Escape from L.A. (1996)

Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is once again called in by the United States government to recover a potential doomsday device from Los Angeles, now an autonomous island where undesirables are deported.John Carpenter insists that it was Russell's persistence that allowed the film to be made, since "Snake Plissken was a character he loved and wanted to play again".Commercially, the film flopped and critically it was mixed. Roger Ebert gave the film 3 1/2 out of 4 stars (which seems absurd), while Kim Newman of rated it 2/5 stars and wrote, "Apart from a few good characters, this is really not up to scratch in most departments especially the ludicrous plot." Newman is definitely more accurate. This film is far too cheesy to even be associated with the original.Oddly, it seems the film today may be better known for the soundtrack than the movie itself. The soundtrack (which is very edgy, very 90s) stands up twenty years on. The film has gained a bit as far as nostalgia value goes, but few would call it their favorite Kurt Russell or John Carpenter film.

I will just write simple and direct.This movie is great,I have good feeling for HQ Films and this is one of them. Ratings on IMDb and Rotten are totally unfair and absolutely too low. But good movie lovers know this and thats why so much positive reviews. My realization is that if you want to have quality life full of purpose,happiness and fulfillment it is very much important that you stop listen to others,specially so called "top critics",many times I would rather called them "top fools" he he :) But seriously listen to your own heart and I can guarantee to you that your life will be happy,joyful,meaningful and full of love, but if you let others to guide you,same life will be dead,fearful,dark, dull,colorless... I seriously "hate" people who write things like "dont waste your time on this movie" ... I would say this is plain stupid, what is nectar for some will be poison for others and opposite. Of course there are many movie which are really bad, but even when masters like JOhn Carpener made bad movie, this will be still good movie for many. So whole life you have been a sheep guided by others, so you are not in tune with yourself, of course you will made wrong decisions. Learn to trust your instincts and life will be fun, and I guarantee that you will enjoy many movies that either common reviewers or top critics,have rated low ! You will smile cause what was poison for others, was nectar indeed for You !

I once saw John Carpenter on a UK television show in the late 1980s discussing horror films. He was about 40 but looked like he was in his 60s and smoked like a chimney. Now he is a few years shy of his 70th year he probably looks like he is 120 years old. Maybe he should had realised by now smoking is bad for you so do we really need all the wise ass cracks about smoking from Snake Plissken in this movie?Escape from New York was a low budget cult film with cheapo effects (James Carpenter was one of the F/X guys.) Escape from LA is a big budget film with cheapo effects. Most of the budget presumably went on Kurt Russell's salary who also gets a writing credit.Russell reprises his impression of Clint Eastwood as he is tasked by the deranged President of the USA (Cliff Robertson) to recover a remote control to a super weapon stolen by his daughter.What we get are scenes clearly filmed inside a studio with a mundane script, little humour, dull characters and bad CGI including that surfing scene. Even the action scenes look uninspiring. It seems Carpenter only made this film for the pay cheque. Most of the actors here are just wasted ranging from Pam Grier to Stacy Keach.I have heard that Carpenter hurt by the financial failure of The Thing is one filmmaker who does not give a damn, hence the misanthropic ending to this film.However Escape to LA was hyped up before its release and arrived at the theatres as a damp squib.

Seriously, if your a fan of 'Escape From New York', you shouldn't be disappointed with this terrific installment. My only sadness is that it didn't seem to do well at the box office which is a crying shame as this movie had it all and was very SNAKE.If your a fan of the legendary 'Snake Plissken' your going to love this movie. It's terrific and I wish there could have been at least one more movie to provide a trilogy to the Snake Plissken saga. Alas with the barely scraped back budget I doubt that's ever going to be a possibility.To conclude this is a movie for fans, it's not a movie for winning Oscar's or achieving amazing accolades in special effects etc, it's a down and gritty 80's style film, which is at the core of the Snake character.For those who are not aware there was a Snake Plissken comic book(which I of course own)that got a single issue. It's worth while reading if your a fan too. (Just trying to assist fans as sadly Snake is constantly overlooked and I'm certain Marvel would do well to bring him back to the big screen today. Kurt Russell could still play Snake without blinking an eye lid(that's a single eye lid, you have to have the patch). Fingers crossed John and Kurt could work together again.The most underrated anti-hero in existence has to go to Snake Plissken.JUST REMEMBER TO CALL HIM 'SNAKE'!!!!