Noutions
Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .
Afouotos
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Bren O'Keeffe
If you're looking for a gong-show of a movie, a piping hot mess of a movie, all production and story flaws you know what....this isn't a movie, folks...this is an experience. As far as Italian ripoffs goes, 2019: After the Fall of New York stands head and shoulders above the rest, no spoilers in this review, just go watch it, have some beers too, and just marvel at what it is. I think this movie due for a rediscovery soon, its like Miami Connection on steroids. I seen it many, many times, and still I can't fathom it's existence. I don't want go into any details about this flick, because it would ruins the experience, this needs to be slowly savour like a 40 year scotch. Find this somehow and go watch it now.
Comeuppance Reviews
Classic Sopkiw.Michael Sopkiw plays Parsifal, a guy who loves racing cars around the Arizona desert and basking in the love of his fans for beating his opponents on the post-apocalyptic racing circuit. But his world is interrupted when he's summoned to a secret base by The President of the Pan-American Confederacy (Purdom). He's informed that he must break into New York City - which is controlled by deadly gangs called the Euraks - to rescue a woman from their clutches who can perhaps help to replenish the depleted population of earth. He also gets assigned two helpers: Ratchet (Puppo), who's supposed to be one of the strongest men left on the planet, and Bronx (Scalondro), a man who has memorized the map of New York. During their mission, the three men meet tons of trials and tribulations, not the least of which is New York's serious rat problem. They meet many wacky characters along the way, such as Big Ape (Eastman). Will they get out of NYC alive and save the world? Find out today! Despite being the pride of our home state, Connecticut, Sopkiw starred almost exclusively in Italian productions. Between 1983-1985 he appeared in 2019, then did two movies for Lamberto Bava: Blastfighter (1984) and Devil Fish (also 1984), then one more for Michele Massimo Tarantini, Massacre In Dinosaur Valley (1985) then all but disappeared. Just more evidence that the 80's was awesome - Italian productions were flourishing, and stars like Sopkiw had venues to flower and we got to know them all through our local video stores. Sadly, that time is over, but gems like 2019 provide much-appreciated artifacts from that golden time period.2019 appears to be the result of Sergio Martino throwing his hat into the then-hot post-apocalyptic genre. The movie has all the insane outfits, wonderfully decorated sets, innovative weapons and vehicles with crazy crap glued to them that any Italian post-nuke movie would have, and that fans have grown to love and have become accustomed to. Of course that includes flamethrowers and "Pew Pew" lasers. These movies were primarily meant to entertain, and 2019 completely succeeds. It has the ultimate coolguy for a hero, plenty of wild situations intermixed with brutal violence, and the time-honored innovations we often talk about, ensuring an 80's Video Store Classic.Speaking of video stores (though when aren't we?), when 2019 was released on VHS by Vestron, they dropped the 2019 and just went with After the Fall of New York. Could this be because they wanted to bring the similarities to Escape From New York (1981) front and center? Nah. Can't be. But then Joe D'Amato's 2020 Texas Gladiators (1984) presumably picked up where this movie left off? Regardless, the Guido and Maurizio DeAngelis music (using their pseudonym Oliver Onions) is typically solid and appropriately synthy and futuristic. Their soundtrack to Street Law (1974) is hard to beat, but this one is a winner as well.The Media Blasters DVD is a must-own if you're into the Italian post-apocalyptic genre. It looks great in widescreen and even has an intro from Michael Sopkiw. We recommend it.For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com
Michael_Elliott
2019: After the Fall of New York (1983)* 1/2 (out of 4) During Italy's "trash boom", each and every film from America that was popular would eventually be "reinmagined" but in a lower form. Take this film where we get a semi-remake of John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and needless to say, this here isn't quite as good. Twenty years after a nuclear apocalypse, three men are sent into New York where they must find the last fertile woman and bring her out so that civilization can start over. Making it through New York isn't going to be easy as we got several bad guys, several ugly guys and a giant ape man (George Eastman). We can start off by stating the obvious in that Martino isn't Carpenter and Michael Sopkiw isn't Kurt Russell. With that said, this is still a pretty poor movie on all levels and in the end I was really disappointed because a lot of times these re-imagined films are decent for a few good laughs. That's not the case here because by the thirty-minute mark I was bored out of my mind and the final hour really dragged its feet so badly that the film just crashed and burned. I think the biggest problem is the budget. The horror or giallo films could get away with a low budget but I think that's a lot harder to do when it comes to futuristic action films. The action scenes are all incredibly cheap and they come off very fake looking. The post-apocalyptic world also looks very fake and especially the "burnt down" NYC at the start of the film. These are two things that you don't need a big budget for, just look at ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK but you need someone behind the camera to pull it off. Martino has made some good films throughout his career but this here isn't one of them. I think he has a hard time putting everything together as the film really loses focus of its (limited) story and goes off in all sorts of directions. Another major problem is that Sopkiw is just boring in the lead and doesn't make for a good character. The supporting cast isn't any better and that includes cult favorite Eastman.
