Class of 1999 (1990)

nTitle: Class of 1999 (1990)

nDirector: Mark L. Lester

nCast: MalcolmnMcDowell, Pamela Grier, Traci Lind, Kirk Kilpatrick, John P. Ryan, Stacy Keach

nReview:

nMark L . Lester’s Class of 1984 (1982) was a film thatnaddressed issues concerning gang violence in schools, something that was gettingnout of control during the late 70’s and early 80’s. As far as I know, schoolngangs and gangs in general have died out, not many people go around wearingn‘gang colors’ and wanting to beat the living shit out of anyone who doesn’tnbelong to their gang. Personally, I always thought the whole gang thing was sonstupid, but back in the 70’s it was a huge problem. Gang wars and this violent behaviornamongst young people caught the eye of various filmmakers who went on to makenfilms addressing this issue through films like The Warriors (1979). Lester’s Classnof 1984 starred Roddy McDowall as a teacher who is pushed to the edge by hisnout of control students, so much so that in one pivotal scene of the film, thenteacher holds his entire class room at gunpoint. Films like these demonstrated thenfrustration felt towards youth going out of control in schools and performingnacts of brutal violence on each other and upon teachers. Suddenly, a teacherncould not feel safe in his or her own classroom. Class of 1984 wasn’t just anfilm we were watching in a movie theater, this was happening in the real world.nActually, that scene in which the teacher pulls out a gun on his students wasnbased on a real life event, so the film doesn’t stray that far off from realnlife events. Students can and do get rowdy and out of control and in a veryndangerous way. So, it’s 1990 and herencomes the sequel to the cult classic. How was it?

nClass of 1999 starts out a whole lot like John Carpenter’snEscape from New York (1981); first we hear a voice over narrator telling us hownviolence in schools has gotten out of control, and how some schools existnbehind these walls that separate the schools from the real world, behind thesenwalls there are “no police, no rules” and only the strongest survive. Thesenareas are called ‘Free Fire Zones’, which means that anyone can carry a gun andnshoot it. This is the kind of town where when the students have a party, theynrandomly shoot their machine guns in the air as the dance! The students arendivided into gangs, and of course, all gangs hate each other, defending theirnrespective territories and so forth. In order to attack this violentnenvironment, the Department of Educational Defense are bringing in threenprototype teacher/robots who have a new way to teach these violent students: bynusing good old fashion physical discipline! Will these students make theirnteachers go crazy like in the first film? Or will these new teachers show thesenyoungsters a lesson in respect and humility?

nSo yeah, basically what Class of 1999 does is it turns itsnteachers into villains, which is kind of a complete reversal of what we saw innClass of 1984; a film in which the students drive their music teacher to hisnlimit, pushing him to the border of temporary insanity, in that film, thenteacher was the victim and so when he pulls out a gun on the students, you seenwhere he is coming from, you feel a bit of compassion for the teacher goingnberserk. Class of 1999 is the other way around; it’s the teachers who push the students’nbuttons. These students might be out of control and totally anarchic (even morenso then on Class of 1984) but these teachers are freaking terminators withnflame throwers for hands and drills with which to “mold young minds”! So onnthis one, it’s the teachers who have the edge. The three robo-teachers are playednby Pamela Grier, Patrick Kilpatrick and John P. Ryan and they all do a greatnjob of coming off as cold, robotic beings following their programming. Mynfavorite being P. ‘Mr. Hardish’ who picks up one of the rebellious students andnactually begins to slap his ass to submission!

nThe students are played by a group of young actors whom younmight remember from other sci-fi horror films of the eighties. For example,nyou’ll probably remember Bradley Gregg who plays ‘Cody’ as one of the sleepnwalking kids in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987), he’snthe kid that Freddy manipulates like a puppet. Tracy Lin plays the principalsndaughter here, but you might remember her as Alex, Charlie’s girlfriend innFright Night II (1988). Joshua John Miller plays ‘Angel’, Cody’s youngernbrother, but you might remember him as ‘Homer’, the child vampire in Near Darkn(1987). To top things off we also getnthe great Malcolm McDowell playing the school’s principal; this is anninteresting casting choice as well because early in his carrier McDowell wasnknown for playing rebellious youth in films like A Clockwork Orange (1971) andnIf…(1968). On this one he is playing the school principal who’s trying to keepnthe students under control by implementing the disciplinary robots. So we havena pretty decent cast rounding out this film.

nThematically speaking Class of 1999 is shallower than itsnpredecessor. While the first one contains some social commentary on violencenamongst students, this sequel is simply a movie where the teachers are the monsters, so it’s a monsternmovie in the sameway that The Terminator is a monster movie. Actually, Class of 1999 feels like a mixnbetween Robocop (1987), The Terminator (1984) and a little bit of Escape from New York (1981) for good measure. There’s a side plot about kids being on this new drug called ‘edge’,nbut that goes nowhere. There’s a Romeo and Juliet thing going on between Codynand the principals’ daughter, but it goes nowhere as well. My point is they hadna couple of sub plots that could have served to flesh out some of the characters,nbut the filmmakers did not pursue them, instead they went for the wow factor,nthe whammy, the cool stuff, killer robots on the loose and I’d say that this isnthe way the film is meant to be enjoyed, as a sci-fi/horror film with scarynrobo-teachers and nothing more. While I did enjoy those moments when thenteachers confront the rebellious students with extreme disciplinary actions,nthe best thing about this movie is the last half hour, when the teachers showntheir true colors. Then the film becomes a showcase of decent effects work. Thisnis in my opinion an underrated sci-fi flick from the 90’s that is often timesnovershadowed by the more recognized original. Give it a shot for a decent slicenof 90’s sci-fi; just don’t expect anything to deep.

nRating 3 ½ out of 5