MovieChat Forums > Turbo Kid (2015) Discussion > The movie is a mockery of the movies it ...

The movie is a mockery of the movies it imitates

posted 8 years ago by vortexrider
22 replies | jump to latest

I've written this in a reply to the "I am sick..." Thread. Turbo Kid sucks but I want to make my own thread to bash this movie. I just watched this piece of garbage on Netflix. I feel like the film creators fundamentally don't understand all the campy, b-quality, practical effects movies from the 80s, 90s, and late 70s. 70s is s stretch. I am 31 and I've watched most of this stuff starting in 89 and in 90s.
The films references to which Turbo Kid seems to be full of (they'll call it "homage" I am sure) were mostly bad to begin with. They weren't cool then and they are not even cool now. The films I refer to are not the quality popular films but rather the b-films which are mostly of poor quality. I am not saying many of them do not deserve cult following. Cherry 2000 is alright, Trancers, Screamers, Buckaroo Banzai, Waterworld, Mad Max sequels, the crappy American Ninja movies, the movie about motorcycle Knights (forgot the title, it's where people fight each other joust style on motorbikes and swing medieval weapons). Of course a bunch of late 70s film references like from The Boy and His Dog, Rollerball, Romero movies,

Those are the ones I can name from the top of my mind. Turbo Kid seems to be filled with a ton of "references" to nearly every film. Even the Troma films. The word referencesare in quotation marks because they're simply stylistic cut and paste rip offs. They are not subtle or nuanced at all. For example remember the guy you see Indiana jones looking guy arm wrestling in beginning. He has a helmet made from bones. It is s direct copy of the snake king from the tv cartoon called Conan The Barbarian when Conan movies were popular. And of course they there in a ton of cliche anime plot elements.

Anyway, I digressed into not very relevant observations. The creators of this incredibly annoying and frustrating film do not get what it is in these cult films that may have appealed to post 1995 audiences. It is not the cheap synthesizer sound and music or overly simplistic plot structure and it is not the depiction of technology stuck in the 80s imagination (Walkman, Nintendo glove, 8-bit games and all crap like that).
The films of the 80s appeal to audiences today because despite limitations of budget, despite limitations of available film making technology, and despite crappy music they had, they tried to be serious about the visions of the future the directors showed in those films. They didn't make those films as mockery of parody of any other movies. Not even as parodies of old black and white sci fi. And what makes old movies appealing today is the gap in technology of 70s and 80s, and technology of late 90s and today. Those old movies were often failed experimental attempts to make something good. They would try to top each other with practical effects and visions of the future.

But Turbo Kid, just like the even worse Kung Fury, are mockeries. They're uncool mockeries of the limitations and of the really interesting aspects of the old movies. I watched Turbo Kid and I am angry. I am angry how Turbo Kid fails to capture the good, exaggerates the worst, and makes it all look like a cheap mockery of that which still sits in memories of young adults as a warm memory.

Well, basically I hate Turbo Kid. Even the exaggerated and mocked elements depicted in it do not match each other. Naïveté of the non comedic old scifi films is mixed with excessive gore of horror and satire films that Troma or Croneberg could have made. They simply have nothing to do with each other.

Ugh, so angry. How could anyone not get it and make this junk?!

[–] Dmitri_King 8 years ago

I appreciate your starting a new thread. I wasn't sure how you felt about the movie from your other 4 (at least) posts in (at least) 4 other threads....

Anyway, I'm curious why you would spend so much time and energy making multiple posts about a movie you hate so much.

Wait, you already answered that question. You're angry. Angry enough to use the word 3 times on one post.

This seems like an odd thing to be angry about. Are you angry because you think this movie is drawing money or attention away from better movies? Are you angry because you spent 2 hours watching a movie you didn't like? Something else? I'm just curious. I've always wondered why some people respond so angrily to a movie they don't like. I usually just move on to the next movie in my queue. Why torment yourself by spending a few more hours writing about and reading about the movie? What's your goal?

