Rating: 
Summary: One of Carpenter's better films
Review: John Carpenter's dark dystopian vision of the future would become an instant classic and introduce us to Snake Plisskin (Kurt Russell), a one eyed bad-ass sent to the maximum security prison of New York in 1997 to rescue the president. Escape From New York is pure B-movie comic bliss, and it doesn't try to be anything else either which is partly what makes the film so good, even to this day. The cast is excellent as well, and includes many Carpenter film alumni with Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Season Hubley, Harry Dean Stanton, and the always babe-alicious Adrienne Barbeau. The DVD itself is disappointing though, with only a trailer as an extra (like on MGM's Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 DVD). MGM usually releases good DVD's, and while the film is at a cheap price, extras like a commentary and deleted scenes (extras featured on the laserdisc version of the film) would have been nice.
Rating: 
Summary: A Trip to New York Worth Taking.!!!
Review: Escape from New York was made for less then what most of today's movies make in a day, and still 20+ years later it still holds up pretty well. Kurt Russell is quoted as saying that Snake Plissken is one of his favorite roles to have played in his career, and I believe him. Kurt who had been typecast for years in light hearted Disney fair, or even cast as a jungle boy on a forgotten episode of Gilligan's Island (yes its true) was able to spread his wings as the classic anti-hero of Snake Plissken. Snake must go into the once great city of New York to save the President of the Untied States played with typical english grace by Donald Plesance.
A great escapist movie filled with tight, fast paced action sequences, and pretty good special effects for a director with no money, and decades before CGI. John Carpenter also arranged, and performed the haunting music that is unmistakable with his movies. The special effects were also done by a relative unknown at the time who later went on to become the King Of The World. James Cameron.
This special edition is PACKED with extras, and it was a long time in coming, but the wait was worth it. From its commentary by John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, and Debra Hill to photo galleries to the re-production of the Hurrican Press first issue of the new comic book The Snake Plissken Chronicles. A beautiful embossed box wraps it all up and keeps it looking nice on the shelf.
Lets talk about the infamous Bank Robbery footage. Yes its a little grainy, but it has most likely been sitting in someone's attic or garage for the last 20 years. The scene which i had never seen in its entirety is just excellent and part of me wishes that John Carpenter had been able to digitally restore the footage, and edit it into the final cut as has been done with the Alien films. The twelve minute segment of Snake robbing the bank, and his subsequesnt Escape west to the coast with his partner Taylor is a wonderful addition to long time fans like myself. This has got to be one of my favorite movies of all time just for the character of Snake, and the classic tough guy dialogue that we all want to say but only he gets to deliver. Treat yourself, and buy, rent, or steal this movie. give it a try and I am sure that you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Man, I miss the 80s...
Review: Would you believe I never saw this before, even though I grew up in the 80s? I saw it last night for the first time on DVD. Movies like this just don't exist anymore. It is a testosterone filled, thumb-your-nose-at-the-establishment fantasy. And it is so gloriously 1980s and so gloriously John Carpenter.At the time, I would imagine the special effects and the concept were radical. As it was set in the future in 1997 (being that it was 1981 when it was released) and that we are several years passed that 'future' things are obviously not quite what you see. And the special effects are also a bit dated. But just put yourself back when it was made and dream a little. As for the movie itself, it's a really cool idea. New York City a walled penitentiary where you are checked in and you don't leave. Radical. So the President ends up inside the prison walls and Kurt Russell, about to be checked in there, is called upon to get him out. Off we go... It's a wild ride. It's filled with great one liners and borders on campy but it's still a classic in every sense of the word. It just hovers around poking fun at itself but never quite goes there which makes it an action movie with a cynical bite. And this has to be one of the greatest sets every used in a movie. Burned out, abandoned and dark it fits the movie perfectly. It really is a well crafted gem. The extras make the DVD well worth the visit. Included is a scene not found in the movie which only gets a brief mention in the film - the reason Kurt Russell's character ends up there. This was apparently to be the opening scene in the movie but never made it. Definitely worth watching. The documentary is kind of cool as well. Good stuff.
Rating:
Summary: THE KING OF HIGH CONCEPT ACTION MOVIES!!
