Class of 1999

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

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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!"

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

I've got a soft spot for sci-fi films that have already passed their sell-by-date—those movies set in a year that is now history to you and I (even more-so if the year forms part of the film's title, like this one): I just love seeing how these cinematic predictions of the future differ from reality.

Class of 1999 is a classic example: according to this film, by the year 1999 gang culture will have reached such a level in the U.S. that certain areas—known as Free Fire Zones—will no longer be protected by the police. Kennedy High School, situated in one such lawless zone, becomes the testing ground for three experimental robot teachers (played by Patrick Kilpatrick, Pam Grier, and John P. Ryan), adapted from military battle droids by unscrupulous MegaTech head honcho Bob Forrest (Stacy Keach).

Recently released from prison, gang-banger Cody Culp (Bradley Gregg) intends to give up his criminal lifestyle, but when the droid teachers begin to revert back to their military programming, dealing with their unruly students using extreme force, he and his gang, the Blackhearts, join forces with their rivals, the Razorheads, to try and stop the killing.

According to director Mark L. Lester (who also directed the superior Class of 1984), late '90s fashion hasn't moved on much from the decade before, the film's youths sporting some truly nasty attire (worst offender being Joshua Jackson as Cody's brother Angel, who wears yellow leggings and matching tunic and has the cheek to tell Cody "Man, you got to think about your image"). Also exhibiting zero sign of taste: Stacy Keach as freaky albino Forrest, whose hairstyle is a cross between a mullet and a rattail, and who wears zombie contact lenses for no apparent reason (I thought he was an albino at first, but his 'tache is black).

This version of 1999 also sees the art of robotics advanced to a level where machines can pass for human, something clearly inspired by James Cameron's The Terminator. As the droid teachers battle Cody and his pals, they shed their skin to reveal powerful weapons, which takes the violence up a notch and allows for some pretty impressive animatronic effects and gloopy cyborg gore, Grier opening up her chest (complete with prosthetic tits), Ryan having his cranium blown off, and Kilpatrick's head reduced to half human, half robot (before having his noggin separated from his body via forklift truck!).

Gloriously daft, a little cheesy at times, a lot cheesy at others, and packed with cartoonish violence, Class of 1999 is great entertainment for fans of exploitative '80s schlock. The fact that its vision of the near future is so wrong is just the icing on the cake.

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.