direction. Elaborate animated segues bridge scenes and express Rebecca’s strongest emotions. The animated segments are dynamic, but they still feel like an interruption. All we think is, ‘oh, is that what the comic looked like?’

Then there’s the Ripper clan, an impressive makeup / fx achievement that is also the film’s breakdown point. The elaborate Stan Winston kangaroo-mutants look great and let the actors offer distinguished performances — Ice-T, Jeff Kober, Reg E. Cathey. But the Rippers don’t add up — they’re both merciless killers, and cute personalities that would fit in well with a Scooby-Doo vibe. For all their animatronic polish, they aren’t a welcome development … no Ewoks, please.

The conversion of the comic book’s Rippers to cute playmates points up the fact that Tank Girl was at some point taken away from its director. From remarks made by Rachel Talalay, we recognize a familiar pattern in studio development: the money folk greenlight a project that’s supposed to be edgy, irreverent and controversial … and then force it back within ‘safe’ limits. Tank girl talks nasty ‘n’ rasty (but no expletives), making coarse sex jokes and even one zinger about ‘funny’ incest. Other than the odd severed arm here and there, we see little blood. Kesslee’s favorite killing method is a plastic bottle device that drains every drop of fluid from a victim, making them shrivel up (an excellent effect).

‘Dangerous’ content is teased but withheld. An un-billed Ann Magnusen is ‘The Madam’ of an oasis-brothel called Liquid Silver, where little Sam is threatened by a pervert pedophile (guest star Iggy Pop). An elaborate choreographed floor show stands in for any overt sex content, with just glimpses of semi-nude performers. The movie’s most ill-judged scene is an impromptu performance of Cole Porter’s Let’s Do It. It’s incongruous, but not in a good way. ‘This movie dares to be awful!’

American fans were wanting Spiderman, and probably knew of Silver Surfer, but Tank Girl was an exotic fringe item. Movie adaptations of the well-known European comics  Barbarella and  Modesty Blaise had failed to take America by storm. In the case of the Italian  Diabolik, the studio’s advertising tried to hide its source as a comic book series. Word of Mouth for Tank Girl could not have been encouraging. The advertising suggested some kind of kooky culture mix-up comedy, with Lori Petty playing a feminist version of Pee Wee Herman. But I cannot see U.S. audiences in 1995 embracing this big, noisy, well-produced but unappealing show. I think Lori Petty’s characterization is spot on … and that it ended up a career setback, the kind of frustrating debacle that would make the industry even more shy of big films fronting women stars.

Vinegar Syndrome Ultra’s 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray of Tank Girl is a top-tier disc presentation, in a fancy box that opens in an odd way — like a little girl’s diary?   VS refers to the packaging as ‘special limited edition deluxe magnet box + slipcover.’ It features attractive graphic art for an insert sleeve and the insert booklet. The designers get special credit: JJ Harrison and Michael DeForge.

The picture looks flawless. It was filmed mostly in Super-35 and looks bright and punchy throughout. The soundtrack is obviously meant to be played Loud.

Vinegar Syndrome is still releasing 4K + Blu-ray combo presentations. The long list of extras includes plenty of input on the physical production, and new interviews that allow Rachel Talalay and Lori Petty to tell things from their point of view. Of the ‘crew’ interviews we most enjoyed the one with production designer Catherine Hardwicke …. she’s a great creative thinker.

We also see a clip of an unused ending in which rain finally comes to Arrakis post- Comet Earth. I guess that MGM/UA didn’t want a finale where Lori Petty belches at the camera.

Prolific TV director Rachel Talalay appears with artist Gary Baseman, sitting behind a table as if at a fan convention. Drawing images right on camera, they talk mainly about graphic artwork — the film’s art and that of her own. It seems a roundabout way of not engaging with production problems from 30 years in the past. Ms. Talalay instead tells us that Tank Girl is a precursor to KPop Demon Hunters.

Lori Petty’s interview gets right to the issues — she’s direct and honest and impossible to dislike. She had to be persistent to win the role of Rebecca Buck, and they way she says it, she only got it because the actress they hired refused to shave her head. She reflects that the male establishment wouldn’t hire her — she ended up working for women and black filmmakers. She marvels at the character’s 38 hairstyles, and crazy costuming that did things like use plastic doll’s heads for kneepads. She remembers improvising a lot of her performance, and includes gracious praise for Naomi Watts. It’s sweet when Petty talks about a fan once telling her that she discovered she was gay by seeing Tank Girl at age 12.

The extras and online comments note the fact that United Artists retained full control over the film’s content. We’re told that scenes were shortened and some deleted. Singled out for deletion were some shots of Rebecca Buck’s living quarters, which featured dildos among the kitschy clutter. The screwiest issue was an objection to an implied sex scene between Rebecca and her new Ripper beau, Booga. It appears that somebody took offense at the inter-species sex … bestiality!  Somebody tell ’em that a princess once married a frog.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Tank Girl
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray rates:
Movie: Colorful, noisy
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent 5.1 surround
New Interview featurettes:
Artful Inspiration with Rachel Talalay and artist Gary Baseman (13 min)
Gotta Be Me with Lori Petty (14 min)
Badass Feminine Energy with production designer Catherine Hardwicke (11 min)
Donning the Ears with actor Scott Coffey (12 min)
An Eye for the Apocalypse with casting director Pam Dixon (12 min)
Punk Rock Post-Apocalypse with costume designer Arianne Phillips (24 min)
Meet the Rippers with Stan Winston crewmembers plus J. Alan Scott and Shane P. Mahan (12 min)
Tank in Translation with storyboard artist and second unit director Peter Ramsey (15 min)
Archival Supplements:
Commentary track with Kristen Lopez
Featurette The Making of Tank Girl (5 min)
Original ending (2 min)
Original trailer
40-page book with essays by Sarah Fensom, Heather Drain and Elizabeth Purchell.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One 4K Ultra HD + one Blu-ray disc in keep case in card sleeve in ‘magnet bo’
Reviewed: January 21, 2026
(7462tank)

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