DVD
Review | Escape From L.A.
Written by: Kage
Alan
In a time when the world needed something fresh
and a new hero to believe in, John Carpenter delivered “Escape From
New York” and anti-hero Snake Plissken. Snake was the man who got
things done the old fashioned way, HIS way, and he was damn good at
it. Fans clamored for years for a follow-up. Would Kurt Russell ever
don his boots and guns again to go out and kick a little ass?
Finally, 15 years or so later, the two teamed up and gave us “Escape
From L.A.” Was it worth the wait? Sadly, no. After having reviewed
the spectacular new special 2-disc edition of “Escape From New York,”
though, it seemed only fair to include the sequel.
Living conditions within the United States haven’t
improved much in the last 15 years. It seems that the conservative nuts
now rule the country and they’ve got a President (Cliff Robertson) with
a foreign policy that appears to be going over as well as a certain
current president’s. To make matters worse, their President is willing
to use the power of technology and the military to see that his view of
Democracy is safe. Man…this sounds SO familiar. Anyway, the President
in the film has a tart for a daughter and she takes a very important
piece of equipment with her during an escape onto the half submerged now
island of L.A. The answer to this latest threat? Well, it’s a good
thing Snake Plissken (Russell) has just been captured again.
Armed with a new outfit, sweet guns and all of the
attitude he can muster, Plissken is soon tearing his way through the
streets of Beverly Hills searching for crime lord Cuervo Jones (George
Corraface) since that’s where Utopia (A.J. Langer), the tart daughter,
will also be. Throw in a two-faced con man named Eddie (Steve Buscemi),
a gorgeous transsexual named Hershe Las Palmas (Pam Grier), wild
surfers, multiple ethnic gangs, a huge slew of stars like Peter Fonda,
Stacy Keach, Valeria Golino and Michelle Forbes into the mix and Snake
is going to be in for one hell of a time with this gig.
Bet the film sounds exciting, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately, instead of a nitty and gritty balls-to-the-wall action
film, we’re given a comic book of sorts that falls quite short of the
standard set by the original. Russell tries his best, but whereas the
first film took advantage of a very moderate amount of special effects
(due to budget constraints), this one adds far too many of them in.
Worse yet, it may be a bigger budget, but the effects are so awful
looking that you wish they hadn’t bothered. It may add to the comic
book nature of the film, but it certainly didn’t add to my appreciation
of what Carpenter can do.
Paramount has released “Escape From L.A.” in a
solid looking Widescreen transfer. Video quality is pretty damn good,
almost too good because it makes those awful effects look all the
worse. As for audio, that at least shines and Carpenter delivers
another fantastic score. In the area of extras, we have a trailer and
that’s it. What happened to another stellar commentary from Carpenter
and Russell? That would have been the selling point for me buying the
disc. As it is, just rent it. The film just doesn’t deliver.
Considering that 15 years have passed since the
original film, I mistakenly assumed that a whole lot more thought would
have gone into the script for the movie. Kurt Russell doesn’t need a
slew of special effects to make his character come to life. Snake
Plissken IS the ultimate effect and everything else compliments him.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case in “Escape From L.A.” Welcome to the
human race? Blah. Give us a worthy sequel instead.
Film Rating: C
DVD Special Features: N/A
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