zardoz-13 "Commando" director Mark L. Lester's intriguing but schlocky melodrama "Class of 1999" looks like a cross-between of "Escape from New York" and "Blackboard Jungle." The theme of this low-budget but well-made juvenile delinquent thriller is violence in high schools. White-haired Dr. Bob Forrest (Stacy Keach of "Doc") supervises three androids masquerading secretly as teachers to control students—mostly narcotics addicts--at a gang-riddled high school run by Dr. Miles Langford (Malcolm McDowell of "A Clockwork Orange") who is reacts with surprise to this revelation. One of the androids pulls the mask that serves as his face up and flashes his robotic chassis for Langford. Nobody but natty Dr. Miles (McDowell) knows that the teachers are androids. Stacy Keach is in rare form, while McDowell is cool, calm, and civilized. The kids are wear different gang land colors and outfits. The nominal protagonist is Cody Culp (Bradley Gregg of "Fire in the Sky") who just finished a stretch in real prison and is returning to Seattle's Kennedy High School. He is warned before he leaves prison that he had better stay away from his old gang stomping grounds. Meanwhile, Cody makes friends with Dr. Miles' daughter, Christie Langford (Traci Lind of "Bugsy") and rescues her from rapist on school property. Cody sends the kid to the hospital and then suffers the wrath of one of the three teachers, Mr. Bryles (Patrick Kilpatrick of "The Zombinator"), who later subjects him to real torture in the gym. Problems erupt for everybody when the androids go berserk. Lester has a good cast, especially the three teachers: Patrick Kilpatrick, Pam Grier, and John P. Ryan. At one point, the threesome pursue Cody through the city in a car with our hero astraddle a motorcycle. Repeatedly, Mr. Bryles bumps Cody. Cody leads them on a dead-in road, and they plunge into the river. They slog out of the river looking like drowned rats and planning their next move. Not bad for a futuristic satire.

gridoon2018 This sequel to the minor hit "Class of 1984" is more like a reversal (this time, the teachers are the true baddies), with a lot of "Terminator" and "Robocop" thrown in. The first half has some amusing satirical moments on "educational discipline", but the film soon reverts to action-explosions-noise-gunfire-corpses mode, as you might expect from the director of "Commando". Still, some of the special effects and stunts are indeed impressive, and although the main lead is a little weak, the supporting cast (including a still-superfine Pam Grier and a creepily white-eyed Stacy Keach) is strong. It's a junky but well-made film, with cult possibilities (just like its predecessor). **1/2 out of 4.

Scott LeBrun Mark L. Lesters' belated follow-up to his big cult hit "Class of 1984" is about as glorious as this sort of thing gets, introducing science fiction into the formula of youth gangs out of control. It takes place in the "future" year of 1999, when sections of major U.S. cities are simply given over to gangs, sections which the police don't enter. These sections are called "free fire zones". In the middle of one such hellhole, a high school named Kennedy meets its three new teachers, in reality cyborgs which won't tolerate any misbehaviour. It doesn't take too long for the cyborgs to revert to their original military programming and see *all* the students as nuisances or threats. So two gangs are forced to team up with each other to wage war on the teachers. You know you're in for a good time with those opening credits / exposition, and "Class of 1999" delivers so well in the cheese and camp departments that any message it's espousing ultimately has to take a backseat. In terms of production design, atmosphere, and score, this is a triumph of a B picture, one in which there's urban decay almost everywhere you look. C. Courtney Joyners' screenplay includes some gems of dialogue, and it's to the actors' credit that they can recite these lines with a straight face. Bradley Gregg ("Stand By Me", "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors") stars as supposedly reformed gang member Cody Culp, who's trying to go straight. Lovely Traci Lin is his leading lady, a serious student who happens to be the daughter of the principal, played by Malcolm McDowell. Other familiar faces include Jill Gatsby ("Maniac Cop"), Darren E. Burrows ('Northern Exposure'), Joshua John Miller ("Near Dark"), Sean Sullivan ("Wayne's World"), and Lee Arenberg (the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series), but the show is stolen by Patrick Kilpatrick, Pam Grier, and the hilarious John P. Ryan as the teachers, and Stacy Keach as the nut job "controlling" the cyborgs. Ryan even smokes a pipe, and has one memorable scene where he proceeds to spank two troublemakers on the ass. How can you NOT be amused at a movie with this kind of a scene? This warped sense of humour is just part of a package that also features enjoyable visual and makeup effects, a cracking pace, a healthy dose of violence, and some good action sequences. From beginning to end, this is full of entertainment value, right down to the cool soundtrack featuring an early Nine Inch Nails tune. All in all, this deserves its own cult status just as much as its predecessor, getting itself a sequel ("Class of 1999 II: The Substitute") four years later. A total hoot. Eight out of 10.

zetes Mark L. Lester's follow-up to the nutty thriller Class of 1984 outcrazies it by quite a distance. Class of 1999 is a sci-fi thriller set in a high school that has been completely taken over by gangs. The principal (Malcolm McDowell) hires a government contractor (Stacy Keach, sporting bizarre, silver-irised contact lenses and a crazy white hairdo with a rat tail) to replace some of his teachers with cyborgs to keep the students in line. These cyborgs (played by Pam Grier, Patrick Kilpatrick and John P. Ryan) have about the worst programming imaginable. On the first day they beat the students down (Ryan has the film's most memorable scene, administering spankings to two of the students). On the second day they start murdering them. Cory Feldman lookalike Bradley Gregg plays the hero, a boy trying to go straight after serving a prison sentence for gang activity. When the cyborgs start murdering his buddies, he rejoins the gang to take them down. This is pure Velveeta - absolute B movie gold. Ryan is the stand-out of the cast. He's just hilarious as the pipe smoking robo-teacher. Keach has some great moments, too. There's one scene where he eats a banana - no one can not look like an idiot while eating a banana, and the image immediately, before the movie even ended, became my new Facebook avatar. Joshua Miller, so memorable in the vampire flick Near Dark, also appears. So many great moments, lines, hilarious bits of production design. This is one of the all-time great pieces of garbage.