It’s not actually fair to call this a “Mystery Science Theater 3000” film. For all it is a low-budget dystopian future where the world has been reduced to what appears to be a junkyard and an abandoned high school, the basement-level standards for MST3K are missing. Turbo Kid may not be a great film, but it’s Schindler’s List compared to standard MST3K fare.
In an alternate 1997, it’s the apocalypse and somehow a wimpy teen has survived. This must be the Canadian apocalypse, because there’s no way this kid survives the Aussie or American apocalypse. And he’s exactly that, a kid. Even imdb lists Munro Chambers as “The Kid.” Perhaps he’s a tad too young to realize exactly how much life sucks, The Kid is is content to scavenge the wastelands for useful items, like water and comic books. He is especially taken with a fictional hero named Turbo Rider. Enter Apple (Laurence Leboeuf, no relation to Shia), a character even more out-of-place as demonstrated by her relative attractiveness, upbeat attitude, and trust issues – which is to say Apple trusts unquestionably in a venue where there should be no trust whatsoever.
In the local high school gym/shop class rules the sadistic and tyrannical Zeus (Michael Ironside). Zeus likes to grind people into drinking water. Ah, now that’s more like it. This is what we expect from an apocalypse chief, somebody who makes a gladiator pit out of an empty swimming pool. Well, movie, I cannot fault you for contrasts. Nor attempts at humor. Sure, not every post-apocalyptic gang can afford Harleys and turbo-charged Fast & Furious vehicles, but BMX bicycles?
I suppose when the fuel runs out, you gotta look elsewhere, but -seriously- BMX bicycles?! Snicker.
When Turbo Kid isn’t poking fun at dystopia, it gets both silly and gruesome. The former happens when
The Kid becomes the Turbo Kid, happening upon superpowers not unlike Green Lantern, only having even less of an idea of how to use them…the gruesome part happens constantly, but it’s Python-esque violence, with lopped limbs and red-colored spout emanations. It will make one cringe and laugh at the same time. Turbo Kid is the kind of film in which someone can be cut in two with such force that half a torso lands squarely on the head of an adjacent villain, thus blinding him.
While I readily admit Turbo Kid is a half-assed from discarded football helmet to BMX tread – the film looks like it was made for about $2.49 (Canadian) – I had a sniggering appreciation for this look at dystopia. Turbo Kid plays like an MST3K film that beats the puppets to the joke. If you’ve had enough of Mad Max, please give his much poorer North American cousin a try.
In a future with heads on a spike
Rides a hero you’ll be challenged to like
The Kid’s life in un-fought
Mad Max he is not
But does Max own a BMX bike?
Not Rated, 93 Minutes
Director: François Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell
Writer: Anouk Whissell & François Simard and Yoann-Karl Whissell
Genre: MST3K
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Humorists
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Actual warlords
