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Escape from la2/20/2023 That's not to say I didn't enjoy this movie's dystopian depiction of New York City being turned into a maximum security prison where all of the criminals are sent. Though this movie has more in common than with the last two than it does with the first one. This movie is obviously very different from The Thing, They Live and Big Trouble in Little China, but I enjoyed all of those movies more than this one. Anyway, having said all of that, and having been a fan of most of the Carpenter movies from this era, I've gotta admit that this falls just a little short of that mark, in my opinion. Now that I watched this, as luck would have it, Escape from LA has been removed. This is why I decided to watch this movie last night (I hadn't actually seen it in its entirety) and not to mention the fact that Escape from LA (this movie's sequel) had been available on Netflix, but I didn't wanna watch that without having seen the original, which wasn't available on the aforementioned streaming site until just recently. During the 80s, it seemed that Carpenter was working at his highest capacity. Carpenter, but those are his most known works. From Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog (which I wasn't that high on), The Thing (one of my favorite horror movies of all time), Christine, Big Trouble in Little China (which I greatly enjoyed) and They Live (another movie I really fucking liked). Let's be honest here, from 76-88, John Carpenter was a pretty high quality genre filmmaker. You know, I've reviewed a few John Carpenter movies on here and they've all been movies that I've enjoyed, with the minor exception of The Ward. And most of all, I just didn't care for any of the characters or the story they were in. Donald Pleasance doesn't get much to do, and neither does anybody in a supporting role. It's not the fault of the film, but I've seen plenty that are better since. 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. That and the green screen effects were difficult to watch. 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. Though, I will say Carpenter's original score made for this film is brilliant. ![]() I think Carpenter is a masterful director, but Escape From New York felt kind of like a cheap side project for him. Those are two opposing tones butting heads, and you never get a grasp on the type of film John Carpenter wants to make. 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. It's one thing if the film embraces its silliness and makes all of the dialogue, action, and performances cheesy, but they don't. Even in criminals past references, they never mentioned anything specifically which would warrant him a spot to save the President. The weirdest part, however, is we never get to see him to anything of value. ![]() 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. 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. 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.
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