Class of 1999

Schools are a literal warzone, every student is a gang member and the government have to do something extreme to control them. Bring in the ex-army issue, cybernetic school teachers: discipline just got extreme, and the pupils begin to fight back. Borrowing heavily and shamelessly from Westworld, it grabs the concept with both hands and runs with it. Its success is largely due to its self deprecating humour: it's only too aware of how ridiculous it is. Abandoning any inclination to follow up the first in the series (Class of 1984, Mark L. Lester, 1982) in a thematic fashion, this sequel thankfully ditches the moralistic "teacher-fights-for-the-lost-youth-of-pupils" theme, a la Dangerous Minds, and instead relishes the kind of amoral B-movie nonsense that makes this a highly enjoyable beers and buddies Friday night movie. [Jack McFarlane]