Escape from L.A.

Sure, Snake Plissken is a relic from the ultra-macho 80s action craze. Sure, Carpenter's use of effects is often obvious (though occasionally brilliant). Sure, the film is nothing but a slab of highly fragrant cheese, but it's FUN cheese. It's unapologetic cheese. It's the extra $1.50 of gooey, greasy, slimey mozza that you throw onto your 16" meat-lover's... sure, it's excessive--maybe even unhealthy--but it makes the pizza.

Escape From L.A. is pure, unabashed, old-fashioned fun. It's one of those movies that everyone claims they hate, but they really love in that deep place, way down in their mind, where belching contests are still fun. It doesn't pretend to be anything more than entertainment--and it's good entertainment at that. When I first saw the trailers for this film, I groaned. Kurt Russell's faux-Eastwood-does-pirate routine rubbed me the wrong way, and I was unfamiliar with John Carpenter's work. After having seen the original Escape, Halloween, The Fog, Vampires, The Thing and especially Big Trouble In Little China I know that Carpenter is interested in one thing: giving his audience an escape from reality, and this film is perfect for that. It doesn't make a lot of sense, and it takes a lot of suspension of disbelief, but in to paraphrase Roger Ebert: Who can hate a film where Kurt Russell and a transsexual Pam Grier swoop from the sky in hang-gliders firing automatic weapons at an amusement park compound?

Add to the mix a delightful turn by Steve Buscemi and an amusing (albeit unrecognizable) cameo by Bruce "Don't Call Me Ash" Campbell, and you have a really fun, really dumb, really cool MOVIE!

Recommended for the 10 year old boy in all of us.

this movie is fan-friggin-tastic!!! yet everyone in the world disliked it, and forced the movie industry to call it, "a bomb." do you even realize how much that sucks? this movie is so great. snake plissken is one of the COOLEST characters in film. he's one of those bad-ass guys, who can't lose. the movie is done in much more of a "comic-book" way than the first was. in fact, the first one is in more of a serious tone, whereas "L.A." is like reading a "Punisher" comic book. which this may be why a lot of people disliked this one. and now, we probably won't ever see an "Escape From Cleveland" or "Miami" or "Earth" or Escape From ANYTHING, because the industry called it a bomb, and therefore production companies wouldn't want to put money into another Snake installment. yet we are forced to see sequels to crap, like "Legally Blonde 2" or "Airbud: Golden Receiver." i mean come on, what is going on in this world o' film!!!!! (well actually, "Legally Blonde" wasn't all that bad, i just couldn't think of another bad movie that we are being forced to see a sequel to... hahaha) the point is: I WANT ANOTHER SNAKE PLISSKEN MOVIE!!!!!

Exciting and spectacular rescue into Los Angeles destroyed by earthquakes, floods, mudslides, and become a top-security prison . This thrilling picture results to be an inferior sequel to Escape from N.Y. , the latter become a real Cult Movie . It contains mystery , chills , noisy action , thrills , fights , social critical , bits of humor with tongue-in cheek attitude and a weird atmosphere with dark and surprising ending . Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell, he was the only cast member from the original film to appear in the sequel)is once again called in by the United States government (Stacy Keach as officer , Michele Forbes as deputy and Clift Robertson as President) to recover a potential doomsday device from Los Angeles, now an autonomous island where undesirables are deported and finds itself under siege by violent gangs . A previous war hero named Snake Plissken gone rebel must execute a daring adventure and bring up a powerful artifact in twenty four hours . Snake must recover it and along the way facing off villains like Cuervo Jones (George Corraface) . He's only helped by a sympathetic rogue underling (Steve Buscemi who took the part in this film to help fund his directorial debut, Trees Lounge) , and action women (Valeria Golino, Pam Grier) . As Snake Plissken to get in and out of Los Angeles .

