In the Aftermath (1988) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
14 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
5/10
Interesting in its own right but pales in comparison to the original
tjszkorla19 January 2020
Warning: Spoilers
In 1988, New World Pictures released "In the Aftermath: Angels Never Sleep", a film which uses footage from the Mamoru Oshii anime film "Angel's Egg". New World bought the rights to the film. This film's producer, Tom Dugan, felt that it, "was an incomprehensible Japanese animation" and that they could add live-action to the animation to make sense of what Dugan felt was a confusing film. This was done in an effort to make it more acceptable to an American audience. The result is something that is hit and miss.

The animation from "Angel's Egg" is re-purposed with a story about survivors of a post-apocalyptic nuclear world that a small angel, (the girl from Angel's Egg), must save by giving them an egg that will change everything. Easily the best part of the film is the animation sequences with the rewritten story, while the newly shot live-action footage which carries the rest of the film is pretty poorly conceived.

Admittedly, I think it would have been more interesting if New World hired an 'actual' animation studio to do new animation for the film instead of shooting their alternate version with live-action that doesn't fit whatsoever. "In the Aftermath" is a curiosity to those who love the cult anime film "Angel's Egg". Unfortunately, If one wishes to see the original source of this film, then they would have to buy "Angel's Egg" from Japan on Blu-ray.
4 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
OK film, would watch again, not worth buying
xymer-one23 February 2006
As films go this is was just tolerable, I didn't feel like i had wasted time that i'd never get back, however If your expecting to see great acting and expensive sets you'll be disappointed,this is a low budget film, good idea but a poor execution due to budget constraints.the only outstanding part of the film is a piece of music in it called carnavalito tango, the day after it was on TV i met some friends for a drink, some of them are real knuckle dragging neanderthals, the first topic of conversation was about the film and that piece of music which i have been searching for for quite some time, my only reason for wanting to see the film again would be just to record that track
5 out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Interesting blend of American lo fi and Japanese anime
BandSAboutMovies12 September 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Roger Corman protege Carl Colpaert made his directorial debut on this film by combining repurposed excerpts from Mamoru Oshii's (the original Ghost In The Shell) anime Angel's Egg with new footage shot in America. The result combines live action and animation to create the story of two soldiers, Frank and Goose, and their lives after the end of the world.

Frank and Goose start the film on the hunt for oxygen, with only six days left. After a violent confrontation leaves Frank injured, a small girl named Angel appears holding an egg. It turns out that Angel is really an angel and she has to decide if she wants to help mankind survive or allow it to fade away in the apocalypse.

Meanwhile, Frank meets Doctor Sarah, another survivor, and they share an interlude where he plays her a haunting theme on the piano (Horatio Moscovici's "Carnavalito Tango").

While not the greatest movie I've ever seen, this movie still deserves to be checked out. It's pretty incredible that the Corman factory got their hands on the anime rights so cheaply and when they realized just how little Western audiences would comprehend it, they just went all out and made it into a new film that can stand on its own.
1 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
not that bad
james-commins10 July 2006
OK, so its been ages since i caught this on in the early hours of the morning...but i did see it twice, both by catching those early am viewings.

And...OK, its not amazing. But as post apocalyptic art films go...I really like this one. A man in a gas mask, playing the piano, to the woman he loves who is inside the room with the only air they can breathe unaided.

cut in with bits of Oshiis anime.

Its actually really good. Power rangers with brains and heart I guess. But, just because its got lumps of another film in there, really doesn't make it bad, and I'd love to see it again.
7 out of 10 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
1/10
Worst tampering with a piece of art I've ever seen
Doc Sleeve5 July 2001
Being a fan of animes (i.e., Japanese animation), I am familiar with the movie 'Angel's Egg' by Mamoru Oshii. Some time ago, a friend told me there was a movie which had used scenes from that anime: 'In The Aftermath'. After some research I managed to get a copy of that film...

I didn't have high expectations, but that experience was far beyond my worst nightmares. I've never seen a piece of art (and I mean 'Angel's Egg'!) being torn to pieces in such a radical way. About 30 min. of the original anime footage were used for 'In The Aftermath'. The rest of the film consists of live sequences that have been done so poorly it just hurts: C-class movie actors stumbling around with gas masks in a deserted chemical factory most of the time, special effects that don't deserve the name, and a 'story' that tries desperately to bring some sense to a plot that was never meant to have any sense at all (sounds strange, doesn't it? Go on and you'll know what I mean).

The anime 'Angel's Egg' in my opinion is a real masterpiece. You may like it or not, but everybody who has seen this movie agrees that it is something unique. However, its director Mamoru Oshii admitted in several interviews that even he didn't know what its story was about - if there was any at all.

Obviously, Carl Colpaert decided to add that lacking sense by combining some of the anime sequences with a real movie to create 'In The Aftermath'. He failed miserably. The combination doesn't work at all. If it would have been an attempt to create a parody, it would just have been annoying. But this movie was an honest attempt to improve the Japanese original, and that's what really makes it so bad.

According to IMDB, 'In The Aftermath' was the first movie Carl Colpaert ever directed. I sincerely hope that he (or anybody else) may never try something like that again...
8 out of 17 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
1/10
This is an awful movie
Anyachan11 June 2002
Most who're interested in this film have interest because it contains images from Oshii's surreal masterpiece "Tenshi no Tamago." With Tenshi no Tamago lacking a proper release abroad, one may feel tempted to pick up a copy of "In the Aftermath" just to view the plundered footage. Do not do it! The acting is awful, the direction is pointless and cheesy, and the special effects could have been better done with equipment found lying about the house. It's a third-rate film with a fourth-rate production. The usage of the footage from Tenshi no Tamago, a true art film, is shameful and unacceptable. Fans of campy science fiction would do better to pick up an arm-full of TROMA flicks from the video store.
8 out of 22 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Quirky, but fun.
pHill-719 July 1999
An unnamed time, an unnamed place, probably Australia given the accents. The earth is dying from a poisoned atmosphere, in this post-apocalyptic live action / anime /art house crossover. The remains of humanity scour the surface in search of hope, until one of them is found by an angel.

