BRAIN DAMAGE

Brain Damage (1988)

Directed by: Frank Henenlotter

Rating: 4 out of 4 Pentagrams

Reviewed by: Jeff Deth

 

Frank Henenlotter holds a special place in the b-movie splatter genre. He has a short list of credits to his name but that list happens to contain the cult-classic Basket Case trilogy and Frankenhooker.

Henenlotter is a filmmaker whose work is distinctly tied to the environment in which he lives. New York City is the perfect atmosphere for the utterly insane and dark themes he conjures up.

He holds an absolutely original vision amongst his peers. Others have been just as crass and violent, but none has been as intelligent in creating character motivations.

His second film, Brain Damage is the story of a brain-eating parasitic slug that latches onto a human host body that provides access to its human prey.

The underlying theme deals explicitly with drug abuse and the effects thereof upon the human mind. The slug creature feeds his host hallucinogenic drugs, enslaving him to a merry-go-round of highs and tortuous withdrawals. The slug fully communicates with his host. In fact it is very sophisticated manipulator who dangles his serum like a carrot in order to feed again and again.

The film opens with an old couple who lose possession of their creature and go into a mad panic. The slug moves onto a new host, an average twenty-something named Brian (Rick Hearst) who lives in the same apartment building with his brother. The parasite, named Aylmer by the previous host, is a bizarre and awesome slug like creature. My favorite parts are when he opens his mouth to inject the liquid serum onto Brian’s brain tissue.

No one won any acting awards for this film but there are some many textural elements at work that it doesn’t matter. I laughed a dozen times at the hilarity of Brians trips and rants about colors and lights.

Hearst actually does pretty well at channeling the burned out tripper who’s lost touch with reality. The creature f/x on this shoestring budget where also impressive considering. The kills are all very enjoyable, Alymer burrowing straight into the heads of his victims, sucking down the brains inside.

The film does a great job of weaving through the trashy alleys and nightclubs of New York City. There's a gritty, street feel that really helps create the Henenlotter mood. Everything is over the top and surreal but there's a human interest and desperation built into it. The dialogue can get very campy without the film losing interest. Things never go too far where it becomes a tasteless joke. And even if it’s cheesy at times, there's enough dynamics to keep the story moving in an entertaining way. 

A great B-movie should have a totally outrageous story with a social commentary just beneath the surface. Brain Damage delivers on all fronts. But lets not forget that most importantly there’s tons of gore, and tons of fun.

This is a total cult-classic that is worth repeated viewings as it is just as poignant and entertaining as it must have been 20 years ago.

This makes me want to go track down his recent come back film, Bad Biology and Frankenhooker too for that matter.

Andre The Butcher

Andre The Butcher (2005)

Directed by: Philip Cruz

Rating: 1 out of 4 Body Bags

Reviewed by: Jeff Deth

Any film staring Ron Jeremy as a machete-wielding psycho can’t possibly be taking itself seriously. At least we hope it doesn’t. I honestly don’t know if I hated this movie of kind of liked it. The filmmakers had me with the title and the box art, there’s no question.

Which makes the point – I keep getting suckered into bad movies because great packaging. I imagined a great sleeper of a movie with that giant butcher standing there covered in blood holding a meat cleaver.  I know better, but damn it, I want to believe. For every ten pieces of shit, I discover a diamond in the rut. Not here. They promised me “pure terror”, what I got was pure bullshit.

This is an annoying hack job that I kept telling myself would get better if I only gave it a little longer. When the credits finally appeared my hopes where firmly put to rest. Let’s be clear, this is a brainless horny cheerleaders getting bleeped and killed movie. A group of said cheerleaders and some male cheerleader douchebag get stranded in the boonies. They end up taken hostage by two freshly escaped ex-convicts. To make matters worse this all takes place in the vicinity of a cannibalistic madman. So the killing begins.

It’s hard to tell whether they’re trying to make fun of this derivative nonsense or if they’re really not smart enough to do something better. And while it may be poking fun of this overdone scenario, the fun gets worn out of it pretty quick.

Listen, there’s some all right kills and F/X work here, but that’s basically all you get that’s worth a damn. And I’m not against mindless teen slashers. When it’s meant to be nothing but a good time with blood on top I can accept that. It just doesn’t all add up here.  Most of the characters are just too fucking ridiculous to stomach. And it’s not even Jeremy who is the trouble. In fact, with his zero lines spoken, he’s the best actor of the bunch.

