Thanks to the detonation of a nuclear bomb by some radicals, the world is a radioactive wasteland. Having rendered most people mutants and all women sterile, there seems to be no hope for mankind. But, the Pan American Confederacy traces signs of a fertile woman in New York, which is ruled by the Urak's, a militaristic empire that scours the city, eliminating the full-blown mutants, and experimenting on the less mutated to try and find a way to preserve their race.

The P.A.C. enlist expendable renegade warrior Parsifal (Micheal Sopkiw) to go into NY with a guide and some muscle and find the fertile woman, and bring her back. In exchange they will give him a coveted spot on a rocket to a pure planet. Parsifal and crew traverse the devastated city, tussling with various gangs and falling in and out of the hands of the Urak's, who catch on to the trios intent in the city. After rescuing a lass (Valentine Monnier) and meeting up with a dwarf and an apeish man (George Eastman), they find their sleeping beauty and must get her out of the city in order to save what is left of humanity.

Directed by genre workhorse Sergio Martino ( Mountain of the Cannibal God, Torso, A Man Called Blade), 2019: After the Fall of NY is a nice bit of fun, especially to b-film fans from my generation who grew up with these films. I spent many a weekend in the 80's with a stack of apocalyptic adventures, and still hold onto copies of them since the Blockbusters of this world pretty much phased out any vhs' of b-films that weren't produced in the last ten years. 2019 delivers elements from many films popular at the time, albeit much, much cheaper, like the sci fi/Dark Empire look of the Urak's, the Snake Pliskin casting reject look of Parsifal, and even cheaper muscle cars of the apocalypse than Road Warrior (honestly, the car that saves them is a station wagon). Sure, after 9/11 films like this and Escape from NY are looked at in a different context, but setting those feeling aside, they can still be fun nostalgia adventures to a time when cities lying in devastation was a thing more of fantasy.

The opening shot of 2019 is actually photographed quite nicely. A sequence of long shots manages to capture a believable post-apocalyptic environment in ruin. It's dark, dreary and morbid, until you begin to notice the obvious miniature models of buildings that make up the city. This is your first reminder that you are watching a low budget sci-fi action film. A mixture of genres difficult to pull off and this film fails in doing so.

Several reasons for its failure are as follows (the only reason I call it a failure is that it appears to take itself more seriously than it can possibly be):

The costume designs are simply dull and boring. Many of the street dwellers look like someone's impression (not experience) of a punk style. The clothing simply appears to be a donation from the wardrobe department from the gay bar scene in one of the Police Academy movies. As for the character of Big Ape, what's with the Prince Valiant look?

The score, oh my God, the score. I'll just say think 80's action movies. The score itself is trying to distract you from the action.

Speaking of action, there's something of that going on here. We see a few pointless somersaults and big leaps over people and objects. Was the action choreographer the local gym coach? All the fight scenes are clumsy and unnatural, but seriously, who jumps like that?

As for the plot, after a nuclear war, two powerful organizations emerge against one another: the Euraks and the rebel Federation. The Euraks are the evil empire that have taken control of most of New York City, while the rebel Federation hires our leather headband mullet sporting bad ass hero, Parsifal, to rescue the only fertile woman left on Earth. He is reluctant to do so, but hey, its not like there's anything else to do but compete in head to head sedan car battles and kill off deformed ugly guys. He agrees to help and is accompanied by some guy we don't care about, although he does have a claw for a hand, and Ratchet, an old looking guy with an eye patch.

Our hero eventually discovers a love interest, is captured by the Euraks, escapes the Euraks evil empire by simply jumping over their "high security inescapable six foot fortress", meets up with Ratchet and a dwarf he helped out earlier, runs into a group of ape-like people and is lead to the "fertile one." Oh, and there's a little twist thrown in towards the end that I have to admit I did not see coming, although the film makes some honorable efforts hinting at it throughout the film.

This is the kind of film that made Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fun to watch. You'll find yourself laughing at it and wondering why or how it ever got made. Technically well made it is not, but fun to watch it can be. It is has plenty elements of the classic Italian gore made famous by many of the Italian exploitation filmmakers of the 70's.