It's bizarre, the animated sequences are nicely designed, but suffers from a lack of frames. The live-action is well done for low-budget stuff, and the integration is pretty minimal, but the whole sort-of works.
10 out of 14 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Captivating in a way...
spytfyre25 July 2006
Tripped over this movie on late night TV after a hard shift at work. Caught it just after the intro credits and wondered what it was about. The anime caught me off guard as I had gone to get a coffee and sandwich and thought the film had ended and was surprised to find it hadn't. The music caught my attention more than anything else. There is a classic piece played on the piano by one of the main characters which I have since discovered was not written for the movie as I had first thought. I'd like to track this piece down as it kept me watching the movie to the end. Some of the anime scenes have a haunting imagery to them which the music again complements well.
11 out of 15 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Effective...
RickstarOne17 July 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I remember watching this as a kid and the scene of Angel screaming after her egg was smashed still haunts me to this day. I think some of the comments left have been cruel.

Yes, okay, it's low budget and creaky, but so was Clerks. In the Aftermath... is one of the most effective films I have ever had the pleasure of watching, and personally I feel that the story Carl Colpaert wrapped around 'Angel's Egg' works. A story that is about the hope and redemption of the human race, that a benevolent race of alien beings (my opinion of the story) who have placed themselves as saviours of doomed races, takes pity after seeing the 'love' that we as humans give each other.

Beautiful, effective and severely underrated. If you are ever lucky to get a copy, (mine was recorded off the Sci Fi channel in 1999) watch it again and let yourself be drawn in.
6 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Excellent......music
valpred3612 May 2007
The first time that I saw this film, I believe in I-SAT channel already 15 years ago, I was surprised by the excellent music that plays the protagonist in the scene of the piano. Watching the credits at the end, and hearing that song again, I could find the answer to my surprise when I saw the name of the song: "carnavallito tango", neither but nor less than a mixture of two typical musical varieties of Argentina. Spent several years from the release of the film, I could discover, thanks to internet, that the author is Horacio Moskovici, an Argentinian pianist. I would like much to contact him and to congratulate by the masterpiece that has composed and that has pleased, according to the commentaries, people of diverse countries. 10 points, excellent.
3 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Pokemon Style Animation & live action - GREAT SOUND JOB!!!!
Indie-925 July 1999
From New World Pictures, this is a great fun, Sci-Fi, half Japanese animated (Pokeman' style) & half live action film... I was the Sound Designer/Sound Supervisor/Editor on this film and it SOUNDS GREAT (for a first timer)!!!! It was my first film and started my career. The sound was so good that Don Bassman, the lead mixer and Director of the Sound Department at Twentieth Century Fox, asked me to move my company onto the studio lot. I did, from 1988 to 1992,... he gave me the key to building 26!!!!
7 out of 39 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
9/10
Pandemics, Apocalypse, Amazing Music. The music above all
carlosyabrudy30 May 2020
I watched this film firstly when I was 4 or 5 years old. I didn't really know what I was watching in the early 90s. I just remember that half was animated and half was a horrible barren wasteland with not many people and a man playing piano wearing a gas mask. The song played by the man wearing a gas mask whilst the woman watches is called Veni Gabriel by Horacio Moscovici who was by chance in Buenos Aires, whilst playing at a bar, approached by the director who happened to be there. He was asked to write the score to the movie. This was in 1986 or so. Since google existing, I looked up this movie and watched again and how it bares a resemblance to what happens to day. I just got off the phone to Horacio Moscovici now where he is in Argentina. I have been playing piano for 25 years or slightly more now.

It is strange how a movie can be made but as time passes have a little more meaning than it did before. Sometimes humanity isnt ready for movies made yet. Sure the movie is low budget but then again so are a lot of the best theatre performances. Sometimes you have to put aside the fact that there isnt complicated CGI sequences like Lord of the Rings or the pyrotechnics of Saving Private Ryan and see a movie for what it is.

Look up Del Nido al Vuelo - Horacio Moscovi - the whole album is brilliant stuff and piano that is not your usual Bach or Beethoven.
0 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Not your typical end of the world sci-fi film
Woodyanders26 March 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Offering a nifty blend of live action and strikingly stylized animation, this offbeat and interesting curio tells the compellingly odd story of a little girl angel (cute Rainbow Dolan) who arrives on Earth to provide hope and salvation to the survivors living in a harsh and mostly inhospitable post-apocalyptic world.

Director/co-writer Carl Colpoaert doesn't deliver much in the way of action, but does succeed quite well in creating and sustaining an off-kilter thoughtful and meditative downbeat mood suffused with lots of melancholic despair and a faint glimmer of fragile hope. Moreover, the deliberate pacing takes some getting used to at the start, but in the long run provides a singularly entrancing hypnotic pull that works in the film's favor by further adding to the overall weirdness of the thing. Recommended viewing for those seeking something very different and unusual.
0 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Very bad, simple and not thought provoking
mikeluriarte15 January 2020
Very bad, simple and not thought provoking. Exactly the opposite of what they were going for.

Just watch Angel's egg by Mamoru Oshii. The director of this thing was just envious of that movie.
0 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed