Plot: A comic book fan adapts the persona of his favorite superhero to save his loveable friend and fight a one of a kind villain.
Review: Turbo kid is insane fun from the very start. Imagine a 10-year-old kid in the 1980’s. Who is in love with Mad Max, Mega Man, VHS tapes, and comic books. You mix all of those things together, and you get more than a Turbo Kid. You get an interesting story, great characters (I love the character Apple), and beautiful balls to the wall action.
The film is set in the post-apocalyptic future of 1997, the film shows us a world filled with dark deserts, strange individuals, and poisonous water. Humanity is in a battle to struggle and to survive while continually seeking out that last source of clean water, a lonely teenager known only as The Kid makes his way through the world by selling whatever important scraps he can find, all the while trying to be his favorite superhero, a comic-book creation called Turbo Rider. The Kid has an encounter with a character named Apple, an overly happy endearing innocent young woman. Apple and The Kid go on a journey together to stop the villainous Zeus, with the help of a cowboy they meet on the way.
This movie is such a great throwback, to the 80’s VHS junk cinema era. We’ve been blessed to get some recent throwback 80’s style film recently, that have been very good. For instance, Hobo With a Shotgun and Kung Fury. The film’s producer is Jason Eisener (Hobo With a Shotgun), so if you’ve seen that, you know what to expect from Turbo Kid.
The characters were mainly why this film worked. Every character is well written, and feel like a character you can get behind, and support. The Kid and Apple have amazing chemistry on the screen together. Even though The Kid is our main character, at times I felt like cheering on Apple more than him. The Kid seems very lonely in his day – to –day life, he only finds amusement in reading about his favorite superhero, Turbo Rider from his comic books. Which his character reminds me very much Kick – Ass. Also, Michael Ironside played the one-eyed villain Zeus and he’s a great addition to the film, he makes Zeus out to be ruthless, power hungry, a mean-spirited character, who finds pleasure in seeing the torture of people just because he was disappointed in how easily they caved.
One thing I also need to make clear is very violent, oh my sweet Jesus, I haven’t seen violence like this on screen since the ending to the movie The Cabin in the Woods. Blood gushes out of decapitated heads, bodies explode, people loose limbs constantly, Turbo Kid uses a Turbo Glove that blast people into smithereens!
Everything this film is trying to be works very well. I especially love the old school 80’s sync music. There’s an orgy amount of action, character development really gets you feeling for them, and even though it doesn’t have a big budget, your heart has a big budget of laughter, joy, and excitement after watching this film. My only complaint is, the movie is a little short, and the main villain could have done more in my opinion. Turbo Kid is a lot of fun, and makes a perfect midnight movie with friends, or someone who can appreciate, and love throwback films like this.
Overall, I liked this movie a lot. It was fun, the characters worked, it was a fun throwback to the 80s and B-Movie era. Think Kick – Ass meets Mad Max. At times the violence gets a little cartoonish, and I do wish this film had a longer run time. That way we flesh out more story, and so things don’t seem so rushed. I can’t wait to see this movie again, and this is the type of movie I would love to pick up on DVD or Blu-Ray. I like how a teenager like Turbo Kid reminded me of myself in some ways, because I remember wanting to be a superhero at times whenever I read about my favorite heroes at that age. I especially love the character Apple, and in my opinion she steals the show. All that being said, I believe Turbo Kid earns a…
7 out of 10!
So those are my thoughts on the movie Turbo Kid. What superhero did you want to be growing up or as a teenager? Honestly, growing up I wanted to be Batman or Superman, I still want to be Batman or Superman. But my parents told me, Nile, you’re going to be 55 years old, you need to grow up! Just kidding, I’m know where near that age yet, but even at that age I wouldn’t mind being those heroes. Well like all good stories, I eventually have to close the book on this one for now. Thank you all for reading, and or viewing, and I hope you all have an amazing day as always. Turbo Kid is currently streaming on Netflix.
Nile Fortner
nilefortner@gmail.com