The back-story on Andre is a convoluted mess. I don’t know what the hell they want him to be. It would be fine if he was just some sicko maniac, but they turn him into some bizarre supernatural demon, whatever. I mean he walks around with a bleeping welders mask on. Can you just hack these teenie-bopper bleeps into pieces for me??

The whole middle section of this movie is a boring mess of a story that limps toward the only thing worth wild, the end. I mean, like I said there’s a couple cool things like the Butcher’s ability to reattach his own blown-off arm. Beyond that this movie tries too hard to make fun of itself to the point where it’s no longer enjoyable.

There are plenty of people out there who seem to have gotten more from it than me. I may have missed something meaningful the director was doing that was brilliant. But then again, Ron Jeremy is in this movie. What more brilliance do you need? 

1990 Bronx Warriors...

1990 : Bronx Warriors

Year - 1983

Italian made

Rated by - Butcher Cassidy

ratings

Serious - 3 out of 5
Humor - 5 out of 5
The "NEED" to see this - 4 out of 5


I am so confused as to what inspired this and how this was ever conceived... The 80's were both awesome and lame... What was tough then, is now, just plain *expletive deleted*

Lets set the stage for what is honestly the most heartfelt attempt at failing. I say this because, there is no way a creator could not "alan smithy" this... It tries so hard to be some serious gangster ****. The setting is, the Bronx of course. The Cast of characters are a mismatch of themed gangs in "tough" uniforms, fighting with "tough" weapons, in a "tough" land where law and order just don't exist. Its a no mans land where, you live and eat with "death" to quote the leader of the main gang... Wait for it... "The Riders"... Yep, they are a hardcore biker gang led by a man, who I swear to god is wearing womens pants, and a cool vest with a long mane of hair and leather headband... And womens pants... His gang is an ethnic tapestry, complete with black dudes and some tough looking Mexican guys... All wearing swastikas, because nothing is more "tough" than a swastika on a black guy, who is also a biker, and just as cool and leather-man as everyone else. Also there were far too many mustaches in this movie, way tooooooo many, coupled with some whoa freddy mercury hair do's and mirrored sunglasses... "TOUGH"... Thats just "The Riders"...

My favorite gang was easily... "The Zombies" **** YEAH!.... Awww **** no... They are a vicious.......... Rollerskating gang!? They fight with hockey sticks, and train in a gymnastics place? Still, they were baller as heck... I am thinking of joining them if my job hunt fails, and so far it's failing as hard as this flick...

The fights were intense... I hit you, pause.... Block... COUNTER!.... pause... KILLINATION!

to break the tension of this...
INTERMISSION!
click this link ------> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW2UWyaWDPE (fun music 2nd song = awesome)

So, the acting was just as cool and this flick had some 2 serious awesome death scenes. The first was a seriously bromantic scene with two "tough" men, who loved each other deeply. Then another with a good quotable you have to just see for yourself. The sheer creativity of this flick was awe inspiring. From their names (i.e trash, ice, hotdog (yep), piss (just kidding), tiger, and bingo...), to the unique looks of the gangs, and even their weaponry. I mean I would have to do some seriously mind altering model glues to think this mess up. I mean, a "tough" biker in womens pants, a black swash buckler, a man in an SS outfit, face paint... BALLA...


Pro's

• So this flick had some crazy gangsters of questionable sexuality
• killer fights,
• creativity
• bromance
• a guy in womens pants
• a black swashbuckler
• a guy in a unitard with a killer penis outline

Cons

• Painful at times but not much else truly that bad for it.

Seriously, this was actually a very fun movie. I recommend it for one of those date nights with a mustached buddy, or similar hook up. It's a good laugh, a good story, bad acting, and some "tough" dudes... And, a dude wearing womens pants...

Well Kids... I am off to look for a recruiter, to join the Zombies...

Butcher Cassidy, peace out...

Volume 2 - Mixxer... Now less taken from Survival Instinct!

Well, Jesus... This Mixx is for you sir, this has stuff on it that was not from you! 100% different ****! Plus, it was made with love, crust, and Detroit-ness...


This mix is all about being fast and reckless, its got some good **** on here and some "burning spirit punk" that is hard to find... Grip it up, dawgs...

GRIP IT UP...GET INTO IT!!!

SNFU

…And No One Else Wanted To Play (1984)

BYO Records

Rating: 3 out of 4 Pentagrams

Reviewed by: Jeff Deth

Canada had a few really good punk exports, one being D.O.A., the other SNFU. I have been a fan of these guys back when they had a couple great albums that were on Epitaph Records. I happen to find …And No One Else Wanted to Play while digging around a great shop in Chicago.

