Escape from New York
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Movie Reviews of Escape from New York
Movie Review: Snake, Brain, Maggie
Summary: 5 Stars
They must save the Presdent. Lee van Cleef is head of police on NY. Snake isn't thrilled about going in after the Presdent.Movie Review: I thought he was dead....
Summary: 5 Stars
...but I bought this DVD anyway! What a great movie!Movie Review: snake is king
Summary: 5 Stars
snake is king of new york, carpenter is too coolMovie Review: Wicked cool movie
Summary: 4 Stars
Only goes to show you Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson aren't the early 80's only people who can portray a wicked-cool tough guy. Escape from New York is John Carpenter's post apocalyptic answer to those lone wolf anti-heroes we used to see in the classic westerns. Though the movie is rough around it's edges I see this one as one of Carpenter's better movies.
Stick an anti-establishment ex-military dude, load him up with weapons and drop him in a city controlled by roving gangs of convicts. That's Escape from New York in a nutshell. What makes it work? The characters. What makes the characters work? The actors. You get a nice slice of star power in this movie with the likes of Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasance, Adrienne Barbeau and a slew of others. Put them together and you have some pretty sweet performances. Even Isaac Hayes (Chef of South Park) plays a surprisingly interesting role as the Duke of New York. Considering he was a popular singer back then and not an actor I'm impressed. Of course Kurt Russell owns the screen as Snake Plissken. Thanks for Russel's portrayal that name will go down in sci-fi history.
Special effects aren't much to speak of. Most of the movie is based on set design of a ruined New York City. Not exactly high budget and it shows. The special effects that are on the movie are in the beginning and are quite impressive in a very subtle way. First off you have the model work that really brings the trashed city to life. Also there are some images they put on a display screen that have an impressive and very convincing three-dimensional effect you wouldn't expect by first looking at it. Although it's brief, it's neat enough to be worth noting.
Action there is plenty. You get running gun fights, arena death matches, exploding land mines, and a race against the clock. Kind of like a street gang movie with more props. They do get into that tired cliché of killing off as many good guys as you can so the hero can be left alone. Such a shame when considering alternatives to that predictable formula. Plissken is a relatively one dimensional character, but in a way that's the beauty of him. Just keep in mind you won't see much character growth in him.
Escape from New York could be called your standard post apocalyptic/gang war type movie, only this is the one that set that standard in the first place. Many people consider it a classic and I tend to agree. It's an interesting look into that harsh cyberpunk future without all the gadgets and tech in the way. It's not a classic in the sense of the greatest of the great, but it is a landmark in science fiction heritage and should be respected as such.
Movie Review: The Greatest Escape
Summary: 4 Stars
If you've never seen this movie before, let me remind you that it was made in 1982, so forgive the bad guys for wearing Village People clothing. It's another great vision from John Carpenter, with Kurt Russell taking the excellent lead role as "Snake Pliskin".When this movie hit the theatres, it was probably one of the best futuristic movies ever made. Set in 1997, it imagines the City of New York transformed into a maximum-security prison. Ordinary criminals shunned by a weary society are left to fend for themselves behind the massive walls of the city. The inmate characters portrayed in this movie are unique in style and behavior. A few are just down-right weird (The Duke's #2 man is my favorite). Snake Pliskin is given a chance for freedom in exchange for saving the president (a self-interested and thankless character play by Donald Pleasance), who's plane has been hijacked and crashed into the city. Pliskin must fight off numerous gangs and thugs to reach the president and free him from his captors. But time is his biggest enemy, as you will see.
If you can get past the Control Room set, with thousands of useless flashing lights, ugly limo's, giant face-shields, super-sized watches (heck, I had a digital watch back in '82, and it was nowhere near the size of Pliskins) and bad guys wearing Sally Jessy Rafael glasses, you'll still enjoy this movie. The excellent settings of the city and the musical score (Carpenter's specialty) intensify his vision of a bleak and hopeless future for a once-great city overrun by crime.
There's a hole in the storyline, though. When Pliskin first gets injected with those micro-size charges, the doctor reassures him that they can burn out those charges with x-rays 15 minutes before his time is up. But he only has seconds left when they finally get to him, according to his huge watch. So, should Snake have died? Hell, no! The name's Pliskin!
Isn't it weird that Carpenter's best movies were made when he didn't have a big budget to play with. THE FOG is a good example of that. With that said, do yourself a favor and don't watch (or buy) the sequel, Escape from L.A. It is one of the worst sequels I've ever seen. What was he thinking? It's full of ridiculous scenes (the surfing comes immediately to mind) and fails to follow up on the previous film's effect. A big disappointment. Mr. Carpenter, if your going to make a sequel to one of your other great early films, please try to keep the storyline and atmosphere in check with the prior film. We dont need the million dollar explosions or outrageous plots to enjoy the film. Stick to the basics that made you so successful early on.