2019: After the Fall of New York (1984)

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.

2019: After the Fall of New York is inspired by Escape from New York, the hero is similar to Snake except he doesn't wear a eye-patch, they're both in New York trying to find someone then escape, 2019: After the Fall of New York also has some different things that isn't in Esacpe from New York. The film does have some nice music, action and the effects are pretty good.The plot sees the world in the future and everything is post apocalyptic, New York has been occupied by an army of people called Eurac's who are cleaning up the streets. Meanwhile in the deserts a death rally is going on where some people in armoured vehicles try to kill each other. The champion Parsifal beats the opponents and gets his reward, he soon finds himself being knocked out by a stun ray and sent to the Alaska where he meets the President who tells him that they have found a fertile women on earth, Parsifal is told to go into New York and find her then bring her hear. Two people are sent with him to find her, they then go off into New York where they soon find themselves in trouble, as they hide in the sewers they discover the Rat-eaters, a group of people who live in the sewers and feast on flesh eating Rats. They soon get captured by the Rat-eaters and Parsifal beings to fall in love with one of the female Rat-eaters, suddenly the Eurac's attack the Rat-eaters. Parsifal ends up being captured by them. In there he makes a deal with one of the Eurac's that he'll show them the fertile women who he believes is the Rat-eater women, soon he escapes freeing his two friends and the Rat-eater. Parsifal must find the true fertile women before the Eurac's capture them again.2019: Ater the Fall of New York is a great post apocalyptic movie that should be seen. 10/10

Most people seem to go on and on complaining about how shamelessly this film imitates John Carpenter's "Escape from N.Y.". Well, duh…! Wasn't that the movie's sole mission? That's what clever Italian filmmakers did during the 1970's and 1980's! Whenever there was something new in Hollywood that hit big at the box-office, a bunch of Italian writers immediately began to work on scripts to cash in on these particular trends, only their movies were usually even more violent, sleazier and gorier than the milestones they were inspired by. Some of the best Italian (horror) movies are obvious rip-offs, like Fulci's "Zombi 2" and Deodato's "House on the Edge of the Park". Sergio Martino's "2019 - After the Fall of New York" also definitely ranks amongst the coolest, most unscrupulous movie-clones ever made! Carpenter's original is a terrific movie, but who's more eligible to come up with a dark, grim and graphically sadistic post-apocalyptic story then the Italian exploitation guys? "2019 – etc…" is a tremendously COOL movie and that pretty much summarizes it all. Once again, futuristic New York has turned into a dangerous wasteland where the few survivors of nuclear warfare feed on rats and get randomly executed for not volunteering as medical guinea pigs. Even worse here is that no children have been born in over 15 years and the entire human race is threatened with extinction. The outer New York federation sends the courageous race-car driver Parsifal to NY in order to bring back the last fertile woman on earth. Naturally, this won't be a pick nick trip, as he has to battle the evil "Euraks" and a troop of hairy circus freaks, led by "Big Ape" (a nice guest appearance by George Eastman). This movie certainly delivers loads of exhilarating action scenes, fabulous kitschy set pieces and a wide range of fascinating characters. The hero Parsifal is a likable Snake Plissken clone, with the exact same haircut and costume, only without the eye-patch (his sidekick wears one, though) and dry sense of humor. The supportive characters include Cyborgs, wild dwarfs and one gorgeous (albeit infertile) girl. The "human extinction" plot is reasonable ingenious and if you don't have problems with all the story lines that are "borrowed" from other cinema classics ("Mad Max", "Planet of the Apes", "The Omega Man",...), you're guaranteed to have great fun with this little-seen Italian cult gem.

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.