Escape from New York
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Movie Reviews of Escape from New York
Movie Review: Snake Plissken - Add Him To Your List of Movie Heroes!
Summary: 5 Stars
There's always something bizarre, in a very cool way, about watching a futuristic movie set in a year we've already passed. It's very eerie. Released in 1981, "Escape From New York" opens to explain that in 1988, Manhattan Island was transformed into a Maximum Security Prison surrounded by a massive wall from every angle, guarded by police, with landmines at every exit route. The film is set in 1997, when terrorists bring down Air Force One, president and all, right into the heart of the forbidden island. Luckily, the president has survived thanks to his escape pod, and a rescue team is immediately dispatched in an effort to retrieve him and his special cargo. The president carries with him a cassette tape (very futuristic, eh?) of recorded information that could bring peace to the currently warring nations, but the time left with which to use it in is short. The rescue team finds the escape pod empty, and is soon approached by a loony prisoner with a grim message. The president has been taken captive by the A-Number One inmate of Manhattan Island, The Duke of New York. This is a job for... SNAKE PLISSKEN!
Yes, Snake Plissken: war hero; the youngest man ever to be decorated by the president; and recently, bank robber. Before being condemned to join the other inmates of Manhattan Island, Snake is made an offer. Go in, come back with the president and the tape before the clock runs out, and get a full pardon. But to sweeten the deal, another card is played. Snake is injected with two tiny capsules into his bloodstream. If he doesn't make it back in time to have the capsules neutralized, they will explode and rupture his arteries, killing him immediately. The only thing Snake really cares about anymore is himself, so now he has no choice. He must fly a glider into the heart of the city, locate the president and his tape, and together, they must escape from New York!
John Carpenter creates another masterpiece with "Escape From New York." The city is turned into a truly intimidating, downright frightening environment, with every kind of crazy one could think of. Kurt Russel as Snake Plissken, creates one more of those wonderful iconic anti-heroes the likes of Bruce Campbell's Ash and Rowdy Roddy Piper's Nada; self-serving, gruff, and full of great one-liners, but always doing the right thing when it comes down to it. The always fun Ernest Borgnine is great as Cabbie, Harry Dean Stanton is perfect as Brain, and Donald Pleasance and Isaac Hayes are also well cast, as was the entire film. Carpenter's usually haunting music runs throughout, and the adventure and action is non-stop. A must have for all fans of the sci-fi anti-hero genre and apocalyptic future films. Sorry I can't comment on the Special Edition DVD, but I currently only have the bare bones edition. It sounds great though, and I definitely want to get it. Mine does include the theatrical trailer though, and it's very cool. Love those creepy theatrical trailers for sci-fi films of the late 70s and early 80s. "Escape From New York" was followed by a sequel in 1996, "Escape From L.A." Some (maybe most) may find the sequel overly campy, with too many special effects and too much comedy. I have to confess that I slightly prefer L.A., probably for those very reasons. I'm not huge on camp, but it seemed to work well with the material. The plot was fairly similar though, and both movies have GREAT twist endings.
Movie Review: Fast Paced dark action thriller by director-Carpenter.