[–] vortexrider 8 years ago

Reason I posted multiple replies to people is because I had just watched Turbo Kid and I passionately hated it and felt like the movies my childhood memories are based on were exploited and violated so to speak. I also wanted to reply to threads of others' to give them my reply.

[–] OverlyOpinionated 8 years ago

Transformers, GIJoe, TMNT, RoboCop, Walburg planet of the apes, footloose, the upcoming ghostbusters movie and the recently announced Goonies sequel... Yet this movie is ruining your childhood memories, with its original,yet corny storyline. I think your only complaint is that it has a 80s feel to it, because the rest of your arguments were crushed by my first sentence...

[–] vortexrider 8 years ago

Original? Are you kidding? The story in Turno Kid is pretty much all aspects of plot of 80s movies, anime, and some popular video games pressed into one. The franchise movies you listed are all pretty crappy. But they, no matter how bad, try to create a version of an existing franchise in a modern setting and they have one franchise per film and stay focused. They're actually not bunching absolutely every small detail from the 80s movies and anime into one film for some kind of cutesy impression.

I can think of only two movies from the general 80s period that do not suck. Mad Max Fury Road is a pretty good one. I don't like it that much as a movie but it does what it does in a clever way, without hammering it on the head of the audience. It recreates a vision of the dystopian future that resembles the vision of original three Mad Max films without focusing on the time period in which the original films were made. Nor does Mad Max FR mix a bunch of different genres into a big salad.

Another is Doomsday, and even that movie is average at best. There really cannot be and shouldn't be movies whose premise is based on nostalgia for a time period. It is a stupid idea. If it's a franchise then at least the focus can always be franchise itself, not when it was first introduced.

[–] theycallmebrandon 8 years ago

Sigh... you just don't get it. You're floating somewhere far up in the sky where the universe orbits your ego. You'll never be able to enjoy movies like Turbo Kid, or as you brought up, Kung Fury, because you see yourself as "the trendy 80's B guy" and you're terrified that movies like this will appeal to a wider audience which will challenge your trend-status.

Just... move on, Sport.

[–] vortexrider 8 years ago

Oh whatever. Your argument could have had a point if Turbo Kid actually did have any kind of wide appeal. It doesn't. Which is why it went from a film festival into obscurity of Netflix. And in fact by saying you enjoy those films it actually makes you into a so called trendy 80s kid poser. I accept that the decade and it's culture is gone and it's gone for good. You want to insist that by making something look like the movies in 80s look like you are somehow experiencing the decade.

[–] brettsmail1 8 years ago

I'm not reading all this, but I completely agree. People acting like they liked it just really desperately want to like it so they lie to themselves.

I put it like this. Grindhouse was an homage to *beep* 70s B-movies, but still had quality films that were much better than what they were giving homage to. Planet Terror and Death Proof are both really great pictures, although the latter drags on too much with the dialogue. Still really good though.

Turbo Kid, on the other hand, is an homage to *beep* 80s B-movies, yet manages to be worse than them! They forgot the part of actually making it fun to watch.

Kung Fury is just so over the top and fun to watch because of the effects and the setting, but this is just some idiots in the middle of nowhere spraying blood everywhere. It's stupid.

[–] vortexrider 8 years ago

That pretty much sums it up. You got my point without having to read what I wrote.

[–] andrewhollingsworth 8 years ago

I like it and I'm not lying to myself so that puts a massive hole in your stupid generalisation. People are allowed to like it for what it is and it's not just the 80s nostalgia factor.

Also saying Death Proof is a really good film is quite laughable. It's pretty average and it's attempt of recreating grindhouse cinema misses the point. They were low budget films with crappy cinematography, poor dialogue and bad SFX and it was these qualities that made them endearing, especially when you could see they tried their best with what they had. Tarantino made a well made movie technically with grindhouse subject matter and just added scratches and missed out reels. No doubt you're a Tarantino fanboy as this was easily his worse movie if you rate it so highly (Metacritic scores and average fan response concur with this). Hobo With A Shotgun did grindhouse better and Turbo Kid captures that 80s vibe better than Death Proof captures 70s grindhouse.

