Sequel to the first but with a rather ambitious new plot revolving around 'terminator' style robot teachers that are brought in to control the students.Set in the distant future of 99 (at the time ;) ) this film looks allot like 'Mad Max' mixed with elements from 'Robocop'. You can see where Lester got his inspirations
from but in all honesty the film is so gloriously over the top and cheesy its just brilliant. Probably even more dated than the first film due to the quite horrendous costumes on display lol! they really are quite fantastically lame and impractical you just gotta smile. Add to this lots of armoured cars, a high school that looks like a large seedy red light district with masked stormtroopers patrolling around and another king of trashy B-movies, Malcolm McDowell as the head.The cast is again pretty good with some cult names in there such as Pam Grier, Joshua John Miller of 'Near Dark' fame, Stacy Keach with some nice futuristic contacts and white hair and main player Bradley Gregg who curiously looks like a hybrid of Stephen Dorff and Corey Feldman fused together....the perfect guy for a trashy 80's flick then :)Yes this isn't as good as the first as this film dumps the serious thriller aspect and goes way over board into the realms of silly sci-fi with extreme gun play between warring school gang factions and the robotic death machines that are the teachers but its still damn good fun. Lots of cheesy dialog and hammy performances with an ending that definitely borrows from a certain James Cameron sci-fi adventure. Anarchy is overblown wearing ridiculous earrings, long head scarfs and large shiny belts :) almost a homage to the early 80's.
November 11, 2011
Top Critic
