Review of Escape From L.A.

Introduction

Escape From New York was a cult hit but, despite this, could have been a lot better. The initial idea could have become a lot better than what it ended up as. Escape From L.A. is unashamedly practically a remake of original, but with a bigger budget and relocated to Los Angeles.

Video

With its anamorphic widescreenness, the transfer looks, for the most part, great. There is a great deal of detail in the print, the blacks that Carpenter favours are solid, and the only fault is that there is a few artifacts.

However, the big (for Carpenter) budget doesn’t appear to have gone up on screen, and so must be lining someone’s pocket somewhere. The CGI is perhaps the shoddiest, most unbelievable work I have seen, it really is laughable. The explosions are better. This just goes to reaffirm my belief that Carpenter is best when working on a tight budget.

Audio

Paramount has come up trumps on the soundtrack front again with a good 5.1 mix, although it doesn’t compete with the reference material seen on the more recent DTS discs. The score is not one of Carpenter’s more memorable ones.

Features

Just a trailer. How hard can it be to get some extras, like a commentary, considering Carpenter’s and Russell’s love of doing them?

Conclusion

John Carpenter seems to have thought of a few decent set pieces, and then constructed a plot (or copied it from ’New York’) around it. The basketball shootout is good, but many of the other stunts are ruined by the flimsy CGI.

This may sound like I don’t like this movie: not true. Snake Plissken (great porn star name) is really a cool character, and I would watch any movie with him in – including a second sequel (Escape From Delaware, anyone?). It’s a shame that this almost a spoof of ‘New York’, Carpenter should keep his tongue firmly out of his cheek and keep his hand on the throttle – like the original, this movie suffers from a lack of pacing. The ending is, again, a little like the first movie, but leaves the door wide open for a return for Snake.