After the Fall of New York

[Eirik]

Anyone see this one?  It stars (according to the box) "virile actor Michael Sopkiw."  It starts off in Alaska in a post-apocalyptic world where all women are infertile.  The President reveals to our hero that his robot has detected a fertile woman in New York City and sends him to retrieve her so they can repopulate the Earth.  The logic is that a woman has millions of eggs in her ovaries, so theoretically she could have millions of children...  of course they'd all be half-siblings, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

This is a hilarious movie with lots of midgets, rat-eating, ape men and an evil group of people called the Eurax - apparently the people of Europe, Africa and Asia all combined into one master race and invaded the USA...  they're all pasty white guys with American accents by the way.  From beginning to end, this film is hysterical.  Highly recommended!

[dean]

that sounds like a comic i've forgotten the name of [which may be made into a movie] about a the last man on earth: all males on earth [even animals] have been wiped out by some virus or something, except for some boy and his monkey friend.  apparently there are a bunch of women out to kill him, and others who want him alive [for obvious reasons]

sounds kinda nutty!

[The Burgomaster]

Sorry to say I saw this during its (very brief) THEATRICAL RUN.  Boy, am I a fool.

[Chris K.]

After the great John Carpenter flick ESACPE FROM NEW YORK came out in 1983 and starred the great Kurt Russell, it was inevitable that a successful feature could influence a great deal of other post-apocolyptic pictures. And Italy was just the country to take advantage of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK's success.

In Italy, producer/director Sergio Martino was working with his brother Luciano Martino at Dania Film S.r.l.-National Cinematografica S.r.l.-Medusa Distribuzione S.r.l. in the early 1980's. Sergio had seen Carpenter's film and thus decided to embark on making a post-apocolyptic flick taking place in New York. Working with a French co-production, Sergio made 2019: AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK. Made on a slightly lower budget than that of Carpenter's film, Sergio's film equaled quite well and comes across as a pretty fun flick. It's indeed a comic-book film, but it works well like that. Add some so-so miniature effects work, a great music track, a wild storyline, and a great performance from Michael Sopkiw and you have a wild Italian-French flick that entertains. It's out on DVD from Shriek Show-Media Blasters, so keep an eye out for it.

Also, I do wish that Michael Sopkiw would have gone off and continuted to star in films. He only did four films, all in Italy. And if you want Michael Sopkiw's best film, take a look at BLASTFIGHTER from director Lamberto Bava. BLASTFIGHTER, compared to 2019: AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK, is many times better.

[Eirik]

One other great tidbit from the movie is the Eurax stronghold.  Supposedly it is a nuclear power plant, but all the interior shots are in front of vats and fermenting tanks in a brewery somewhere.  I guess the NRC wouldn't greenlight filming in a real power plant but Anheuser-Busch stepped in and saved the day.

One other thing: I could swear that the Eurax Leader is the guy who played Q on Star Trek, but his name in the credits are different.  A case of an actor changing his stage name or just a strong resemblance?

[Chris K.]

Eirik wrote:

> One other great tidbit from the movie is the Eurax stronghold.
> Supposedly it is a nuclear power plant, but all the interior
> shots are in front of vats and fermenting tanks in a brewery
> somewhere.  I guess the NRC wouldn't greenlight filming in a
> real power plant but Anheuser-Busch stepped in and saved the
> day.

Funny you mention this, Eirik. Michael Sopkiw mentioned this in an interview and he said the exterior shots of the said 'nuclear power plant' were done at a yougurt factory out in Italy.

Unfortunately, none of the cast and crew recieved free yougurt. Damn shame, too.

[Eirik]

"Unfortunately, none of the cast and crew recieved free yougurt. Damn shame, too."

It is - they deserved it!  Especially the guy who played Big Ape.