Summary: 5 Stars
The world has change into a dark and cruel planet by 1988, every year there been more crimes getting worse. Now most major cities become maximum security prison. Now in 1997, one of the world most will known cities cities of world become a prison in the city of New York City, the innocents and the criminals are all mixed together in the city. When an air force one has about to crush into the city, the presdent of the united states (Donald Pleasence) escape in pod ship and then he gets kidnap by the criminals in the city. New york special police force need an man who knows to get in the city and without getting caught. An new prisoner get into the state police before they sent him to prison, a former Special Forces named Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell in a cool standout performance), they ask him to save the president and he become a free man. But once he gets into the city, his mission become hard than he expected and he meets some of his old friends, but he has one day to save the president if he doesnt save him in time, his deal with the state police is off.DVD`s has a terrfic anomorphic widescreen format (2.35:1) and Pan and Scan is alivable in this single layer disc. Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround is dated but it has some strong moments of surrounds including in the end credits. Theatrical Tralier is included. We hope MGM DVD will do a special edition like an remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, original commentary track by director John Carpenter and actor Russell. Benind the scenes footage, i hope Carpenter could find the whole original opening footage where Plissken steal money in a maximum security bank, that how he got to go and sent to new york. Original interview by Carpenter was interesting also. New interviews with the cast and crew. My favorite Carpenter film is The Thing, second is Vampires and Thrid is Escape from New York. Carpenter is one of the best directors in our geneation, including the ones who love his third film Halloween which become an unexpected original unique horror film. Escape from New York become an original science fiction with a blend of action and dark humour. The Latest DVD from MGM has now a HD anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and an sharp-Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD has Two Great Commentaries by the Filmmakers and Cast Member:Kurt Russell. One of the Coolest Extra on the Second Disc is the Original 11 Minute Deleted Scene that was supposed to open the Movie with/without commentary by Director:Carpenter and Actor:Russell. It has Behind the Scenes documentary, Trailers and More.
Trivia:Russell has a scene with the actress Season Hubley, that his ex-wife. Carpenter was married to actress Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog, Creepshow). Issac Hayes played the villian here as the duke of new york, he`s will known singer, including the immortal classic song Shaft and he also voiced Chief in the cult T.V. show-South Park. This movie has one new york shot, the scene takes in the island, the rest was shot in St-Louis. Jamie Lee Curtis (Uncredited) voiced the opening credits, telling the audience, what happen to the world and now become an dark and dangerous place to be in. Grade:A. Panavision.
Movie Review: A Cult Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Not really being familiar with the work of John Carpenter or the acting ability of Kurt Russell, I guess it can safely be said that I went into this movie blind. That, in many ways can be a good thing. I went in with little to no expectations and had no hopes about what I wanted to see. Little did I know that this movie would shock me beyond belief as to how genuinely good it was. Sure it was corny and sure, it was filled with the classic cliché's that we've become familiar with from 80's movies. That didn't make it less entertaining. In fact it made it even more enjoyable than I could have possibly imagined.
This movie had everything and more. It gave us suspense, a bit of horror, a chunk of emotion and a snippet of humour. They all blended together to create what eventually (from what I've learned recently) became a true cult classic. The characters have no real depth but deliver the personalities that made this movie work. Snake Plissken is the typical badass hero who cares for nobody else but himself until he's faced with particular situations. Brain who's the slimy guy who would sell anyone down the river for his own benefit. The only reason they haven't gotten rid of him is because he knows everything and supplies the criminals with oil. Let's not forget the Duke. He's the baddest of all the bad people in New York and, as the saying goes "you don't cross the duke."
The story is set in 1997 (They could have made it a bit more futuristic, I know. Maybe 2050?) And the infamous Island of Manhattan has been turned into one big maximum security prison. Every crook in America is sent to the Island and there's simply no escape. Air Force One is faced with problems and is crashed into the island, leading to the kidnapping of the President. Because of the situation, the prison officers are unable to get him as there are threats to kill him if any attempts to save him are made. The police commissioner known as Hauk has no option but to send in a former Special Operations soldier, who's now a convicted criminal in to save the president. Snake Plissken is made an offer. Save the president within 22 hours or die.
For a movie made in the early 1980s, I was pleasantly surprised at the complexity of some of the visual effects. The border around the island was displayed with absolutely no flaws. Apart from the terrible 80s style haircuts, I would have been convinced that this movie was made in the past couple of years. The setting of a New York run by convicted criminals and psychopaths (better known as the Crazies) comes across as very genuine. At times I came to believe that something like this could come into effect, especially if the crime rates continue to rise. Kurt Russell is great in this movie, and being supported by the legendary Harry Dean Stanton was something great.
I would strongly recommend this to any movie fan. It's really better if you're not familiar with the style of Carpenter or the acting of Russell as you're given a real treat.
