Escape from L.A.

Rating:
Summary: Snake is the coolest hero!!!!!
Review: When I first saw Escape from L.A in the theatres in the summer of 1996, I was entertained because every other movie that as out then sucked. Kurt Russell has aged alot since Escape from New York, but he looks terrific for his age. This movie is not viewed by people as a sequel but a parody of the first movie. I agree, however, this is not benefited the movie's success. This movie is almost a carbon copy of Escape from New york. The only difference is in the first he has to get the president and in this one he has to get a doomsday device from the president's daughter and the cities are different. This film has cheesy looking special effects and you would have thought this was made right after the first film in the early 80's. Why would Paramount not fully invest in a goldmine like Snake Plissken. Steve Buscemi is the only interesting character in the film(other than Snake of course). Pam Grier, Peter Fonda, and Bruce Campbell have cameos but do not contribute anything good to the film. I gave this movie four stars simply because Kurt Russell and John Carpenter always make good movies when they team up together. John Carpenter does the music scores for his own movies and this one has GREAT MUSIC, if only there were more film becuase this movie is not long enough and is very good but an underacheiver to SAY THE LEAST. In the end, what happened to MAP of the Stars EDDIE?

Rating:
Summary: A wicked satire of the original
Review: Many considered this a remake of "New York." Now while that is more or less true, that's really missing the point. "Escape From LA" is a satire of it's predecsesor and of B-movies in general. When taken on that level, the movie is a blast. It's impossible to take this movie seriously when you have Cliff Robertson playing the President, and Bruce Campbell playing the Plastic Surgeon of Beverly Hills. True, the special effects are not always great, but you can blame that on Paramount because they tend to give movies like this a lower budget than they need. It was a kick to see Kurt Russell back in action as Snake after a long hiatus, and the movie has flat out one of the best endings of any movie ever. Snake gets his revenge, and boy does he ever! So once you get past the fact that the movie is a remake more or less, "LA" proves to be a worthy predecessor that deserved more respect than it got. John Carpenter does a bang up job, and it also features another great score of his along with Shirley Walker (who probably deserves most of the credit for it). I don't care what anyone says. It was certainly better than "Independence Day."

Rating:
Summary: CALIFORNIA DREAMIN
Review: The whole concept of LA dislodging from the coast and becoming an island is a great concept; Carpenter's imagery of a decadent society and its repercussions likewise original and fun. Although we've been there and done this before in New York, there's still some fun goings on in this rather lame-brained and frenetic movie. Kurt Russell seems tired and plays Snake so laconic that I wonder if he was in it for just the dough? Anyway, Stacey Keach, Steve Buscemi, Cliff Robertson and Pam Grier particularly seem to be having a good time. The ending is pretty cataclysmic, and I doubt if we'll see Kurt escaping from anything in the future, unless it's Goldie???

Rating:
Summary: If you can't make a decent sequel
Review: why make a sequel at all? I can't for the life of me determine why it took 15 years to make a sequel to Escape From New York if this is all they could come up with. This is a complete rehash of the first movie. Escape from New York is one of my favorite movies, I think it is great. Escape from LA is one of my favorite examples of people getting together to make a movie...and just not having any creative ideas about it. Every character, every scene is a total remake of the original. In this movie - Buscemi is Cabbie from Escape from New York, The Duke of New York is replaced by the Spanish gang leader, the President is replaced by the President's daughter and Stacey Keach fills in the Lee Van Cleef role. The scene with Snake playing basketball highlights how low this movie has dipped. The first film had a great - and plausible - fight to the death in a boxing ring with a series of weapons...this movie has Snake pointlessly shooting a basketball in some sort of death sport. It's stupid. Really, do you want to see Snake fighting it out with some Giant or do you want to see Snake's 15ft jumper?

This movie flops at every turn. The first movie had a creative, original and just great storyline. This time around - it's all old hat. I can't determine why Snake has to escape from anywhere. If they took 15 years to write this, then come up with a totally differnt storyline and make a movie about the character of Snake Pliskin in a new situation. What happened to him following his escape from new york? what happened when he destroyed the President's recorded speech to the world? what became of this guy? there have to be better Snake stories to tell - than just telling the same one we've already seen but in a different city.

