Turbo Kid

A raucous retro action-comedy that delivers fun and gore by the bucket-load, this debut feature from Quebecois filmmaking collective RKSS (Francois Simard and siblings Anouk and Yoann-Karl Whissell) pays homage to such VHS-era favourites as BMX Bandits and Mad Max, as well as their cheeky straight-to-video knock-offs. Turbo Kid takes us back to the future, 1997 to be exact, where the evil overlord Zeus (played with malevolent relish by genre stalwart Michael Ironside) controls the only remaining supply of water in a post-nuclear dystopian wasteland. The comic book-obsessed Kid scavenges in the ruins for goods to trade with other survivors for water, but instead ends up finding a new bestie, a preternaturally enthusiastic pink-haired girl named Apple. BMX-riding goons in the employ of Zeus maraud around the landscape abducting vulnerable survivors. When Apple is kidnapped, the Kid must draw on his superhero know-how and the power of an ancient artifact to rescue her and dispense some turbocharged blood-spattered revenge on the bad guys.  MM