The film is a comic book plenty of action , fun , adventures , suspense , thriller and surprise-filled entertainment . Magnificent plethora of characters with decent performances by its entire cast . Middle-budget by Paramount Pictures , in fact its President Sherry Lansing was a fan of "Escape from New York" and wanted John Carpenter, Kurt Russell and Debra Hill to make the sequel in the same vein as the original. Kurt Russell as tough and valiant renegade is terrific . At the beginning of the film, Kurt Russell wears his costume from the original film, which still fits after 15 years . Kurt Russell not only came up with but wrote the entire ending of the movie , in fact it was the first and only writing credit . Escape From LA was caught in development hell for over ten years . A script for the film was first commissioned in 1985 but John Carpenter thought it "too light, too campy" . An initial script was written , but it remained dormant until Carpenter and Kurt Russell got together with frequent collaborator Debra Hill. It was Russell's persistence that got the film made ; Snake Plissken was his favourite character, a character he loved and wanted to play again . Support cast is frankly good such as Peter Fonda , Cliff Robertson , Valeria Golino , Stacy Keach , Pam Grier , Bruce Campbell , Michelle Forbes , A.J. Langer and Peter Jason , Carpenter's usual . The picture contains an imaginative and memorable production design by Lawrence G. Paull . Colorful and glimmer cinematography by Gary B. Kibbe . John Carpenter also made the atmospheric music score along with Shirley Walker . The movie likely to satisfy action enthusiasts and Kurt Russell fans .

Director John Carpenter is in familiar ground with this well-done tale on the style of comic books and old Sci-Fi serials . His films often feature important visuals shown from a video screen , as the end-of-the-world transmission from the future in ¨Prince of darkness¨ (1987), the Norwegian recordings of the expedition to uncover the aliens in ¨The Thing¨ (1982), various TV sets and the general anti-TV motif in ¨They live¨(1988), etc. ¨1997 escape from N.Y¨ was realized during his best period in the 70s and late 8os when he directed classics as ¨Halloween¨, ¨The fog ¨, ¨Christine¨, ¨They live¨ , ¨Big Trouble in Little China¨ and ¨The thing¨ . The sequel ¨Escape from L.A¨ rating : average but entertaining . The movie will enjoy to noisy action fans but packs a roller-coaster thriller and wholesome amusement . The film will appeal to John Carpenter enthusiasts . A third sequel was going to be made titled Escape from Earth which would have had Snake escaping Earth after a dark matter experiment. However, the negative reaction to this film prevented the sequel from being developed. As the movie was a notorious failure on release, making around $25 million , just half its budget , at the US box office. Many reviews criticized the film for being too violent or for being too similar to the original film .

That sums up one of the most undeniable aspects about this flick: It is enormously reminiscent of the first. Whether or not that's a negative thing is up to the individual. It still holds great surprises, and is definitely a fun ride. There is more satire in this than the first. The tone of this is often overdone and campy, in stark contrast to how serious that of "New York" was, and there are those that will miss that. This is humorous, if a few gags and jokes fall flat. Everyone but Russell(who nails the part again) is newly cast, and the choices are all fitting. This has some rather memorable occurrences(a couple of them for sheer weirdness and imagination), and certainly puts several breathtaking visuals up on the screen. The effects vary, though there are excellent ones herein. Dialog has quotable lines, and is well-delivered. The music is cool. Cinematography and editing are marvelous. The acting holds good performances. While it does bear a striking resemblance to that of the original movie, the script of this is interesting, creative and well-done. It has a nice pace, and you gotta admit that it's packed with action. Each sequence is exciting and intense, and differs from the rest in some way. There is strong violence and language in this, as well as disturbing content. This is bigger than the '81 film. Unfortunately, it also cost a larger amount of money, and only made about half back. It's too bad that Carpenter's work has a tendency to not be appreciated by the masses(only the fans and/or cult following) when it is initially released. I recommend this to anyone who wishes to watch it, the two aforementioned groups in particular. 6/10

Snake, the man with the patch is back doing his thing in what used to be LA and he strolls down what is left of Wilshire Boulevard and takes time to shoot hoops at the Coliseum. Snake, (Kurt Russell) enters into the 9.6-quaked Los Angeles of 2013 in order to retrieve a black box which is a sort of end of the world device. Snake has friends and foes, Steve Buscemi, Peter Fonda, Stacy Keach, Cliff Robertson and a good actress Pam Grier. There is also plenty of action where Snake dive-bombs a Happy Kingdom theme park. The ending of this film is perfect and I enjoyed this film as much as Escape from New York. John Carpenter & Kurt Russell did a great job in the production and directing. Enjoy