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Escape from New York

Escape from New York (1981)

June. 26,1981
|
7.1
|
R
| Action Science Fiction

In a world ravaged by crime, the entire island of Manhattan has been converted into a walled prison where brutal prisoners roam. After the US president crash-lands inside, war hero Snake Plissken has 24 hours to bring him back.

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cinemajesty
1981/06/26

Movie Review: "Escape From New York" (1981)In independent restraints, armed with powerhouse heart-beating screenplay conceived with a lot of foreign inspiration, especially the far east cultures of the rising sun, writers Nick Castle and director John Carpenter blessed with leading man Kurt Russell as beyond-the-law mercenary army-of-one "Snake Plissken" at age 29 going on a mission to save the U.S. American President, whose Air Force One crashed landed in a shut-down island of Manhattan, where Anarchy rules to fighting dystopian proportions.With Larry Franco and late Debra Hill (1950-2005) producing on tight but used beyond imagination production budget lets "Escape From New York" prevail in entertainment factors even against magnus opus productions as "Superman II" (1980) and "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979) directed by Robert Wise of the same Hollywood period of emerging video-tape industries, outgoing from all conceivable forms of visualizations in sound, music and picture art-works as the home video entertainment market, suddenly on every Major Hollywood Players desk on monday mornings."Escape From New York" directed by John Carpenter, learning as exceeding his filmschooling crafts by starting from the lowest end of micro-budgeting "Dark Star" with Dan O'Bannon (1946-2009) over "Halloween" (1978) starring Jamie Lee Curtis to Carpenter's ultimate masterpiece "The Thing" (1982) also-starring Kurt Russell as Antarctic Scientist in Alien-invading distress in an ultimate summer season with ruling film-makers of a now more fading generation with film classics as "Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan", "Conan, The Babarian", "Blade Runner" and "E.T. the extraterrestrial" directed by Steven Spielberg, who remains in forging new digital frontiers for 2018.At time when nevertheless the old-fashioned as ruthlessness of this face-pacing 95-Minute-editorial by cutter Todd C. Ramsey, utilizing Dean Cundey's ultra-star close-to neo-noir cinematography in devasting honest apocalyptic production design to racing, chasing showdown bridge pursuits ending in cranking metal of solid steel and machine gun bullets in storming, yet coolness ensuring to limbing of having giving everything for nothing to win.© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

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socialjusticeexpress
1981/06/27

Ah, older movies. There should be an age restriction for reviews on IMDb. You can tell who the young people are by the idiotic things they write about older movies. For some reason, young people just don't understand what FICTION means. Hence, the numerous one-star reviews in which the premise of Escape from New York is reviewed as opposed to the film itself. God love the youth, because I sure don't!Escape from New York is a great example of stretching a budget as far as it will go. For its time, it had a much bigger budget look to it. That explains why it inspired so many artists, including William Gibson. As much as I love Blade Runner, Escape from New York, essentially, beat Blade Runner to the punch with respect to the dark look that Blade Runner would eventually get credit for inspiring.The premise, that New York City would be turned into a giant prison, is actually not that absurd, though, for a work of fiction, that shouldn't even matter. In 1981, New York City was a giant toilet. It makes perfect sense that a totalitarian, post WWIII government might send all its criminals there to, pardon the pun, duke it out.Several of the kiddies here have complained about the script. They are not taking into account that all the Bibles of scriptwriting we know of today (Story, Save the Cat, etc.) were not published until well after this film was made. Regardless, if you actually take the story apart, you'll see it meets all the demands of traditional, storytelling structure.So you kids really have nothing to complain about, other than the fact that your poor generation has been deprived of the joys of REAL fiction. Stop looking for reality in fiction and stop using social media to make your reality a fiction!End of lecture. Now get off my lawn!

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Thomas Drufke
1981/06/28

Snake Plissken is known as one of the most iconic sci-fi characters in film history, but why? Kurt Russell is a fine actor in just about everything he does, but Escape From New York never gives him anything to do besides hold a gun which he uses maybe once the entire film? It's safe to say I wasn't impressed with this film.Manhattan is now a security prison for criminals of all variety and after the President crash lands in the middle of the city, Plissken is hired to rescue him. Apparently Plissken is like the boogeyman for these Manhattan criminals, since they all know who he is but didn't seem to know he actually existed or where he's been. The weirdest part, however, is we never get to see him to anything of value. Even in criminals past references, they never mentioned anything specifically which would warrant him a spot to save the President.It's one thing if the film embraces its silliness and makes all of the dialogue, action, and performances cheesy, but they don't. The tone is never truly set. On one hand, you have Plissken taking on dozens of criminals who look like they are wearing Mad Max cosplay, but then you have the issue of the President's life being on the line. Those are two opposing tones butting heads, and you never get a grasp on the type of film John Carpenter wants to make. I think Carpenter is a masterful director, but Escape From New York felt kind of like a cheap side project for him. Though, I will say Carpenter's original score made for this film is brilliant.I think a lot of my frustration comes from the fact that this film was made close to 40 years ago, and therefore, there's plenty of dated qualities to it. CGI was young in 1981, and it shows. That and the green screen effects were difficult to watch. Of course, these aren't necessarily the film's fault, but sometimes the reach shouldn't exceed the grasp by that much of a margin. It's not the fault of the film, but I've seen plenty that are better since. Donald Pleasance doesn't get much to do, and neither does anybody in a supporting role. And most of all, I just didn't care for any of the characters or the story they were in.+Great score-Why is Plissken so revered?-Dated4.2/10

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MrMovie
1981/06/29

It's the future New York has been turned into a cut throat prison Isolated from the rest of the world When Air Force One is high jacked It crashes in New York The President is held hostage by criminals In the cut throat hell that is now New York City And only one man has any chance to enter this hell on earth And escape alive from New York it's the hardened Criminal Snake Plissken This is without a doubt a movie that showed how good actions could be This is an absolute classic it must be seen by all genuine movie fans There is a reason this movie has stood the test of time and always will It's truly one of the greatest films ever to be made at the end of the day to be honest It's how action films should be so do your self a favour watch this movie Watch and enjoy

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