| Escape From L.A. | | Cast : | Kurt Russell, Steve Buscemi, Stacy Keach | | Director : | John Carpenter | | Studio : | Paramount Studio | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | August 09, 1996 | | DVD Released Date : | January 07, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 15, 2005 | | Summary | Worst movie of all time | Content
 | If this isn't THE worst movie of all time, it's in the top 2 or 3. It's almost unbelievable how badly this movie sucks. All involved should buy a spot in Prime-Time TV to apologize to the world for this putrid crap. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 08, 2005 | | Summary | B-movie action flick? or prophetic political satire? | Content
| Escape from L.A. is a movie that may gain more in popularity as time goes by. Made a decade ago (before George W Bush even ran for President)it can NOW be seen as a sharp criticism of the culture war going on in America right now (making it some kind of prophetic political joke). The culture wars between the religious right and politically correct left were not so pronounced as it is now. Carpenter and Russell targeted lots of groups with the humor (including militant vegetarians and liberal Hollywood, but the religious right and their political ambitions get the most abuse). Originally, the ultra-religious President (played by Cliff Robertson) seemed like an over-the-top caracature. But now, you can't help but see his similarity to George W. Bush (How much is exaggerated is in the eye of the beholder).
On another level this movie provides good B-movie action and entertainment. By now we all know Russell (as Snake) is like a Clint Eastwood cowboy forced into service, invading an urban wasteland to save civilization (only civilization looks well beyond saving). Snake plays by his own rules and his loyalty is only as dependable as the leash they keep him on. The second he is released the simplest act totally knocks the power elite off the throne.
It is, of coarse, the same formula as the first film (Escape from New York) and perhaps fans of the original sell this sequel short because of that. Bottom line: This one has a better sense of the absurd and has more biting humor, with just as much action. I prefer it to the first. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 24, 2005 | | Summary | shocked | Content
| I never thought that Kurt Russell would make a sequal to the first Escape movie
not only did he do a great job reprising his role as Snake Plisskin. but he made the second movie more moviing. more touching. more funny at times. both movies I have on dvd. they're both timeless. I could watch them again and again. Snake's lines and dialogue never get bored. like where the guy says get to the chase plisskin. and Kurt goes "Snake , call me snake" and the guy smiles. brilliant cinematogrophy
amazing shooting locations
brilliant plot
amazing ending
see this movie by renting it if you haven't already |
| Rating | | | Date | February 21, 2005 | | Summary | Under appreciated minor classic 3 1/2 stars | Content
| Sequels used to be about remaking the same film again and again (remember "Friday The 13th" or "Nightmare on Elm Street"?)with minor variations so the audience gets their fix. John Carpenter, Kurt Russell and Debra Hill inverted the paradigmn reprising the best elements from "Escape from New York" while introducing a heavy dose of satire aimed squarely at the Moral Majority and groups of that nature. While not as memorable as that film, "Escape from L. A." takes perfect aim at liberal Hollywood, the conservative religious right, sequels and skewers them all dead on most of the time.
Snake Plissken is back in trouble. Captured again he's put into the service of national security against his will. It seems a device that can detonate orbital nuclear devices has been stolen by the President's daughter and delivered into the hands of a self styled rebel leader named Cuervo Jones (George Corraface)in what's left of Southern California. Cuervo plans on using this device against the United States. Plissken is sent to the island of Los Angeles to retreive the device. Yes, folks the BIG ONE finally hit and a large part of the Los Angeles basin dropped into the ocean like a ten ton weight while the remainder floats off the coast of the United States making the perfect place to deport people who don't have high moral fiber or generally tick off the President for life (Cliff Robertson in a twisted performance). Infected by a deadly designer virus that makes Ebola seem like the flu, Snake has no choice but to take the job of retrieving. Malloy (Stacy Keach stepping in for the late Lee Van Cleef)and Brazen (the beautiful Michelle Forbes late of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Homicide: Life on the Streets" and the second season of "24")provide Snake with his only link to the outside world.