Rating:
Summary: A Joke?
Review: When I first saw this film in the theaters, I really didn't like it. In fact, I was pretty let down! I had grown up with Escape From New York, and to my horror, John Carpenter remade his own film! I'm not kidding, REMADE it. Right down to Snake getting shot in the leg and limping for the last half of the film. Years later I revaluated my opinion. You can't make a film as corny as this on accident, especially if you're a veteran director like John Carpenter; It had to be done on purpose. I've read numerous interviews over the years and have found out two things, and I think these two things are the reason this film ended up the way it did. First, John Carpenter hates sequels. He never wanted to make sequels to his films. He never wanted a sequel to Halloween(let alone six! That's why he produced Halloween 3 which people hated so much, coz he was trying to take this series in a different direction and not retread the whole Michael Myers thing). I also understand that both Carpenter and Kurt Russell were under alot of studio pressure to make this film. I don't know what kind of favor Carpenter owed the studio, but he made this film. And my theory is that he made this film intentionally bad to say to the studio, "There, I made the stinking sequel you wanted, don't ask me to do it again!" I mean really, if he had wanted to make a sequel to Escape From New York, don't you think he would have struck while the iron was hot and made it at the height of the first film's success instead of waiting 15 years? Think about it. When I consider this scenario, I can watch Escape From L.A and have a good laugh thinking that John Carpenter may have played a big joke on the Hollywood studios. Really, there's no way Carpenter included that surfing scene with the intention of it being taken seriously. The film is just way too overblown, way too cheesy and obviously a carbon copy of the original to be anything other than a joke. Kurt may be older now, but he's actually still able to play Snake Plissken like it's 1980. The performance is great, it's just the film surrounding Kurt that's silly. Try watching it again and see what you think.

Rating:
Summary: escape from new york on acid
Review: Escape from new york is a classic.It is a dark and moody action adventure with an 1980s feel,with a modest budget.Escape from l.a. is a big budget pumped up roller coaster ride that goes for broke and explodes with a wave of energy and the coolness of snake plissken.This follow up does tell the same story as the first,but guess what! thats what they had in mind.I hope they make a third.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible!!!!!!!!
Review: Don't get me wrong. I like corny movies that are meant to look bad. God bless Troma. First off I know computer effects were not nearly as good as they are now. But, god I know they could had spent a little more time cleaning it up. Effects are sad and down right shameful. But, the most disturbing is that this movie is really no different than the original New York one. Infact its pathetic on how similar the two are. If you're going to write a sequal why waste your time if the two aren't going to be any different? For example, he's infected with a virus so he has to help the government in order to get the cure. There's a guy that drives him around. There's a chick that helps him out. Lets not forget the timer on his arm to let him know how long he has to live. Oh yeah, and the most abvious knock off is that he has to escape from some other island full of rejects and criminals. Sound familiar? It should. It was in the original also. Personally I never really pay attention to what people say about movies till I see it myself. So, if you must see it. Please save yourself the money and rent it or borrow it from some poor soul that actually wasted the money to buy it.

