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2019: After the Fall of New York (1983)

Fascist kingpins scheme in an office decorated with a futuristic knockoff of “Guernica.” Gladiators clash in souped-up sedans, then get hookers dispensed by cyborgs styled like female clowns. A Dr. Evil-like chrome-dome bad guy gets his eyeballs pulled out by hooks, then replaced by peepers from an unlucky donor. Sergio Martino’s AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK may be the only grindhouse ripoff of a famous movie that out-invents the original by a power of one hundred. It’s supposed to be a copy of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, but it suggests Jess Franco having a field day on the abandoned sets of Altman’s QUINTET. Dizzily cast and designed, with more visual ideas and free-form movement than any grindhouse movie of the period, it’s a lesson in what B movies are supposed to be–and were, before they turned into bland late-night-Cinemax fodder.