Movie Review: Once You Go In You Don't Come Out!
Summary: 5 Stars
Escape From New York was quite an interesting flick regarding a movie of the future with a prison and a police force ahead of it's time that has everything under control the way it should be, with the exception of the kidnapping hostage situation of the president(Donald Pleasance)prompting the police commissioner(Lee Van-Cleef) to make an exceptional proposition to a sadistic convicted felon(Kurt Russell)who becomes the only solution to rescue the president, since the dangerous Snake Plisskin(Kurt Russell) is the only person who knows all the right moves, which somewhat resulted in a case where it took a criminal to defeat a criminal, which in this case was the Duke(Isaac Hayes).
It was also cool how the police force was able to use techniques and strategies that still don't exist to this very day and making New York City like a big city dump and ghost town, plus it was kinda cool and neat how Hauk(Lee Van-Cleef) was able to have the doctor inject a sensory device into Snake Plisskin without any needles to be able to make sure that Snake brought the president back within less than 24 hours and neutralize the effects after the mission was accomplished, in case Snake had decided to sneak away instead of proceeding with the mission, which is something that would be cool for the authorities to use nowadays too, in order to help reduce crime and/or probation and parole violations.
In addition to what made this movie interesting; it was neat seeing actors and actresses from other John Carpenter flicks co-starring in this movie like Donald Pleasance(HALLOWEEN), Tom Atkins(THE FOG), Charles Cyphers(HALLOWEEN & THE FOG), Adrienne Barbeau(THE FOG), Harry-Dean Stanton(CHRISTINE), Kurt Russell(THE THING), Nancy Stephens(HALLOWEEN), etc., except ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK was an action movie, not a horror movie, plus this was probably the first action movie directed by John Carpenter as well, since most of the other movies Carpenter made back then were horror flicks and thrillers.
In fact, I actually liked ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK a lot better than Carpenter's sequel ESCAPE FROM L.A.; even though ESCAPE FROM LA was alot more upgraded and alot more sophisticated than ESCAPE FROM N.Y. was, but I thought the action and the actors in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK were better and a lot less predictable than they were in ESCAPE FROM LA, especially since the original flicks of each saga are usually better than the sequels are, which is another reason why ESCAPE FROM L.A. wasn't as good as ESCAPE FROM N.Y.
Movie Review: Escapist classic
Summary: 5 Stars
I really enjoyed this film when it was released in '81 and recently got it on DVD and watched it again this week.
It was also fascinating to listen to John Carpenter and Kurt Russell talk through the film on one of the extra features which I did. It gave me a better understanding of how the film was made and why certain things were the way they were.
What I particularly liked about this story was the premise that crime had forced the authorities in the USA to declare what was tantamount to martial law and turn New York into a prison where all those who violated one of the vast raft of laws was sent. There was no appeal and no return once one was admitted.
Such draconian rules always provokes a backlash and a political activist forces the President's plane to crash into New York and the authorities have to plan a rescue, but their best chance is to use a former war hero turned cynical and bitter to get him out in 24 hours.
Kurt Russell is brilliant as the anti-hero Snake Plisskin, some sort of folk hero who has fallen from grace and is earmarked for prison, but the deal is to pardon him if he manages to get President Donald Pleasence (somewhat miscast in my opinion) out. Plisskin cares little about anything but as his journey is followed you begin to root for him, and the film does unusually for an action film touch on the human side of the character.
There are other strong supporting roles; Lee Van Cleef as the piolice commissioner, a cold-hearted ruthless man who is nothing more than a criminal in uniform; Ernest Borgnine as the naive and simple Cabbie; Harry Dean Stanton as the clever 'Brain', and the late Isaac Hayes as the Duke of New York, the chief bad man who Plisskin has to defeat to get his mission done.
Made on a shoestring budget, its cleverly shot and directed, and there is sufficient action to keep one gripped throughout the film to its conclusion. There is even a nice twist at the end to make you smile.