Harmony is one of the best ways to describe the songs, in addition to “fast” and “whacky”. This is a band that defiantly doesn’t take itself too seriously. SNFU probably stuck out back in 84’ for being goofy amidst all the intense NY and D.C. Hardcore bands of the time.  

Songs like “Cannibal Café” and “The Gravedigger” were obviously meant to be fun and they come off that way. Even looking at the crazy black and white cover art makes me think of how different a band they are. They seem comfortable dealing in the realm of the bizarre. In the end though their sound has a classic O.C. quality of surf punk. They have many of the same qualities as bands from that area including The Descendents and T.S.O.L. Vocalist, Chi Pig, sounds quite a bit like Milo from The Descendents in fact. But then again he also has this very unique harmonizing quality that is rare amongst punk singers.

Chi’s delivery and enthusiasm is what really makes this band interesting. I can just picture him flailing around the stage and jumping around like a kid with ADD. That could just be my imagination as well, but the pictures on the insert certainly seem to validate that idea.

The songs are all very strong with a lot of spring and pop. Having two guitarists in a punk band seems odd, but it gives they’re sound a big boost and thickness.

My favorite tracks are “I’m Real Scared” and “Poor Pitiful Me”. Listening to this today, I can hear things that The Bouncing Souls would go on to do and can connect a lot of that to SNFU. This is a great and fun record to put on that sounds very fresh and dynamic to this day. I probably still like their later day Epitaph releases the best but the earlier stuff is totally worth getting into if you can find it.

Atrophy

Socialized Hate (1988)

Roadracer Records

Rating: 4 out of 4 Skulls

Reviewed by: Jeff Deth

I fucking love this record. Atrophy is this great little unknown band from Arizona, that sadly was short-lived. They came up along with fellow Arizonians, Flotsam and Jetsam and Sacred Reich. Being from outside The LA, Bay-Area or New York scenes must have been tough on the band. But they did do well enough to get signed and do a couple tours to support two full-length albums.

Socialized Hate was their debut from 1988, and boy did it show some promise. This record just rips from beginning to end, they really put the speed behind their aggressive thrash attack. The solos are plentiful from dueling guitarists Chris Lykins and Rick Skowron. They both play really clean and technical shredding leads throughout the record. The soloing in particular is one of my favorite aspects of listening to this band.

The other really cool component of the band is the lyrical content. Lykins wrote most of the words and he’s clearly an intelligent and informed individual. Like a lot of the thrash bands, Atrophy takes a very political stance on a variety of issues from warfare to religion to institutionalized racism. They were clearly more than just a party band. Overall pretty clever and sophisticated for music that makes you want to trash your bedroom. All the songs have a point to make but not necessarily in an over-bearing way. And just to prove they’re not all that serious, they have a comic on here about beer bonging.

Even if you didn’t give a shit about the words it’s easy just to get carried away with the music itself. Killer speed, killer aggression.

Stand out tracks like “Killing Machine”, “Socialized Hate” and “Urban Decay” make this a record worth many listens.

Great production has to be mentioned due to the legendary work of Bill Metoyer. Metoyer has worked with tons of thrash bands like Slayer, Dark Angel, D.R.I. and Laaz Rockit. Everything seemed to be going in the right direction for the band. I would love to have seen them stay together for a few more releases. 

Whatever Happened to...

I'm someone who analyzes every element to any release I come in contact with. Whether it's a movie or an album aside from looking at the artists involved I always kept track of who put it out. I just wanted to share some of the logos I remember that almost always assured me I was holding good product. If you recognize them you're just as crazy as me. Listen fuckers, when it comes to this shit I'm OCD... Jeff Deth

Imprint

Imprint

Created by - Takashi Miike

Reviewed by - Butcher Cassidy (aka - The Slam Dance Kid)

Rated - 4.75 squibs out of 5
Joke Rating - 100 wtf's out 5

---------------------------------------------------------------

Seriously, see this film. I am not going into any specifics. Well, I guess you would wonder what is the point of this review then? What I will say, is this is a flick where you will never know what the **** you are watching until the very very end, and in this case... That is a great thing.

It was made by the creator of the legendary "Ichi the Killer" movie and has some similar flow and style to that. If you liked Ichi, you will love this, but... Let me warn you, I do not get creeped out by much... This **** was disturbing... This is the kinda **** that scares even Jorg Buttgereit... It gets progressively more and more messed up until a shocking moment you won't guess... This was the stuff that flows through the minds of less than sane people. See this, now...