Woodyanders
Eurorack, an all-powerful European mega-conglomerate, has nuked the living s**t out of the good old planet Earth, reducing the once fruitful and hospitable terrain into a harsh, barren, garbage-strewn wasteland populated by grubby malformed folks who are incapable of reproducing. Pan-American, a rival corporation, enlists the aid of tough, scruffy, tight-lipped, but fairly humane survivalist supreme Parsifal (decently played by handsome, unshaven Kurt Russell lookalike Michael Sopkiw) and fellow mangy macho mercenaries Romano Puppo and Roman Greer to venture into the dangerous wreckage of the Big Rotten Apple in order to retrieve the last fertile woman before Eurorack gets their pernicious paws on her first.Although it's clearly little more than a pretty obvious low-budget post-apocalyptic sci-fi/action amalgam of the "Mad Max" films, "The Ultimate Warrior," and especially "Escape from New York," "After the Fall of New York" for all its blatant borrowings still measures up as a compelling, commendable and agreeably exciting cut'n'paste ragbag clone. The always capable and dependable hack-of-all-genres Sergio Martino (his other pictures include "Torso," "Mountain of the cannibal God," and "Island of the Fishman") does a solid, praiseworthy job with the admittedly threadbare script: the pace zips along at a constant speedy clip, the production values are a touch chintzy, but acceptable, there's an ample amount of lively, well-orchestrated action (rip-roaring destructive car chases, brutal fisticuffs, all-out lethal firefights), the not half-bad pseudo-Goblin group Oliver Onions supply a funky, moody score (they also did the groovy music for the lovably lousy earthbound "ALIEN" copy "Alien 2: On Earth"), Giancarlo Ferrando's slick, sparely lit, atmospheric cinematography makes the film look more expensive then it probably was, a generous sprinkling of oddball touches are evident throughout (a tribe of helpful dwarfs, over-sized subterranean subhuman simian dudes, flesh-eating rats, assorted gummy-faced mutant marauders, and so on), the dialogue pleasingly mines a fun line in "guess where you heard this before?"-type nostalgia ("We have ways of making you talk"), the tone is suitably grim, desolate and unsentimental ("If love still had any meaning in this world, then I'd love you"), and the heroic sacrifices made by several people who assist in rescuing the sole fecund female are surprisingly touching.Appearing in colorful supporting parts are Edmund Purdom as a cagey, ruthless, fatally ill CEO, brawny, hulking, enormous 6' 7" behemoth post-nuke movie perennial George Eastman as Big Ape, the hairy, humongous humanoid gorilla ruler of the fetid Fun City sewers, token Asian guy fellow post-nuke movie mainstay Hal Yamanouchi as the hideously scarred nutzoid leader of a bunch of rodent-devouring freaks, the gorgeous brunette hottie Anna Kanakis as a venomous lady villain, and lovely blonde looker Valentine Monier, who's particularly good as the compassionate underground dweller who risks her own life to ensure the success of Parsifal's desperate mission. A junky, energetic and hyper-violent bleakly futuristic action/adventure blast, this bang-up baby is done with just enough verve, style and sheer infectious go-for-it aplomb to qualify as well above average dumb fun.
