I wonder if some of the writers for futuristic sci-fi/horror movies wonder if they stuff they right about will ever come true. I mean, in the 60’s, people thought we would be living in cities up in the clouds, drive flying cars, and have robotic servants. In the 80’s, they were still predicting flying cars but they also figured that the robots we built would begin taking over. Today’s movie, Class of 1999, is a mixture of a couple of different movie plots but whether those translate into a good movie, well judge for yourself.
The plot:In the year 1999, gang violence in major city high schools has become so bad that the areas around the schools have become known as “free-fire zones”, where there is no recognized law. A new government program known as the Department of Educational Defense (D.E.D.) was set up to try and take back the high schools from the gangs. The D.E.D. meet withDr. Robert Forrest, head of Megatech Robotics, who creates some robotic teachers that will be taking part in a trial exercise at Kennedy High School in Seattle. At the same time, Cody Culp, the leader of a gang at Kennedy High School, is being released from prison and is picked up by his little brother Angel and Sonny, another member of his gang. As they are driving to school, they comment on how Cody seems to be different from before he went to prison. They drive into an area controlled by a rival gang and are chased by the leader, Hector, but Cody causes the truck Hector is riding in to crash and he continues to school. Arriving at the school, they find a police presence at the school and Sonny ends up getting arrested. Angel tries to help Sonny but Cody pulls him back and tells him to forget Sonny. When Cody is confronted by the rest of the gang about his not wanting to hang with them, he explains that if he is caught “ganging” again, he will be back in jail and facing real hard time so he is trying to lay low. Inside the school, Dr. Forrest heads to a secret room and prepares to monitor the robot’s responses while Dr. Langford, the school’s principal tells the three teachers, Mr. Bryles, Ms. Connors, and Mr. Hardin, that the major problem kids have been assigned to each of their classes. During the day, witnesses the new teachers in action as Ms. Connors and Mr. Hardin both discipline some of the kids disrupting the class. After school, Cody and Angel go home, where they find Sonny waiting for them, having been beaten up by the security patrol at school. When Sonny asks for some drugs to deal with the pain, Angel steals some from his mother, who smacks him for stealing the drugs, and Cody yells at them about how messed up they are. The next day, Cody sees Christie Langford, the principal’s daughter who Cody met the day before, about to be raped by one of Hector’s gang and he saves her and starts beating on the kid until Mr. Bryce shows up and takes Cody to the principal’s office. Inside, Dr. Langford decides not to put this on Cody’s record, as he got in the fight to save his daughter, but warns that any more trouble will result in his going back to prison. Cody is then sent to his next class, which happens to be Phys. Ed., taught by Mr. Bryce. Mr. Bryce has Cody stay after class and proceeds to beat him up but when one of Cody’s gang members threatens Mr. Bryce with a gun for his cruel behavior, Mr. Bryles quickly kills the boy. In the control room, Dr. Forrest praises the robot for it’s quick thinking but some of his technicians worry that the robots are not following their programming. As Cody is leaving the nurse’s office, Christie tries to thank him and defend Mr. Bryles’ actions but Cody says they were excessive as his friend was to high to be able to shoot the gun. In Mr. Hardin’s class, Sonny shows up late and completely stoned so Mr. Hardin escorts him from class and takes him to his locker, where Mr. Hardin finds Sonny’s drugs. Mr. Hardin then proceeds to force the drugs down Sonny’s throat and ends up killing him before the technicians can call him off. He returns to class and continues teaching but Cody notices him pocketing a crucifix that Sonny had been wearing. Cody tries to get Christie to believe him that the teachers are killing kids but she defends her father when he says that Sonny died of an overdose. That night, Dr. Langford meets with Dr. Forrest over dinner and while Dr. Langford expresses misgivings about what is happening but Forrest says that Langford is involved in the coverup and that he should just let the experiment continue. Elsewhere, Cody goes to the hangout for his gang, the Blackhearts, and sees his brother going through the initiation beating to become a member but afterwards, Curt, the leader since he was in prison, decides to kick Cody out of the gang and they proceed to beat him up. The next day, Cody convinces Christie to ditch class and check Mr. Hardin’s house for Sonny’s crucifix. They discover that all three of the new teachers live at the same house and inside, they find a lot of strange items but nothing similar to what you would find with normal people. The find the crucifix but when the teachers arrive home, they are forced to run, with the teachers giving chase. Cody has Christie run a different direction while he gets the teachers to chase after him, resulting in the teacher’s car plunging off an unfinished bridge into the ocean while they were trying to run him over. Making their way to the surface, Mr. Hardin decides that they must use a new method in dealing with Cody. The teachers find and kill Angel, as well as a member of Hector’s gang, then use the bodies to send a message to the respective gangs’ blaming the opposing gang for the death. When he sees his brother’s body, Cody agrees to go with the other Blackhearts to deal with Hector’s gang, the Razorheads. The two gangs meet in an area called the War Zone, unaware that the three teachers are there and begin taking out the two gangs. When Cody goes after Hector, he witnesses Hardin kill one of his fellow gang member and shoots the teacher but when he doesn’t die, Cody runs for it, telling the rest of the Blackhearts to run as well. That night, Langford meets with Forrest and demands that he shut down the teachers but Forrest refuses and instead, Bryles kills Langford, as well as the technicians in the control room. Meanwhile, Ms. Connors grabs Christie and, pretending to be Hector, calls Cody and tells him to meet at the school if he wants to see her again. Cody realizes that it is the teachers and has his gang ride with him, where they see Hector and the Razorheads, who had supposedly been called out by Cody. Cody explains that the teachers are running a game in the hopes that they kill each other and Hector agrees to join forces to stop them. Breaking into the school, the gang members split up and look for Christie and the teachers when they run into Bryles and Connors, who reveal their robotic bodies and armaments and begin killing the gang members. Leaving Hector and the others to deal with Bryles and Connors, Cody and Curt manage to find Christie and frees her but Hardin shows up and kills Curt before Cody is able to destroy Hardin. Connors shows up and begins chasing after Cody and Christie, but they lure her into the science lab and, using the gas in the lab, blow her up when she tries to use her flamethrower. Hector meets up with them and they run for it when they see Bryles coming after them. Telling Hector to distract Bryles, Cody hotwires one of the school’s armored buses and crashes it into Bryles, causing it to explode. The three go looking for any of the gang members that might have survived when they hear a noise coming from the auto shop. Heading there, they are surprised when Forrest grabs Christie and shoots Hector when he tries to attack him. Forrest then prepares to shoot Cody but a severly damaged Bryles kills him by plunging his hand through his chest. Bryles knocks Cody away then goes after Christie, chasing her up a ladder but Cody revives and uses a Forklift to pierce Bryles’ body. Telling Christie to wrap a nearby chain around Bryles’ neck, Cody uses the forklift to sever the head, finally killing the robot teacher, and he and Christie leave the school together.
So my first opinion is that this was kind of a mix between The Terminator and Class of 1984, but on it’s own, it is a decent movie. The acting was pretty good, with Bradley Gregg doing a good job portraying Cody Culp as a kid trying to get out of the gang life but forced to go back to it. The story was pretty good and I did like the robots being former military models that were changed to fit Forrest’s plan for a stricter teacher. The special effects regarding the robots were surprisingly good, though there were parts that seemed taken almost directly from The Terminator towards the end. A pretty good, but overlooked, sci-fi/horror that is worth a watch.
Rating: 3 out of 5
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