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USA 1996
Director: John Carpenter
Cast: Kurt Russell, Stacy Keach, Pam Grier, Steve Buscemi, Peter Fond, Georges Corraface, Cliff Robertson, Michelle Forbes
Rating: R
Release Date: 9 August 1996
Running Time: 1 hour 37 minutes
The Movie Review
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| ESCAPE From L.A. |
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Escape from L.A. is a sequel to a memorable movie from the dawn of the 80s, Escape from New York (1981) and so by doing little math, it took a time for a human being to grow up from a small baby to a teenager for a sequel to come up. 15 years is a long time and by 1996, those who love the original might already lose interest to see a sequel and those who didn't know the original would notice this Science-Fiction movie probably with little enthusiasm. 1996 was a year where moviegoers (in Jakarta in this case) were going out to see Twister (1996), Independence Day (1996), Romeo + Juliet (1996) and/or of course Scream (1996)... Escape from L.A.? What the f*ck is that?! Now in year 2011, should we give the movie a spin in our home theater?
That slithering Snake Plissken is back! Luckily still with Kurt Russell to play as a convict which once again needed to save United States from total doom! Yep yep yep, in year 2000 (that's 11 years before today), Los Angeles is separated with the mainland due to 9.6 on Richter Scale Earthquake. The current president (Cliff Robertson) is happy about it because in his eyes, Los Angeles is a sin city and he channels his personal hatred by making the already-destroyed Los Angeles (now an Island) as special prison for those who have no morale to live in the new America!
But sh*te! Eventually in year 2013 (that's 2 years from now) the inevitable happens in this Dystopian world when President's own daughter, Utopia (A.J. Langer), sabotages her own father's plan and threatens to disfunction all the electronic equipment in the American soil by being an amateur terrorist and taking with her a suitcase containing a device which controls war satellites circling the Earth! You see, after Utopia's sister had committed suicide, she sunk into delusional cyberspace world of her own which is taken advantage by the notorious gang leader resided in Los Angeles, Cuervo Jones (Georges Corraface) and his gang the Mescalito Justice.
And so, by using fakey-fakey-oh-the-graphic Submarine, off Snake Plissken goes to hunt the suitcase carried by Utopia and kill her in exchange for his full pardon! But as insurance, Snake is silently injected with toxic which will kill him within 9 hours! And that's exactly the time Snake has to retrieve back the bomb! Apparently Mescalito is not the only gang headquartered in deserted Los Angeles, lucky for Snake, his fans Taslima (Valeria Golino) and Pipeline (Peter Fonda) and his old friend/foe Hershe (Pam Grier) are willing to help this war hero. Can he reach the President's daughter?
I'm not really a fan of the original but to say making a sequel like this one to be pointless (other than to make some money) is already an obvious opinion. Nevertheless, there are definitely some step ups if one's willing to compare them both. In the sequel, the cinematography is definitely way better as well as the production set, probably due to its bigger budget. The tribes (if I could call it that way) are also more creative, interesting, weird and memorable... Mescalito Justice, Surgical failures --which headed by Bruce Campbell (of The Evil Dead (1981))--, Korean Dragon and Saigon Shadow. The cars and bikes are also more fancy-looking than the one in the original with such tacky Desk Lamp as car lamps! WTF with that?
 The Boss' Car of New York
 The Boss' Car of Los Angeles
The joke here is different too. In the original there's this one-liner statement/question from several characters saying "Snake! I thought you were dead?!" over and over which makes it somehow a ticklish dark humor, but in the sequel the joke is improved with characters saying "Snake! I thought you'd be taller!" In the sequel, there are a lot of things to behold and enjoy in a sense that the action sequences are much more entertaining than the original, although some scenes are definitely far-fetched and even ridiculous! Such as Snake playing basketball, Snake surfing, Snake air-gliding.... Really?! It feels almost seeing A Mini Game of Mini Snake Plissken. But I'm grateful for that, because if one could overlook the oh-so-horrible CGI, then Escape from L.A. is a movie that could still be enjoyed until today, unlike the original which doesn't stand the test of time. Although basically still borrowing the same plot from the original, but the writers provide and add some considerably intense action sequences and though cheesy but still is fun and Escape from Los Angeles has a very very cool ending! Rock on Snake Plissken! (what a cool name!)
Interestingly there is an unofficial sequel titled Escape from New Jersey (2010) created by fans. You can see it in YouTube
© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com
Twitter: @movielogy
posted: Saturday, 8 October 2011 11:39 am
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