Escape From L.A. a video review by Ryan Ellis June 3, 2005
My Tagline---The Same Escape All Over Again
There's an easy way to write a review of 'Escape From L.A.'---just cut 'n' paste a review of 'Escape From New York'. Aside from a change of location and a few other details, John Carpenter's 1996 sequel to his own 1981 futuristic/apocalyptic/action flick is basically just a glossy photocopy. The Los Angeles sequel owes almost everything to its New York original, including its laconic star. Kurt Russell is still the same Snake Plissken of 15 years earlier. He's the unkillable outlaw & special ops saviour who seems to be the only guy The Man can call when a member of America's presidential family is in trouble. Unfortunately, Carpenter plants the Eastwoodish star in the same movie that he was in 15 years earlier and expects that to be enough. Nah.
Blame it on the writers, who happen to be Carpenter, Russell, and Debra Hill (who also co-produced). At least they came up with a few LOL gags, such as a hilarious tribute to the opening gunfight in 'Once Upon A Time In The West' and a funny new take on the infamous 'Jaws' tour at Universal Studios. It's nice to see the eclectic supporting cast (Steve Buscemi, Stacy Keach, Cliff Robertson, Pam Grier, Peter Fonda, and B-movie hero Bruce Campbell) have fun camping it up.
The budget was bigger. The explosions and F/X were bigger. The filmmakers even had a ripe target for satire---namely, the vapid hedonism of Los Angeles & Hollywood...not to mention America's self-righteous puritanism. [Maybe that aspect of the movie would work even better in a post-9/11 world than it did nearly 10 years ago.] And yet it all feels so cheap because it's a note-by-note knock-off of the original. Guys, I already HAVE that DVD.
For those who haven't seen 'Escape From New York', let's go over the set-up. It's now 2013 and the United States has become a cesspool, especially L.A. Earthquakes have torn the City of Angels away from the mainland and it's been turned into a dumping ground for undesirables by the autocratic (and permanent!) Commander In Chief, played by Robertson. The president's daughter goes zonkers, steals a doomsday device, and heads for L.A. with her power-mad boyfriend (Georges Corraface). Snake might not be thrilled about it, but the authorities blackmail him into sneaking into the devastated La-La Land to bring back that McGuffin. From there, the movie repeats everything we liked about its predecessor, although 'Escape From L.A.'s protracted finale is a nice touch of cynicism.
Ironically, the limitations Carpenter and his crew had to work with when Snake busted out of New York made for a much more authentic sense of time & place (even though that picture was shot in St. Louis). Paramount's dollars paid for huge special F/X sequences this time around, many of which are obviously rear-screen projections or matte paintings. That might not have been worth mentioning, except that everything just looks so...I dunno, "effecty". All those resources went into putting together some large-scale set pieces to wow the audience (surely, one of the best is the silly sight of Russell and Fonda surfing a tsunami down the street), but they pale in comparison to other action movies of that period. As mid-'90s F/Xers go, 'Escape From L.A.' is nowhere near as impressive as 'Independence Day' or even 'The Rock'.
I feel bad for taking stabs at John Carpenter. [Although this is nothing. Wait until you see what I'm going to write about his stupendously crappy remake of 'Village Of The Damned'.] Between 1978 and 1982, he made 'Halloween', 'Escape From New York', and 'The Thing' (among other acclaimed films). He hasn't directed anything since then that even comes close to that trifecta.
Nevertheless, he's hung tough with his own style and hasn't pretended to be a class-conscious auteur. He's a genre filmmaker and his job is to entertain the fans. There's a cult following for Carpenter's body of work and his fiercest fans undoubtedly liked this second dose of their old friend Snake. Maybe that's the problem with audience-pleasing directors---they want to keep the loyalists happy by giving them more of the same. Carpenter has enough talent to aim higher.
You'll enjoy the satire in 'Escape From L.A.' because it's the best thing about the whole deal. Some of it is very clever and a few of the gags are genuinely funny. This movie will play better if you haven't seen the original, though, because then you won't have that sense of disappointed deja vu. If you HAVE seen 'Escape From New York', you might ask yourself why Carpenter, Russell, and Hill couldn't have come up with something different than what they served us back in the days of Reagan. But why do I keep talking? You've already left to go read a review of that other Snake Plissken picture...the good one.
To call me Snake OR Plissken, write to ryan222@rogers.com or flickershows@hotmail.com
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