Review: Before robocop,before terminator and the rest of the semi-dysopian sci-fi franchises, there was escape from new york.
kurt (russel) shatters his whitebread sqeaky clean image from his previous disney flicks to portray one of the best anti heros on celluliod since eastwood's man with no name series. actually this movie kinda pays homage to eastwood and the spaghetti westerns. (hey it's even got lee van cleef)
the plot/movie/soundtrack/special effects was slightly ahead of it's time; a former lt. turned criminal is forced to resucue the president of us within 24 hours etc.etc.etc. many movies tried to imitate escape's concept (I.E.gale ann turd's NO ESCAPE, FORTRESS, and the god awful roger corman's NEW CRIME CITY.) Russell proved to be more of a versatile actor than the over hyped schwartzenegger
but then again that's not saying anything new. as for the DVD S.E. it's packed with bonuses, a cool mini comicbook, the hilarious commentary (albiet an old one) from carpenter and russell,photo gallery and the 15 minute bank robbery scene/ opener. it made alot of sense to omit that scene from the original movie, but it was cool to finally see what escape fans like me have missed since 1981. HUZZAHHH! the perfect companion for this dvd would be the special soundtrack release from silva records. (the bank robbery theme is "off the hook") there's a part in the movie that still sends a chill in my spine when a radical hijacker crashes a plane near the world trade center!!
talk about irony. like i said..escape from ny was way ahead of it's time. and for you snake fans who can't get enough, read the comic series from hurricane press and lookout for the upcoming videogame series by namco not to mention an upcomind anime from the creators of ghost in the shell is now in the works. SNAKE IS BACK!!!
Rating: 
Summary: One of my All-Time favorite movies.
Review: "Snake, what are you doing?" "I'm playing with myself." Is one of the classic lines from this John Carpenter classic. Arguably Carpenters best film outside of Halloween, Escape from New York is a great dark futuristic movie about a time when crime is so bad the government turned all of Staten Island into a prison with no gaurds and no order, the convicts are left to fend for themselves. Kurt Russel plays Snake Plisken, a cool, bad a** convicted felon who is hired by the government to go into the prison to rescue the president who's been held hostage by the inmates. They put a device in his neck that will blow his head off if he tries to escape or fails his mission. He is dropped into the ultimate bad neighborhood run by the hardest, most dangerous, vile and ha-nus criminals imaginable and the clock is ticking. This is a fun and exciting movie and is one of the all time classic 80's sci fi movies. Its about time a special edition of this film has been made, the previous dvd release only had a trailer on it. This is much, much better.
Rating:
Summary: Call him Snake...
Review: Another Carpenter film gets a deluxe DVD treatment. This is a very nice set, and far superior to the bare bones DVD released by MGM a while back. The film looks and sounds great. Dean Cundey's photography is given justice here; the nighttime shooting, the greens and blues, all look much cleaner and clearer than previous releases. The sound is given nice treatment as well; Escape is one of Carpenter's best scores, more fully realize than previous work, and ahead of its time. There's a 2.0 mono mix, a 5.0 surround mix, which doesn't provide a big boost, and a commentary track as well. John Carpenter generally gives good commentaries. Once again he teams up with Kurt Russell to revisit the film, as they did with The Thing. Carpenter is very frank about his films and often explains how particular shots were done, what locations were used, and what was done to get around the low budget. Russell sounds like he's having a good time as well; he clearly loves the film and its cult status. (This is the film that helped him break his Disney type casting mold.) There's a much welcome documentary, return to New York, featuring Carpenter, Russell, producer Debra Hill, Carpenter's ex-wife Adrienne Barbeau, and others. We also get to finally see the deleted opening of the film. On the whole, this is a very nice DVD set. There's a slipcase for the digipak, and there's a little Snake Plisskin comic book inside. This is a nice job for a cult classic and highly recommended. It is way beyond the previous bare-bones DVD that was out.
Rating:
Summary: "HEARD YOU WERE DEAD!!!"
Review: Actually, 4.8 stars, but I rounded it off, especially for such a cool film. Only two gripes I have are these: 1. Was there any way possible to digitally splice the first 10 minutes into the current edition? After all these years, die hard fans (first saw it in '81 at age 14) who would purchase this current installment would not be lost as to what's up. 2) Though I wholeheartedly support the war on terror, I was disappointed that neither commentary track was made in the post 9/11 era. One of my reasons for purchasing it was to tap into the perspective that the Carpenter/Hill team could provide the audience in comparison with their then-futuristic version of America and the world at the turn of the century.
Rating:
Summary: Special Edition has mix of old and new extras
Review: The Kurt Russell/John Carpenter commentary is from the 1994 Laserdisc special edition of EFNY. The commentary by production designer Joe Alves and producer Debra Hill is new. The deleted scene (a bank robbery, or rather the exit from the bank robbery) would have seemed awkward and out of place and tone had it stayed in the final cut, so its just as well it was cut out.
The video transfer is superior to the previous DVD release of this film. But the amount of bonus features in this Special Edition release does not seem large enough to merit a second disc. I bet they could have fit it all on one disc.
But that's marketing for you - something about a 2-disc Special Edition sounds cooler than a 1-disc SE.
I'm kind of up in the air about whether purchasing this 2-disc SE to replace my earlier DVD copy of EFNY was worth it. But even if the extras seem too few in number (even with the inclusion of a comic book), it is nice to get a version with this considerably sharper picture and sound.
Rating:
Summary: "The name is Plisskin."