Presentation was superb, visually awesome... Blah blah blah... This is one of those flicks that "needs'' to be seen, and the fact is it tops off at 63 minutes long, so it's not a huge time investment.. GET INTO IT!

Butcher Cassidy...

GBH

A Fridge Too Far (1988)

Rough Justice Records

Rating: 4 out of 4 skulls

Reviewed By: Jeff Deth

This record is not easy to come by. Its one of three GBH albums that have gone out of print. GBH seemed to release each record with a different indie label, some of which like Rough Justice haven’t been active for a very long time. But thanks to ebay I could get my hands on this for about ten bucks on cassette. It was certainly worth it and GBH should do whatever they can to re-release albums like this one.

GBH is just hands down one of the few truly great punk bands that where able to record several albums over two decades. Whereas most of the original era of bands would break up after one or maybe two records. It’s the bands that stayed the course that for me wind up being my favorites.

Part of the second wave of UK punk, GBH and others like The Exploited gained the reputation of being much more “hardcore” with their sound and attitude. These are the bands that really introduced the 3-foot tall mohawks, leather jackets and combat boots to the scene.

A Fridge Too Far is GBH at about their mid-point career wise. They had already put out several solid punk albums and singles up to this point. This album reflects the band acquiring some of the tools of the metal genre that by 88’ had all but replaced punk-rock as the youth’s choice of angst. Let me be clear though that this is defiantly a punk record. It’s just that the band had begun to add elements that widened their sound to a degree that you have parts that seem quite metal. This is about the time when the old punk bands realized how much the thrash bands had borrowed from them and consequently they started to borrow back. I absolutely love the results. Instead of a string of two-minute, two-chord pounding, you get an album of songs that sound crafted and well thought out. There’s a musicianship to the playing that advances past their early work. This can be attributed to a couple things by my estimation. The first thing apparent is the thunderous drumming by a new addition, Kai. His double-bass work adds a much stronger and heavier sound. Jock, GBH’s long-time guitarist has obviously chosen to step-up his game as well, playing with an equaled heaviness. His riffs and chord progressions seem more inspired than usual. He also adds in some brief solos throughout the record, which you will never hear this reviewer complain about.

Overall there’s a greater amount of texture and variety. The songs are drawn out a bit more, which allows a deeper listening engagement. Everything is still full-throttle aggressive charging punk. The way vocalist Colin spews out his desperate pleas of psychosis and chaos gives GBH that forever unpolished rawness. There’s darkness to the lyrics and dirtiness to their sound that takes you right into the underbelly of society. Every screamed lyric has your body springing around your seat, your leg jacking violently against the floor. This music begs to be slam-danced to. Uncontrolled bodies without direction expressing a pure release of adrenalin.

GBH exists on the filthiest streets and alleys of the biggest most alienating cities in a world gone mad. This album fucking delivers everything I hoped for. In fact this band has never disappointed me, which is why I place them in a very special category of punk bands. Get this record any way you can.

Warrior of the Lost World

WARRIOR OF THE LOST WORLD (1983)

Director: David Worth

Tagline: In another time... in a world ruled by tyranny and violence... only one man can stop the nightmare.

Rating: 3 out of 4 Skulls

Reviewed by: Jeff Deth

In a galaxy far, far away, this film starts out with a scrolling back-story. That story contains all the elements of a great low-budget 80’s sci-fi flick. After a nuclear disaster that leads to apocalyptic chaos, earth has been reduced into a big-ass car junkyard.

All kidding aside, this was quite a fun rip-off of Mad Max. Rip-off might be a little rough, but the filmmakers certainly pick up their steam off the success of the classic series. Just imagine Mad Max being made on an even lower budget with a lead actor who only has two modes of communicating, mumbling in a gruff, ‘I don’t give a fuck’ monotone and screaming banshee hysteria. The Rider played by Robert Ginty, bless his heart, does his best to channel Snake Pliscan but comes up a little short. The villain on the other had, played by the great Donald Pleasance, hits the mark as Prossor, an “evil despot”, whose costume oddly resembles Austin Powers’ Dr. Evil.

