As a huge fan of Jamie Hewlett and the Tank Girl comic he co-created with Alan Martin, I'd heard a lot of terrible things about the ill-fated 1995 film adaptation that fittingly tanked at the box office so thought it was about time I checked it out for myself on Netflix over the weekend. Unsurprisingly, the film reeks of Hollywood executives meddling with a source material they never understood in the first place and features little of the humour and wit that made the comic so appealing. Twenty one years on, the state of comic to film adaptations has (mostly) improved hugely, and I'd be curious to see how a film adaptation would turn out now in a post-Deadpool world.
Despite the film being a chore to sit through and at times excruciatingly annoying it has a fantastic soundtrack; a time capsule of early 90s alt-rock with songs chosen and assembled by Courtney Love. These include tracks from the likes of Portishead, L7 and of course Love's own band Hole, which make the soundtrack much more successful at capturing the fun and anarchic nature of Tank Girl herself than the irritating way the character is presented in the film. The highlights for me are Shove by L7 and the opening song in the film; Devo's re-recorded Girl U Want. It would have been even better if Tank Girl's British roots were acknowledged and more of the great female fronted British bands of the 90s were included too; Stutter by Elastica would have suited this album perfectly.
For fans of 90s rock, this soundtrack is a real treat. It's a shame that the film itself doesn't stand up half as well.
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