Review: Back in 1981, John Carpenter released a film, set in 1997, that depicted a somewhat bleak future for the United States in that the crime rate had risen to the point where it was necessary to turn New York City into a maximum security prison by enclosing the island in giant, concrete walls, installing landmines on the access bridges, and providing constant surveillance with the threat of death for any that try to escape. Felons convicted and sent to this prison are given the option of execution rather than being forced to try and survive in this hellish, nightmare environment. Truly only the strongest and most ruthless survive behind these walls. The female narration, done by Carpenter favorite Jamie Lee Curtis, at the beginning ends with the ominous line, "Once you go in, you never come out." After this is set up, we learn that, while en route to an extremely important conference, the president's plane has been hijacked, and is crashed inside the prison. The inmates recover the president, and threatening to kill him if any attempt is made to release him. A plan is formulated, one including the recently captured, ex-military, now convicted, criminal Snake Plisskin (Kurt Russell) to send him in, alone, and try to bring the president out alive, offering him a full pardon should he succeed. Only problem is, due to time constraints, of the conference, Snake only has 24 hours to complete this mission, if he accepts it. Another minor glitch...without his knowing it, microscopic implants are inserted into Snake's neck in case he decided to skip out, and are set to go off unless Snake can recover the president and return him safely within the time allotted. This has always been one of my favorite movies. It brings to life the perfect anti-hero, the outlaw. We've seen and loved this type of character before, like in the Clint Eastwood western movies of the 60's. America loves an outlaw, and John Carpenter has brought the character into the future. Escape From New York is an excellent example of a low budget movie that is really well made, from the realistic sets and scenery, characters, casting, scripting, direction, and music, all of which was composed by John Carpenter himself. Kurt Russell plays Snake so perfectly that you'll never picture anyone else in the role. Other actors that provide wonderful performances, many of which Carpenter uses in his later films, are Harry Dean Stanton, Donald Pleasance, Adrienne Barbeau, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Van Cleef, and Tom Atkins. And let's not forget Isaac Hayes as The Duke of New York, leader of the most powerful gang within the prison, and the one holding the president in hopes of using him to escape. Another thing is that this movie moves. There is no plodding, the plot is clearly defined and drives the movie to its' satisfying conclusion. The special features included in this special edition DVD are many, and listed thoroughly on the product page. Included is the eleven-minute sequence involving Snake, a bank robbery, and subsequent capture that led him to be sentenced to the prison. This was only available before on the laserdisc version, so I am really glad it made it here. After watching it and listening to the commentary, you'll understand why it was cut from the movie, but the gist is that it humanized the character of Snake too much. Also included from the laserdisc version is a full-length commentary by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell. Many commentaries I watch tend to be dry and boring, but it was wonderful listening to these two talk about scenes and reminisce. They go into great detail, all while keeping it interesting. Some of the other extras are nice, but probably not for everyone, like the mini comic book and the additional commentary by producer Deborah Hill and production designer Joe Alves. It's a bit dry and boring, and probably only would appeal to the more hardcore fans. And last but not least is the quality of the picture. It looks beautiful and crisp, better than I have ever seen it. All in all, this release is truly befitting of the title 'Special Edition'. This movie was followed up in 1996 by a somewhat disappointing sequel called Escape From LA. The elements were pretty much there for that one, but the gritty edginess that made Escape From New York so wonderful just wasn't. Maybe too much time had passed between the movies.
Rating:
Summary: One of Carpenter's best movies!!
Review: PICTURE QUALITY (5/5 STARS)
UNBELIEFABLE!!! Looks like all-new!! The new transfer is so much sharper and more detailed than the previous one, I am impressed! SOUND QUALITY (4/5 STARS)
The NEW Dolby Digital 5.1 remix is great: clearer voices and extraordinary surround effects, but without a good surround system you might overhear some dialogue which was specially isolated to a define channel. In some scenes (i.e. broadway scene) the effects are significantly louder than the music on the previous release. Although this release lacks an original mono-track in English, it features a Frensh mono track. EXTRAS (4/5 STARS)
THE CUT BANK ROBBERY SCENE (only on the second special features disc, without an an option to view the whole film with this several minutes long scene), featurettes (with commentaries), photo galleries, traisers, teasers. SPECIAL/UNIQUE ON THIS DVD RELEASE:
- anamorphic Widescreen
- NEW Dolby Digital 5.1 remix
- deleted bank robbery scene COMMENT: This is a great movie and deserves this new great treatment! Isaac Hayes is great in the role of the Duke of New York and Kurt Russel is even more superb in the role of Snake Plissken! The cut bank robbery scene is very cool (with commentary!) and the quality is typically pretty descent but introduces some new great music in these scenes that never appears again in the movie! For fans of the great Carpenter score there is another good bite: the menues feature also some new music (I figure it is specially recorded for this release). For all Plissken fans there is a little comic book included and a note for an upcoming computer game?! Let's see what is comming next... "Escape From Washington"? CHEERS
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