But this film isn’t about great acting or even the best special effects. What this film has going for it that really won me over is spirit. It’s so cheesy and odd on so many levels but is so earnest in being a tough apocalyptic action flick. The film really brings it when it comes to borrowing source material. There’s a Mad Max element, a Big Brother 1984 element and with the Rider’s talking motorcycle Einstein, you get a weird Knight Rider element. And if you’ve always thought Fascists had cool uniforms, Prosser’s Omega Army themselves have a cool visual appeal, borrowing black uniforms with a Nazi-like armband with the Omega symbol on a red triangle.

Aside from the Omegas you have a band of outsiders or “Enlightened Elders”, who have been hiding out in the mountains resisting Prosser and his tyranny of mind control. Basically though the resisters are a fucked up gang of painted face new-wavers, white Kung-Fu experts, some mean ass transvestites and a couple of guys that look like stand-ins for WWF wrestler Mankind. This gang is appears to be held together by some old dude who imagines himself a broke ass David Carradine.

When they aren’t striving for freedom they seem to be heavily engaged in a series of Royal Rumble brawls against each other. Well, they seem very bored and pent-up without the leadership of old geezer, Professor McWayne and his daughter, the exotic Nastasia. That was probably a hot name in the early 80’s but most of those bitches turned out to be cracked out hookers. Anyway this is were the true conflict of the film comes into play as the professor has been captured by Prossor’s army and stands to face execution by way of electrocution followed by blow torch fire burning. Strong stuff.

The Rider is a reluctant hero. As a loner badass, he would basically be happy ripping through no-mans land, periodically blowing up shit with missiles fired from one of his four exhaust pipes. But fate wouldn’t leave him alone. Before he knows it, he’s roped into saving the world after he crashes Einstein head-on into a mountain during a high-speed chase with the Omega patrol. As fortune would have it, the mountain is actually a secret portal into the lair of The New Way Gods, the upper echelon of the Outsider faction. They apparently hang out with Fred Williamson in this cave resembling an ice cooler, wearing togas. They fix The Rider up real good. Consequently though they expect him to go save Nastasia’s daddy-o from the Omega concentration camp. He is after all the Chosen One. Nastasia gives him some encouragement with a gun pointed at his wang.

And so we end up with a lot of action as The Rider and Natasha go on their search and rescue mission after McWayne. There’s this hilarious scene when they’re going through this cave and a bunch of zombies make an appearance out of nowhere and for seemingly no reason other to throw some zombies in there.

I was amazed at how many kills Rider racks up, he’s a one-man killing machine, tearing down the Omegas as they increasingly prove themselves to be the worst soldiers in human history. The first mission ends with the rescue of the father while leaving behind of the daughter, which necessitates a second mission.

This film has a bunch of awesome vehicle designs that get showcased in a plethora of car chase sequences. I also have to mention the laughable sound design whereby every sound from machine gun fire to helicopter propelling all seem to be made form the same video game sound gadget.

What scores the highest note for me is the soundtrack itself. Very John Carpenter-esque. Just awesome, I love that sound, it really carried the film.

This film is great for a Friday night of mindless late night viewing. It’s wildly entertaining if you can appreciate low-budget, hammy post-apocalyptic sci-fi.

Thrash N Slash 1 day anniversary comemorative Mixxer... First of many...

Well kids, it's been a fun first day but now to business. We got some music for you to listen to, all hand picked by yours truly. By yours truly I do not mean that rapscallion Wolfe, though I love the kid his tastes are less than reputable... Totally kidding, I am the resident music snob, Wolfe being the film snob... Well enough rambling get to downloading.

I made this Mixxer to get you kids into some heavy stuff. It's got some Crust, Black Metal, Screamo (skramz if you're nasty), Power Violence, and some Grind... GET INTO IT!

Your Truly, Cassidy (sippin on a bum-chug)...





GRIP IT UP... <---- Click that!?

Forbidden

Forbidden Evil

1988 (Combat Records)

Rating: 3 out of 4 Pentagrams

Reviewed By: Jeff Deth

Forbidden was one of the many now infamous Bay-Area thrash bands active in the mid to late 1980’s. Obviously the first of those bands to come to mind are Slayer, Metallica and Exodus. Forbidden is a band you will eventually get to once you’ve gotten through the top layer of thrash. Technically speaking Forbidden is every bit as talented as any of their peers at the time. An early line-up of the band featured future Vio-lence and Machinehead guitarist Rob Flynn.

Although Flynn was to leave the band prior to the recording of Forbidden Evil, three songs he co-wrote are featured on this record. The other notable player who is on this recording is drummer Paul Bostaph, who would later sit at the kit for both Slayer and Exodus.

