Starring: Kurt Russell, Steve Buscemi, and Stacey Keach
Plot: L.A. has been separated from the contiguous United States by an earthquake and left lawless. The President’s daughter runs away to the island with her father’s doomsday device, and Snake Plissken is yet again recruited as an expendable resource.
Review:
This is John Carpenter’s sequel to Escape from New York that offers really nothing very different from the first installment. Instead of a walled-in New York, we have Los Angeles turned into an island. It is full of eccentric characters, just like New York, played by memorable genre favorites. Peter Fonda as a beach bum surfer. Bruce Campbell as a plastic surgery addicted Surgeon General of Beverly Hills. And Pam Grier as a tranny gang leader. Some of these eccentric characters are very specific counterparts to New York’s supporting cast. Steve Buscemi plays a scumball rat who knows all the secrets of the city, just like Staton’s character from the first one. Lee Van Cleef is substituted with Stacy Keach, a fine tough guy character actor, but he’s no Van Cleef.
Donald Pleasance’s presence is probably the most missed. His absence has made way for a new President played by Cliff Robertson. This President is quite the piece of work. He had rigged a new law that made him President for life and moved the capital of the country to his home town. He is also pushing forth a super moral expectation from the country which included bans on tobacco, alcohol, non-Christian religions, and pre-marital sex. He is such a disgusting parody of what America is afraid of and what would never be allowed to happen (I don’t care how cynical you are) that he comes off more comical than threatening. I feel it is one of the few times that Carpenter stole a fear right out of the nation’s zeitgeist and failed to make it as truly frightening.
The ruins of Los Angeles
Showing some restraint when it comes to these supporting characters probably would have went a long way. Of course, restraint isn’t really a strong suit of the movie in general. It expands way past the cartoonish villains and henchman of the first one. Snake has resorted to the use of some pretty low grade toys masquerading as high tech weapons. He also surfs a tidal wave on to a moving car. Escape from New York may have not been the most rational or logical film, but it treated its own implausibility with a little decency. Tongue is so firmly in cheek here that it damn near busts through.
But watching this movie isn’t about the realism or the story, it’s about Snake Plissken. Kurt Russell slips back into the role like a well-fitting glove. The usually charismatic happy go-lucky guy seems to flip that gruff switch pretty easily. Although, the character has changed a little. He seems less nihilistic and more anarchistic. He seems to care about people, his country, and the future of both if the status quo was to continue without question. Snake thankfully takes matters into his own hand, and only he would have the balls big enough for the kind of tough love he smacks down on the world at the end.
Bruce Campbell as the plastic surgery obsessed Surgeon General
Escape from LA suffers from severe seqeulitis. Sequelitis is when an additional installment misguided by positive reinforcement gives the audience everything they loved from the first one but without all the things that made it a digestible movie in the first place. So people talk about a really cool character who goes up against really eccentric villains in wild and crazy circumstances and that is all you get. Unfortunately, a decent thriller plot with a lot of charming grit and grime gets passed by the wayside.
Rating: 4/10