Along the way Snake meets surfers (Peter Fonda), the Surgeon General of Beverly Hills (Bruce Campbell in a hilarious role that truly is the highlight of the movie)in pursuit of the device. Oh and once again Snake has one of those huge digital watches attached to his wrist to remind him his days are numbered if he doesn't get the device back in time. Filled with great cameos by Steve Buscemi (as Map to the Stars Eddie), B-movie queen Pam Grier (as Hershe Las Palmas), Italian beauty Valerie Golino, the late Paul Bartel, Issac Hayes (in a cameo) and Robert Carradine "Escape from L.A." just might be Carpenter's most undervalued film (along with the great satire "They Live").
The weakest link in the film turns out to be the uneven visual effects done by Disney's Buena Vista Visual Effects. Some of the opticals look great particularly the scenes where Los Angeles gets hit by the 9.6 earthquake. The sequences involving the mini-sub and some of the helicopters look as if they were taken from computer games. While computer graphics were still developing at the time, I'm surprised that Disney's effects house wasn't able to come up with more convincing visuals for this sequence. Still, while they aren't what they could be they're not the focus of the story either and are a pretty minor problem. Many of the best effects work quite well. The production design by Lawrence G. Paull ("Blade Runner", "Back to the Future", "Predator 2")gives the film a much bigger look than the budget the film had (it cost roughly $50 million to make including the marketing portion of the budget). A bit of trivia about the film. Russell appears wearing the same costume he had for the first film at the beginning. Russell also made all the basketball shots seen in the climatic game himself.
Presented in its original widescreen format with a trailer as the only extra, this was released when Paramount was playing catch up in releasing product for the DVD market. The image quality is exceptionally good with great color reproduction and a nearly flawless print (particularly when compared to the remastered re-release of "Escape from New York")with a nice 5.1 sound mix.
It's too bad this hasn't been reissued with extras (such as a commentary from Carpenter and Russell and one or two featurettes. Heck, there's got to be a promo piece somewhere in Paramount's vault about this as I seem to remember one being released to promote it)because, while isn't quite up to "Escape from New York", "Escape from L.A." is still a memorable sequel with enough satire, parody and humor laced moments to keep fans of the original happy. Hopefully one of these days this minor Carpenter classic will get the re-evaluation it deserves. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 27, 2005 | | Summary | Terribly, terribly misunderstood Carpenter film | Content
| You know, ESCAPE FROM L.A. isn't "bad," per se, so much as it is just terribly misunderstood.
Let me explain...
Most people thought ESCAPE FROM L.A. was going to give us a bigger, badder Snake Plissken in a bigger, badder Escape film.
I don't think that wasn't what Carpenter and Russell were trying to do, at all.
I believe that the secret lies in the new commentary track Carpenter and Russell recorded for the ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK special edition.
They go on and on and on about how most sequels are never more than poor note-for-note rehashes of the original film. This, by itself, wouldn't have meant anything without another comment in which Russell observes that, in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, they allowed Snake Plissken a moment to just sit and catch his breath, and how action films these days never just let the hero grab a seat for a few minutes.
With those two anecdotes in mind, it finally hit me while watching ESCAPE FROM L.A.
There was a scene in ESCAPE FROM L.A. in which Snake just takes a moment to grab a seat and catch his breath...and, blam! I "got" it! ESCAPE FROM L.A. is an *ironic inside joke*; it is *supposed* to be a poor note-for-note rehash of the original film.
Carpenter meant for ESCAPE FROM L.A. to be a tongue-in-cheek "bad" sequel, but Carpenter simply was not capable of executing the desperately-needed irony.
QED
Think about it. From the nearly identical opening sequence to the shots of Snake entering L.A. to the "not-really-a-love-interest" love interest, etc., etc., etc., it's all largely the same, beat-for-beat.
All that's absent is the *irony*, which would give the film it's otherwise missing motivation. |
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