There are eight songs here and every one of them jams heavy. This is classic straight-up Bay-Area thrash. What really stands out to me are the vocals of Russ Anderson. He uses a range that goes from the standard thrash growl to higher pitched screams. It sort of reminds me of Sanctuary or early Overkill.

The riffs all sound fresh and inspired. There are two or three killer solos on every track. The sleeve lists both Craig Locicero and Glen Alvelais as lead guitarists, so I assume they’re always trading off which is great.

Everything on the record is highly technical, fast and aggressive. There was no lyric sheet with my cassette pressing but with songs titled “As Good as Dead”, “March into Fire” and “Chalice of Blood” it’s safe to assume they’re into death, war, rebellion and general mayhem. It’s all good. Typical, yes, but I don’t make hard terms with a band that can give me an intense head-banging record.

The cover art depicts two flying skulls smashing together. Great, when I first picked it up I knew what I was going to get. I’ll admit, I don’t pull this album out on a regular basis, but when I do I always think to myself, “They’re better then I thought, I should listen to this more often.”

In a lot of ways they closely resemble the more visible thrash bands of the era in both sound and content. Maybe that’s the reason they have less of a memorable reputation. They where also a part of the 2^nd wave of thrash which in general seems to get less recognition. Listening to this record though proves to me they were defiantly up to snuff if even for only a brief period. They were only to record one more great record, Twisted into Form.

Again, I really enjoyed the vocal element to this otherwise standard Bay-Area affair. This band deserves more acknowledgements then they get and I’m sure they are getting more traction today with the current reemergence of interest in the scene.

Class of 1999

Class of 1999 (1990) Vestron Home Video

Director: Mark Lester

Tagline: Hired to Teach. Programmed to Kill.

Rating: 3 1/2 out of 4 Pentagrams 

Reviewed by: Jeff Deth

Adults where fearful of a few things in the 80’s. One thing was the Cold-War and another was that MTV and Atari was going to turn their kids into murderous drug fiends. Well, this film would prove the second fear to be fully justified. Although Class of 1999 was released in 1990 I would have bet big money it was 1985. It carries with it all the trappings of that era of straight to VHS shlocksploitation.

I watched this film with a grin on my face the whole time.

This film is pure teen violence exploitation. I have to assume the filmmakers where taking a piss with this thing but even if they where trying to make a serious film it works just as well. Clearly though, its best to approach the viewing with the understanding that we’re just north of Tromaville territory.

In what was then the future of 1999, teenage gang violence has risen to catastrophic levels. Major cities have been quarantined off from society much like the case in Escape From New York, where the criminals are allowed to go ballistic, free of police intervention.

Inside what is known as the “Free-Fire Zone”, there is an actual high school still trying to function with Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) as it’s principle. Amongst his student body every kid snorts vile after vile of “edge”, Dresses in punk-rock leather and chains and carries a machine gun. The film tries to honor much of the gang-banger ethos, with two main gangs who fight over territory, etc.

In order to regain control of the educational system, McDowell brings in Department of Educational Defense head Played by Stacey Keach. Keach who is always the same kind of hard-ass, is so again this time with a bleach blond rat-tail. Awesome. The problem is the teachers he brings in are actually military androids being tested by the government to prep them for warfare. Well if it’s war they want its war they get. Most of this film is one kill to the next from kids killing kids to cyborg teachers killing kids. Then in the end eventually the kids kill the cyborgs. If you took The Principal and mashed it together with The Terminator and Class of Nuk’em High you get Class of 1999. Also keep in mind this is a sequel to Class of 1984.

The sub-plot to all this violence is good old-fashioned bad boy meets good girl on campus. Our main character, Cody (Bradley Gregg) has just been released from prison is trying to go straight and falls for the only non-psychotic character in the film, the principles daughter, Christy. Don't you just love the name 'Christy'? But like the Godfather, just when he tries to pull out, they pull him right back in. Gangs are like that. But after all there’s not much for a person to do in 1999 other then snort drugs and beat the fuck out of people.

This is just outrageously over the top low-budget fun. There’s some great kills and special FX towards the finale when we finally get to see the droids in robot form. There’s no time wasted here just front to back action and laughs. And like I said, whether director Mark Lester wanted us to laugh or not is beside the point, he should be fucking happy his film is so enjoyable all these years later.

If you like violence, you will enjoy this film. If you hate authority, you will love this film. If you love costume design based on early 80’s street punks and junkies, you will love this film. I loved this film.