Off we go. My first screening at the annual Helsinki International Film Festival was the action sci-fi movie Turbo Kid. Lots of hype and positive anticipation surrounded this movie prior screening, and I’m not gonna lie – I hate hype. So the movie probably lost some of its edge before I’d even seen one frame of it.

However, I truly enjoyed a lot of the 80’s stuff, synth-pop music and movie references. I actually have a View-Master sitting on my shelf at home. I’m an 80’s kid.

But too much is too much. The overuse of music destroyed some of the dialogue, though I’m not entirely sure if the dialogue was that terrific to begin with. Munro Chambers was pretty decent in the main role of The Kid, but Laurence Leboeuf did a great job as the brilliantly named Apple.

Storywise, nothing spectacular, but I think that’s part of the 80’s thing. We do remember all the rad characters from the 80’s action movies, but when it comes to storytelling, they were all about the basics. Superhero movies aren’t supposed to be complicated. It’s good vs. evil. In that sense, all was in place and rolled on smoothly.

***/5

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