Verdict
Summary
From the first frames to the last, Turbo Kid – which is set in a post-apocalyptic 1997 – retains an innocence to it that is nearly impossible to describe unless you watch it, and despite having graphic, over-the-top violence and some unnecessary uses of profanity, the film has a kid-centric sense of adventure and wonder not easily found in today’s ultra jaded movie market. The film clearly has a low budget, but it has a great cinematic sense of scope, innovation, and a fun sense of humor.
Plot: It’s 1997. In a ruined post-apocalyptic world, the orphaned Kid survives on his own through drought-ridden nuclear winter, traversing the Wasteland on his BMX, scavenging for scraps to trade for a scant supply of water. When his perpetually chipper, pink-haired new best friend Apple is kidnapped by a minion of evil overlord Zeus, the Kid summons the courage of his comic book hero and prepares to deliver turbocharged justice to Zeus, his buzzsaw-handed sidekick Skeletron, and their vicious masked army.
Review: A generation after the nuclear apocalypse and a nuclear winter, the world is an irradiated wasteland, devoid of fresh water. The Kid (played by Munro Chambers) has mapped out the perimeters of the wastelands, and he gets around on his BMX bike, salvaging what he can from what he finds on his trips through the urban wastelands. Most of the outlying settlements have embraced him as a useful scavenger, and he doesn’t have any enemies.
He collects old comic books and remnants of the past (Rubik’s cubes, action figures, and tattered Viewfinders), and one day he comes across an odd character indeed: a plucky, annoyingly friendly young woman named Apple (played by Laurence Leboeuf) who literally attaches herself to him so that he’ll always be within reach of her should they become separated.
They quickly become friends by default, and Apple’s skills at fighting are alarmingly efficient, and while they might not seem like a perfect match at first, it becomes clear that The Kid needs Apple’s company when they run into trouble with the local warlord, a despot who calls himself Zeus (played by Michael Ironside from Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone). Zeus, a sadistic overlord who rules over a pack of bike-riding raiders, is out to find the last source of fresh water, and it’s revealed that he is also the murderer of The Kid’s parents, so clearly The Kid has a score to settle with him.
When, by accident, The Kid runs across a Turbo suit and a powerful Turbo glove that shoots a pulse beam that can incinerate anyone it’s aimed at, he suits up and becomes a superhero Zeus and his hordes will have a difficult time stopping. Along with the always-game Apple (who turns out to be an android) and a bionic-handed arm wrestler named Frederic (played by Aaron Jeffrey), Turbo Kid is the last hope of the wasteland.
Stunningly spot-on in terms of regenerating the lost era of post-nuke adventures made in the early 1980’s, Turbo Kid is easily the best of the nostalgia genre pictures made in the mimic style of stuff like Hobo With a Shotgun, Father’s Day, Kung Fury, and Manborg, which all tried and failed miserably to recreate an essence of what made those types of movies so endearing.
From the first frames to the last, Turbo Kid – which is set in a post-apocalyptic 1997 – retains an innocence to it that is nearly impossible to describe unless you watch it, and despite having graphic, over-the-top violence and some unnecessary uses of profanity, the film has a kid-centric sense of adventure and wonder not easily found in today’s ultra jaded movie market. The film clearly has a low budget, but it has a great cinematic sense of scope, innovation, and a fun sense of humor.
To top all that off, it’s got a great synth score by Le Matos that recalls the 80’s. While the film might go overboard at times with the blaringly graphic violence, this is exactly the post-nuke action film fans of the genre have been craving. From writer / directors Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell, who all appear in the film in small roles and die on screen.
