D V D C R Y P T

2019 AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK

Directed by Martin Dolman (Sergio Martino)
Produced by Luciano Martino
Cast: Michael Sopkiw, Valentine Monier, Anna Kanakis, Roman Geer, Al Yamanouchi, Romano Puppo & George Eastman

1983/96 mins/Color/5.1 DD
1.85:1 anamorphic/English/Italy/NTSC Region 1

Review from Shriek Show DVD

After a devastating nuclear holocaust, very few humans were left alive and most of them were affected by radiations. This post apocalyptic world is now dominated by the tyrany of the Euraks. They are taking those who have survived and are doing experiments on them. A mercenary called Parsifal (model turned actor, Michael Sopkiw) is captured by the rival clan, the Federation who have been hiding in the North Pole. He meets with the president (played by Edmund Purdom of PIECES fame) who tells him that he will have to infiltrate the remaining of New York city to find the last fertile woman on Earth so they can start the human race again. In reward, Parsifal will live and will be giving a seat on a rocket set to go to the moon. Parsifal is accompagnied by two of the Federation's bad ass, Bronx who happens to have a map of the city in his brain and Ratchet, the strongest "man" alive.

Our trio are off to New York where mayhem and pursuit are the order of the day. They fight a local gang called the Harlem Hunters, they get captured by a gang of men eating rats, its there that Parsifal meet a cute blonde named Gianna (played by French actress, Valentine Monier). The Euraks finds them, killing most of the gang and capture our "heroes" except for Ratchet who managed to escape. They are soon taken to the Euraks headquarter, where Parsifal meets the evilish lady played by Anna Kanakis and the leader of the Euraks, a bald headed dude who ends up getting his eyes poked out! Parsifal, Bronx and Gianna escape but one of them perish in doing so. After fighting the Euraks onced again, Parsifal, Ratchet and Gianna meets Big Ape (George Eastman), an half man half ape giant. With the help of a dwarf they find the fertile woman, looks like it wasn't Gianna after all! Now what they need is to escape from New York.

While 2019 AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK has its flaws it still remains one of the better film emerging from the post apocalyptic genre in the early 80s. Sure the plot sounds similar to John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK but it ain't a rip off. There some good performance from the cast, the actions scenes are well choreographed, the English dubbing is kind of silly and the miniature models of the city are nicely done.

Shriek Show put out a very nice overall package for this DVD treatment. While the box states a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, the film is in fact presented in its original 1.85:1 ratio. The image looks great with rich and vibrant colors and hardly any signs of compression. Audio wise we get the original stereo track and a newly remixed 5.1 Dolby Digital track. Both sounds good but are lacking punch. There's an intro to the film from Michael Sopkiw, still gallery featuring some cool posters and lobby cards, a short but very good interview with Sergio Martino, another one with Al Yamanouchi and George Eastman. The menus are static, with no animation or sounds except for the main one. The film is separated in 18 chapters, comes with an inlay card and in a keep case. There's an easter egg that you can access by going to the extras menu, highlight the name of Sergio Martino and press left, you'll see an alternate take of the intro from Sopkiw.

But wait there's more! The first pressing of the DVD contained a commentary track with Sopkiw and two guys claiming to be film historians of the post apocalypse genre, David Zuzelo and Dolph Chiarino. Why was it taken out? Since i own a first pressing edition, i've had the "pleasure" of listening to the commentary track and there's some homophobic remarks done by Zuzelo and Chiarino which are simply useless and doesn't come out as funny at all. They also make fun of Valentine Monier because she's french, they blast various web sites and webmasters for no good reasons. They come out as idiots and pretentious jerks. Shriek Show decided to take out the commentary track which is a good thing but the harm was already done.

Image:

Audio:

Extras:

Packaging:

This Film Features: