Classe 1999

You don't get any more hammy than this. Amongst all the trash of straight to video releases, you ocassionaly find a concept like this. A guy walks out of prison, and heads back to school to find that cyborg teachers are taking the code of the classroom a little to far. Schools in many American districts are regarded as "Free-fire zones" and the police won't even intervene in the deadly gang warfare that ensues whenever school is not on. No one ever asks "Why do these kids even bother going to school", but at this point, who cares? This is a gritty view of the future, with the kind of ironic humour that has made Verhoeven millions, if he had directed this it would have been the next Robocop. The cast shine with the likes of Malcolm MacDowell, Pam Grier and Stacey Keach and in the leading role is charasmatic Corey Feldman-clone, Bradley Gregg. Everyone is having fun with this movie and it is this attitude that makes it so watchable. A pumping rock soundtrack including Nine Inch Nails debut single pads this out even further. Great lines ooze from the script; I'll leave you with one of my favourites: "I'm going to go waste some teachers. Who's with me!"

If you've grown up with trashy no brainer films like this one and Lesters even poorer effort Commando, you'll love this. Its cheesy, over the top and light hearted enough to make for a great bored night in with illegal substances. The acting is hammy, the direction poor, but what saves this film is the exact things that make is a catastrophy. I mean, don't be expecting "Its a Wonderful Life" or "The Green Mile" when you watch this. Just expect a nice straight forward action flick about psychotic robot teachers. Everything about this film is great, its intense, dark and fun. Its not surprising to see people here have ripped it apart, but with a name like Class of 1999, what did you expect??

Summary: watch it for a giggle, its really not that bad.

I remember watching it on SKY (satellite) at about 1.30 am, and being amazed by what i saw.A film that had good characters, a good story line and cool visual affects, a class flick! And nothing has changed, except for the fact that there have been better films made since then. Bradley Gregg playing Cody Culp was for some reason a character that i wanted to be because he was a thug and considered cool. I liked the relationship he had with his former gangmembers and his enemies the RAZOR HEADS! (classic names) Stacey Keach played the "mad proffessor" down to a T, as if it was written exclusively for him. surprisingly this is the best film i have seen Patrick Kilpatick play in, EVER! Pam Grier's role was fine but should have been played someone else.(Sharon Stone) Mr HARDY was a scream, a classic bad guy if ever i saw one. The ending could have been a bit better though. "I was there, he was so wasted he would'nt have known which end the bullets come out!" one of my favourite lines, all in all a great film which had a few surprises which were all enjoyable. 7/10

Thanks for reading.

In 1999 (I think) things have gotten so bad that as a last resort, robots have been brought in to teach students. This is all thanks to Bob Forrest (Stacy Keach) who hopes that he can sell his robots to other problem ridden schools, however when the robots (John P. Ryan, Pam Grier and Patrick Kilpatrick) starting killing students for being late and start pitting gangs against each other, it's up to Cody (Bradley Gregg) to reunite the gangs and waste the "George Jetson nightmare!" Also the robots have killed his brothers and kidnapped his girlfriend Kristi (Traci Lin) so Cody's looking for revenge in this exciting and admittedly silly actioner. There are few genres that amuse me more than deadly teachers whipping bad kids in shape. The Principal, Substitute movies and so forth are sources of guilty pleasures, Class 99 is no different, since the androids are played by cool actors such as John P. Ryan, Pam Grier and Patrick Kilpatrick. The teenagers themselves don't really convince as punks but there is lots of action and it's all directed with the most possible gore, this was after all from Mark L. Lester (Commando and Showdown In Little Tokyo) so despite the obvious fact that this movie is even more poorly made than it's own sequel (Which stars Kickboxer 2's Sasha Mitchell) the fact is that this far more entertaining and is perfect for those who hate teenagers and want to see them get disposed of in the most grisly way. I for one find that to be great entertainment.

3/5 Matt Bronson

Recent teenage parolee Cody Culp returns to his anarchistic futuristic hood to find himself disgusted with his home life, alienated from his former gang(probably to his relief), and threatened by the school's newest bullies: three robotic teachers, implemented by the government to restore discipline, only consolation being his budding romance with the principal's daughter--perpetually gorgeous Tracy Lin. As always, whenever players take the material as seriously as these actors do, the potentially mediocre is propelled to a new level. The performance by vastly unappreciated and underused Bradley Gregg rivals that of the more experienced Ryan, Grier, and Kilpatrick(with McDowell typically good, but all too often idle).

I've always held that the reason there was and remains so much dissatisfaction with this movie is that too many people watched it with the wrong expectations. Preparing for some silliness and expecting some substandard effects is the starting point with one like this. Reason being: to get past the frequent implausibility is to put yourself in a position to recognize the uniqueness and innovation. Taking the deliberate cheese with a grain of salt, one can appreciate opportunities when it is earnest.

If anything truly hurts this movie, it's the boring pseudo-military battle scenes. They would have been wise to leave this stuff to the only films suited to do them properly--war films, but instead have introduced out-of-place time wasters in which neither side has evoked any sympathy anyway. That said, Class Of 1999 is still a shoulda-been camp classic not to be missed. Then again, should any movie featuring knockout Tracy Lin be missed?