The Sergio Martino Fest continues: 2019: After the Fall of New York

2019: After the Fall of New York (1983), released by Shriek Show 2002.


Key:


SF
G
T
FF (If you love Escape from New York give this a whirl, and be prepared to have fun.)


With the successful release of John Carpenter's seminal Escape From New York, the Italians rushed to create knock-offs. The most successful was Sergio Martinos' cheap quickie penned by awesome giallo scripter Ernesto Gastaldi.  I adore some of Enzo Castellari's crime and western output, but his E.F.N.Y. knock offs are beyond awful.


Former model Michael Sopkiw is 2019's de facto Snake Plissken, the snarky Percival.


 2019... is a fun, o.t.t. trash exercise in flattery.  Ignore, if you will, the $1.99 models and sets and roll with it. After the third world war renders all women sterile, mankind is close to extinction.


Enter Percival who is forced by the head of the Euracs to rescue the last fertile woman on Earth.


 Guess where she is? Yep, New York.


Sopkiw handles the Plisskenisms with a charm and edge that make getting through the silly moments a blast. If you're a fan of Eurocult and Italian films/horror in particular, you'll note Italian thesp "George Eastman" in a classic cameo as Big Ape.


To Gastaldi's credit, 2019 retains a lot of the New York dark humor that makes the original Escape such a blast. Imprisoned, Percival's quip to a Eurac babe coming onto him is "You're my last cigarette, huh?"


And when Big Ape meets Percival and co., he says: "They've been combing the city for you guys like bunches of bananas." Big Ape is NOT the Duke of New York. 


If you don't like rats, old buses, or mootants...you might want to skip this. The film still has a lot of low budget charm. I often like to watch this and then follow with Escape From New York.  Unlike Escape From L.A. which is pretty darn bad, 2019 feels more like a happily crude answer to E.F.N.Y. 


Martino's flair for action and character set pieces remains alive and well after his glorious early days swirling in the giallo gore-pool. Unlike some of his contempories, Sergio Martino could direct more than crime and gialli. It's too bad Michael Sopkiw faded into obscurity after the four films he shot in Italy (I still haven't seen Blast Fighter with Eastman), the guy had a lot of charisma, but was also aware of how loopy filmmaking can be.


Shriek Show's dvd is quite good: featuring interviews with Eastman & Martino. You can still find it alone, and as part of the company's post apocalyptic bundle featuring more George Eastman in two of Enzo Castellari's worst films.


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