2019 - Dopo la caduta di New York

After the Fall of New York is one of the best of the seemingly endless Italian rip-offs of John Carpenter's Escape From New York that deluged the early 80s. Mind you, I really like these films, so that is not a slam by any means. This flick is certainly one of the most entertaining of the lot. Michael Sopkiw does his best Snake Plisken imitation and is quite good. The story is original: Parcifal (Sopkiw) must journey into the hell hole to retrieve the last fertile woman alive; the key to the survival of the human race! You have all the great exploitation elements: violence, gunfire, brutality, gore… could have used more t&a, but hey, you can't have everything. Creative characters abound like the midget (Shorty, what else!) and George Eastman as Big Ape. Anna Kanakis (wow) is great as the treacherous Eurac officer trying to stop Parcifal at all costs.

If you are not a B-movie lover, stay away. Genre fans, however, will not be disappointed here. Enjoy!

Agreeable fun'n'funky post-nuke science-fiction/action romp . This exciting picture packs kinetic action , thrills, intrigue , shocks and lots of blood and violence . The movie likely satisfy action enthusiasts and Italian Sci-Fi fonds . After a nuclear war, society breaks down into two sides , the evil Euraks and the rebel Federation . In this future , crime is out of control and New York City turned into an inhabitable location and finds itself under siege by violent gangs . A mercenary named Parsifal (Michel Sopkiw of Blastfighter) is assigned a dangerous mission by President of the Pan American Confederacy (Edmund Purdom of Sinuhe the Egyptian and The prodigal) to infiltrate New York City , which is controlled by the Euraks, to take the only fertile woman left on Earth . Parsifal along with two hunk men (Romano Puppo , Scalondro) go out from desert toward feared New York City) . There , they meet Rat Eater King (Yamanouchi) , a nasty Eurac Commander and cruel Eurac Officer named Ania (Anna Kanakis) . They'll have to fight against cutthroats , a band of depraved crazies thirsty for blood and survive some battles to-the-death with lots of blood and gore , including throating-slit , beheading and blow up . At the end a motley group (Sipkiw , Valentine Monner , Romano Puppo and George Eastman) embarks a spectacular escape against vicious murderous .

"2019: After the Fall of New York" (1983) film is a comic book plenty of action , fun, adventures , thriller and surprise-filled entertainment . Spectacular stunt-work plenty of motorcycles, car crashes , with bounds and leaps and explosions . Michael Sopkiw as tough and valiant renegade is passable . Sopkiw made his film debut with this substantial lead part as rugged Snake Plissken-like survivalist warrior hero Parsifal . Adequate plethora of characters with average performances by its entire support cast . There appears ordinary secondaries from Italian B series such as George Eastman as Big Ape , Romano Puppo , Giovanni Cianfriglia as Panther , Ottaviano Dell'Acqua and the American Edmund Purdom ; all of them played lots of Spaghetti , Peplum , Giallo and customary genres of the 60s and 70s . Rumbling and screeching musical score by Oliver Onions , the usuals Guido and Maurizio De Angelis . The picture is a rip-off from ¨1997 , Escape from New York¨ by John Carpenter that was also followed by an inferior sequel by the same actor and director : ¨Escape from L.A.¨.

The picture was professionally directed by the prolific filmmaker Sergio Martino or Martin Dolman . Talented and versatile writer/director Sergio Martino has made a vast array of often solid and entertaining films in all kind of genres as horror, Giallo , comedy, Western , and science fiction in a career that spans over 40 years . He especially was expert on Western as proved in ¨Mannaja¨ and ¨Arizona returns¨ and Giallo as this ¨The case of scorpion's tail ¨ , ¨Torso¨ ,¨the scorpion with two tails¨ , ¨The strange vice of Mrs Ward¨ , Cannibal movie as "Mountain of the Cannibal God", Italian crime thrillers as "Violent Professionals" and ¨Sci-Fi as ¨Destroyer¨ and this "2019: After the Fall of New York". Rating: Acceptable and passable Sci-Fi movie, this is an imaginative Sci-Fi picture in which the camera stalks in moving style throughout a story with enjoyable visual skills . This is a bewildering story , funny in some moment but falls flat and it will appeal to Science Fiction and Italian exploitation fans .

Despite being a huge fan of cult and B-Movies and even though I really wanted and tried hard to enjoy this, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to go against the general tide of opinion as regards this film.

The ever likable Michael Sopkiw, who's career in B-movies was admittedly brief but so very fondly remembered, appears here as a sort of Mad Max/Snake Plissken type of guy who is coerced into rescuing the last fertile woman on earth from within the hell hole that has become Manhattan Island.

Cue lots of fights, sludging through rat infested sewers, getting captured about every five minutes (!) a healthy splashing of gore and the appearance of perennial B-Movie fave big George Eastman as a simian character called 'Big Ape' and hey presto - you have what on paper at least sounds like a great movie.....

On paper perhaps......

To be fair, the movie isn't at all bad by any means and even boasts some pretty decent production values in fact, but sadly it just failed to enthral me.

