{"id":2228,"date":"2024-08-10T16:58:08","date_gmt":"2024-08-10T16:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2228"},"modified":"2024-10-14T11:30:29","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T15:30:29","slug":"class-of-1999","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/10\/class-of-1999\/","title":{"rendered":"Class of 1999"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Class of 1999 <\/strong>(1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lightning Pictures\/Sci-Fi-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 99 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong graphic violence, attempted rape, drug content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Mark L. Lester\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: C. Courtney Joyner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Hoenig\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Mark Irwin\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Release date: May 11, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Starring: Bradley Gregg, Traci Lin, Malcolm McDowell, Stacy Keach, Pam Grier, John P. Ryan, Patrick Kilpatrick, Darren E. Burrows, Joshua Miller.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $2.4M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I have to give the makers of Class of 1999<\/strong> credit for doing something unexpected with this \u201csequel\u201d to the 1982 cult flick Class of 1984. I use the word sequel in quotes because there\u2019s no actual connection between the two movies other than the fact they\u2019re both set in super-violent inner city high schools and directed by Mark L. Lester (Commando) returning to familiar ground to tell a violent sci-fi tale that proposes an extreme solution to the rising level of violence in schools.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In Class of 1999<\/strong>, the new principal of Kennedy High brings in cyborg teachers as a means of controlling the students, most of them involved with gangs. It sounds simple enough; they can teach the students AND enforce the rules of the school by any means necessary. Unfortunately, just like with any kind of machine, there\u2019s always the possibility of some kind of malfunction. It goes without saying the so-called \u201csuper teachers\u201d go haywire in a major way. It makes for a wonderfully entertaining B-movie that I saw with a couple of friends at a local theater on a dull Sunday evening (May 13, 1990). For a night out with the guys, how can you beat a movie with such an intriguingly junky premise? How can you not love a cast like this? There was no way that I was about to let this one get by, especially considering that it would likely be a \u201cone-week wonder\u201d just like most B-movies. It was.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Kennedy High School (\u201cNo automatic weapons allowed!\u201d) is located right in the middle of a \u201cFree-Fire Zone\u201d which indicates an area the police will not enter. In the future depicted in Class of 1999<\/strong>, gangs have taken over areas around high schools in several major cities. In response, the Department of Educational Defense was created. They plan to re-open the closed high schools and control the gang problem with \u201ctactical education units\u201d (aka super-teachers) provided by Dr. Robert Forrest (Keach, Up in Smoke), the head of Mega-Tech (automation and robotics specialists). His engineers will control and monitor the actions of three cyborg educators: biology teacher Miss Connors (Grier, Jackie Brown), history teacher Mr. Hardin (Ryan, Death Wish 4: The Crackdown) and phys ed teacher Mr. Bryles (Kilpatrick, Under Siege 2).<\/p>\n

\u00a0As the movie opens, gang member Cody Culp (Gregg, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3) has just been released from prison on parole. He is required to attend school every day and avoid all gang activity which means he has to quit the Blackhearts. Kennedy has just been re-opened under the leadership of new principal Dr. Miles Langford (McDowell, A Clockwork Orange). He\u2019s the one who commissions the cyborgs to deal with the gang problem. Cody just wants to keep a low profile, but quickly realizes something isn\u2019t quite right with the new teachers. Bryles takes a real disliking to him after he saves the principal\u2019s daughter Christie (Lin, Fright Night Part 2) from being gang raped by members of the Razorheads.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As expected, the robotic teachers do malfunction and start killing kids. Bryles breaks a boy\u2019s neck and Hardin forces a drug called \u201cEdge\u201d down a young addict\u2019s throat.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The intelligent cyborgs then come up with a plan to cause a war between the two rival gangs as a way of eliminating the worst students. It turns out they were originally built as weapons of war (super soldiers). Dr. Forrest simply made a few adjustments and sold them as super-teachers. Cody decides to fight back and tries to recruit members of both gangs to aid him in his efforts.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Class of 1999<\/strong> is pure junk, but it\u2019s the kind of junk you don\u2019t mind watching. As silly as it is, there\u2019s still a measure of intelligence to the story. It\u2019s dumb, but it\u2019s NOT dumbed down. The movie has priceless dialogue, an essential part of any respectable B-movie. My favorite line is when Cody says to Christie, \u201cYou really are the principal\u2019s daughter, aren\u2019t you? If you just opened up those suburban eyes, you\u2019d see what\u2019s going on!\u201d Later on, Cody announces to his troops, \u201cI\u2019m going in there to waste some teachers \u2013 are you with me?\u201d A member of the Razorheads says to Cody, \u201cA mind is a terrible thing to waste \u2013 don\u2019t make me waste yours.\u201d How can you take something like this seriously?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Don\u2019t even ask me about the performances. The actors knew what they were getting into when they read the script. There are plenty of cool action scenes as well as a generous amount of graphic violence. You can\u2019t really analyze a movie like Class of 1999<\/strong> too deeply. It\u2019s the type of goofy exploitation movie where the term \u201cit is what it is\u201d is 100% accurate. It has a wicked sense of humor though. One of the characters dresses like Alex, the main character in A Clockwork Orange, a role played by McDowell.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Class of 1999<\/strong> has a trashy appeal to it; I can\u2019t fault any movie that wears its exploitation movie distinction like a badge of honor. It\u2019s trash and proud of it.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Class of 1999 (1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lightning Pictures\/Sci-Fi-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 99 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong graphic violence, attempted rape, drug content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Mark L. Lester\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: C. Courtney Joyner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Hoenig\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Mark Irwin\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Release date: May 11, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Starring: Bradley Gregg, Traci Lin, Malcolm McDowell, Stacy Keach, Pam Grier, John P. Ryan, Patrick Kilpatrick, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Class-of-1999-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2228"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3155,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228\/revisions\/3155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}