[–] vortexrider 8 years ago

I am not telling you to dislike it and I am not trying to shape your opinion. If you liked it, then you'll like it and nothing will persuade you. But what I wrote is more or less what not only I but others feel about movies like this. People who like are often deluded by made up vision of 80s life and movies when films like this have nothing to do with it not represent movies of that time. It's like a homage to the modern perception of the 70s and 80s. In fact this movie has more incommon with fallout video games, which are great. But to suggest it's some piece of "80s nostalgia and therefore it's cool" is stupid.

[–] raceblakhart 8 years ago

You're obviously just mad that you didn't come up with Turbo Kid. What a cry baby. You have probably heard "get a life" dozens of times just in the last week.

I have a better idea though.

Seriously, just go dig a hole and die in it.

[–] vortexrider 8 years ago

I wouldn't waste my time directing this piece of garbage. And since you can't even give any arguments and instead write death threats shows that you realize I am actually right.

[–] andrewhollingsworth 8 years ago

Yeah we get it, you hate the film blah blah blah.

There was nothing wrong with the referencing. It takes a keen eye to spot most of them outside of the obvious few like Mad Max. Most of the films it references are very obscure with I suspect very few having seen most of them like Cherry 2000, Solarbabies, BMX Bandits, Steel Dawn. The references didn't impact on the story either. Your complaints are mostly nitpicks about style and content choices not about the actual quality of the directing, acting, screenplay, dialogue etc.

It might wear it's influences on its sleeve but they are so varied and that the film has its own thing going on. It's not like the poor 80s post apocalyptic films that generally took nearly all their influences from one or two movies and mostly looked either like a cheap knock of Mad Max, Mad Max without vehicles or Escape From New York or a combination of the two.

Turbo Kid had heart and if you couldn't relate to the weak kid struggling in a post apocalyptic world where his parents died as a kid and appears to fall in love with a robot that dies at the end, then it is clearly not for you and says more about you than the quality of the film.

Turbo Kid had a really low budget and is better than most of the high budget movies saturated by poor young adult book adaptations, remakes and poor sequels (Fury Road and The Force Awakens being exceptions).

[–] mfreeman33 8 years ago

Um, you've mentioned several times that the movie was filled with unoriginality and clichés, but did it occur to you that that was the point? The whole film is an homage TO those clichés that exist in the types of films it's emulating. It wasn't trying to be slick or different, it's filmed in honor of post-apoc B movies by acknowledging the flaws and poking fun. It's meant to be tongue-in-cheek. All I've gathered from your posts are two things:

1) you don't have a sense of humor

And

2) you just plain didn't get it.

You watched it whilst taking it seriously. By bashing the film, you're inadvertently bashing the movies that it's copying.
I mean, how do you not get that it was all done on purpose? It was filmed to be "bad". That's what makes it a piece of art. It's an examination of a time period of pop culture that existed for a time and that has had a resurgence in the last half decade or so. There's a hint of genius in it, but most of all its just meant to be fun. I see nothing wrong with that.

[–] Dobbsyisonfire 8 years ago

Got bored of your rambling and watched the film again. Much better than your dross posts.

[–] vortexrider 8 years ago

Good for you. Why not watch it a third time?

[–] ModernHorror 8 years ago

Actually, the directors made Turbo Kid as a "genuine love letter to their childhood." To films they loved and grew up watching in the 80s. "It is not a spoof. We didn't want to laugh at the film. We wanted it to be like a lost 80's movie that we uncovered that nobody saw before." This is from the film makers own mouths. They succeeded in what they were trying to achieve. It's sad that you couldn't see that.

There is no 'now', here.

[–] vortexrider 8 years ago

Oh well. Like I wrote before, I don't question the intent of the doctors but rather the final result. They put too many things people associate with old 70s and 80s films PLUS live action anime based stylistic elements and stylistic references to early 90s NES video games. They needed to pick one genre and one art direction instead of trying to stick as many artifacts of the culture of past decades into one film.
Good examples of 80s homages are once again movies like Doomsday and Mad Max fury road. There should be a few more but I can't remember what they are.