The biggest problem I had with this is that the action scenes are for the most part handled with very little flair. Added to this, the best scene in the entire movie (for me at least) was actually at the very beginning when our hero is shown banger racing in a heavily armoured car. Needless to say, after such an intro the remaining 80 or so minutes of the movie seemed pale in comparison.

Still, as previously mentioned, the overall look of the film is very commendable indeed (bar one or two instances of very dodgy model work) and there's some great gross out moments (including one excellent head bashing scene!)

I'm tempted to deduct another point from this film however, due to the all too common and sad trend of some Italian genre movies of the time that regretfully rears it's ugly head here - genuine animal cruelty/killing. In this case we are 'treated' to a display of some rats getting speared. Such a disgusting trend ostensibly stemmed from the cannibal themed movies of the same period as were pioneered by directors Umberto Lenzi and Ruggero Deodato - both of whom were more than capable of producing highly enjoyable films without having to resort to such repulsive, cheap shock tactics.

Would you believe that I have actually spoken to people who have tried to justify such barbaric acts 'for the sake of art''?! I've also spoken to various other cretinous wretches who seem to be under the misguided impression that watching such acts of cruelty in films somehow makes them more 'macho' as it logically denotes that 'they can take anything' (!!!!)

Still back to the film in question.....overall, whilst not unwatchable by any stretch of the imagination, After The Fall Of New York, for me, distinctly lacked enough intriguing scenes to raise it above the average mark.

My advice is, if you're into the genre then watch it by all means, it does have a hefty fan base, however for much more enjoyment value, check out the far superior film it is copied - erm...I mean inspired from, Escape From New York.

20 years after a nuclear holocaust radiation has rendered all remaining humans sterile. After winning a motorized deathmatch an ex-Confederate soldier named Parsifal is offered a place on a rocketship by The President if he can infiltrate New York City and retrieve a fertile woman, or be killed.

Directed by Sergio Martino 2019, After the Fall of New York (2019 - Dopo la caduta di New York) is more sci-fi orientated than most (with a spaceship inclusion). Ernesto Gastaldi, Martino and Gabriel Rossini screenplay has echoes of Blade Runner (1982), Mad Max 2 (1981) and borrows heavily from Escape from New York (1981). It's one of the better copy-cat post-apocalyptic Italian films in the vein of similar to the films 1990 The Bronx Warriors, Escape from the Bronx, The New Barbarians and Endgame to name a few. Even copying a scene from Flash Gordon (1980).

It has all the same production issues of these low budget Italian cash-ins. Questionable, dialogue, acting, special effects, dubbing and sound design. This aside, the catchy soundtrack from Guido De Angelis and Maurizio De Angelis compliments the shenanigans and action adding to the B-movie charm. In contrast to the kitted vehicles, some of the sets and locations are notable. The derelict city set scenes have plenty of atmosphere courteous of cinematographer Giancarlo Ferrando as Michael Sopkiw's Parsifal and his rag tag side kicks Bronx and Ratchet make their way through the city encountering rats, cyborgs, fallout stricken street gangs, horses, ape-like mutants, dwarfs and dodging sonic weapons. It's grim and downbeat for the most part.

Miss Italy Anna Kanakis as evil officer Ania and striking Valentine Monnier as Giara along with B-movie regular George Eastman are memorable. Unfortunately Monnier is given little to do. Tiziana Fibi and Alessandra Tani even less. Kanakis shines here as the femme fatale as steals the film from not only the villain Serge Feuillard's Eurac Commander but also lead Sopkiw. To Martino's credit and company it's well filmed, with some tight continuity (Donatella Botti) and editing by Eugenio Alabiso there's also a few light left of field twists from the writers in the closing act.

Overall, it should come as no surprise it's over the top, full of tropes and holes, but its fast pace keeps momentum in true 80s Italian science fiction film style.

A Mad Max-like rogue soldier is asked by the President of the new world, to go to New York (Which is of course a wasteland) and rescue the last fertile woman on earth, while on the mission he runs into a band of good mutants, savage cannibalistic gangs and a good midget who knows the location of the last fertile woman, while on the way the totalitarian establishment conducts experiments and also want to find the last fertile woman on earth. 2019:Fall Of New York actually predates Hell Comes To Frogtown and Cyborg which basically borrow plot elements from this movie. Of course the main inspiration here is Escape From New York and Mad Max, in fact the main lead looks sort of like Kurt Russell, but with that said this is actually a fun movie. Indeed I was shocked at how invested I was in the hero's plight. I also found many elements interesting, the first one being that our heroes are aided by those devastated physically by the nuclear holocaust, usually they serve as villains but here they aid the heroes in their fight against the normal looking soldiers in the employ of a ruthless cult. Sure the message doesn't mean much and the film is goofy but this element adds likability to the characters and I found myself strangely engrossed in the hero's mission. In fact, for a no-name cast this is actually pretty decently acted. The movie could've used a tighter pace, and the ending seems rushed but as far as Escape From New York rip offs go, this is a very enjoyable product.

**1/2 Out Of 4-(Pretty Good)