Rating:
Summary: "You gotta be kidding me.."!
Review: that was the exact quote from map of the stars eddie played by steve buscemi when he saw snake catch up to a sppeding car via surfing!(?) which i muttered that same quote after seeing this disapointing sequel. As a huge fan of the first movie, i was expecting so much more, especially since the movie was financed by paramount. but dammit L.A. was a rehash of escape from ny.
but with a few added twists and cameos from bruce campbell,peter fonda and blaxploitation goddess pam grier. even yes, issac "the duke of new york" hayes has a 3 second part as one of the gaurds by the gate. speaking of which the main villian cuevo jones is very lame compared to EFNY's DUKE. the sergeon general as well as hershe shouldv'e played a much bigger part as major villians as oppossed to jones, too bad the gorgoues valena gordino lasted only 8 minutes in the movie , but it would be corny as well as comtemporarly for an anti hero like snake to have a love intrest.
the fight scenes were sluggish especially between russel and caraface, i guess it was due to russel's flu while filming L.A.
the music was cool, once again carpenter showcases his multitalent.(the surf theme was my favorite, but NOT AVAILABLE ON THE SOUNDTRACK CD!!!!) as for shirley walker's input;
honey stick to scoring those batman cartoons. (sigh)
Cliff robertson (spider-man) does a awesome parody of a self rightious and right wing fanatical president. (hence, republican) but wtf is up with pam grier playing a transvestite?!!? she couldv'e easily been a female rival for snake plissken, but instead the double entandra that is HERSHE is nothing more of a silly-ass sterotype ("carjack malone"??)
all in all, escape from l.a. has it's moments and SNAKE PLISSKEN has the potential of becoming a great franchise. if handeled correctly (comicbook series, videogame and upcoming anime from the guys that produced GHOST IN THE SHELL>) ANYWAY LOVE IT OR HATE IT, IT'S GOOD TO SEE SNAKE BACK AFTER 15 YEARS!!!

Rating:
Summary: There should be a special edition DVD for this.
Review: "Escape From L.A." is one of the most interesting movies to come along in a long time. Basically a big budget remake of the first movie under the guise of being a sequel (kinda like "Evil Dead II"), a lot of people thought it sucked when it first came out. But, like other John Carpenter/Kurt Russell collaborations, it found a core audience later on down the line.

There are a lot of theories about what "Escape From L.A." is all about: it can be viewed as a straight sequel to "New York", it can be viewed as an attack on government intrusion upon personal freedoms, etc. Personally, I like to think of it as a very subtle satire of the Hollywood machine, where the big studios get their hands on a successful independent flick--like, say, "Escape From New York"--and remake it on a huge budget with mized results.

What I'd really love is for this movie to get the "Big Trouble in Little China" DVD treatment. 2 discs, lots of extras, documentaries and such, and obviously commentary by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell. Their commentaries are always amusing and informative. I'm sure a lot of people out there would also be interested in such a reissue. Unfortunately, getting Paramount to do a special edition DVD of anything that isn't "Star Trek" or "Tomb Raider" is like trying to get Marlon Brando to skip the second helpings at dinnertime.

After that... Warner's gotta bring out "Elvis". :-)

Rating:
Summary: Snake is back!
Review: A major earthquake has separated Los Angeles from the rest of America and the now permanently elected President of the United States (well he did predict it would happen) has turned it into a dumping ground for moral undesirables. So it is no surprise that the recently recaptured Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) has a first class ticket to the island. But yet again the most infamous criminal in America gets a promised reprieve. It turns out the President's daughter has slipped into L.A. to give a doomsday weapon to one of its most dangerous inhabitants. Snake has only ten hours to find it, dispose of the daughter, and bring it back. Then he can go free. Sound familiar?

Fans of Escape from New York and/or John Carpenter and Kurt Russell were thrilled when a sequel to one of the pairs beloved cult classics was announced. Sadly no one was overly impressed with the result, Escape from L.A. is decidedly less than its predecessor. More a remake than an actual continuation of the story, it is a movie that walks a very thin line, for L.A. tries to be both a straight forward action picture as well as a satire of the first one. The results are mixed, the action ranges from solid to laughable and the humor from passable to groan inducing. Even sadder is the waste of an excellent cast, unlike the b-list all star cast of the first movie, most of the b-list all stars (Peter Fonda, Bruce Campbell, and Pam Grier) are given very little to work with. In fact Bruce Campbell is utterly wasted as the Surgeon General of Beverly Hills, a plot detour that could have been cut from the movie without anyone the wiser of its absence. Another irony is the lackluster special effects. Escape from L.A. cost about ten times what Escape from New York did, yet the effects look worse. Why is that? Perhaps the budget went more to getting actors to populate its world than build a realistic looking one for them to inhabit. While I do not dislike Escape from L.A., I do consider it one of Carpenter's bigger disappointments. But his more forgiving fans (who seem less and less with each movie) will find something to enjoy in this, I always do.