Review of Escape from L.A. (1996) by Alec B — 19 Mar 2016

In 2000, an earthquake strikes Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley floods, and California turns into an island from Malibu to Anaheim. An American presidential candidate (Cliff Robertson) who is also an outspoken theocrat has been saying that L.A. is sinful and has been punished by God. When he is elected President, he declares that anyone not conforming to the new "Moral America" laws he creates, which ban such things as tobacco, alcoholic beverages, red meat, firearms, profanity, atheism, and non-marital sex, will be deported to Los Angeles Island unless they repent and choose death by electrocution. A containment wall is built around the island, armed guards and watchtowers are posted, and those sent to the island are exiled permanently. In 2013, Cuervo Jones (Georges Corraface), a Shining Path Peruvian Revolutionary, seduces the President's daughter, Utopia (A. J. Langer), via a holographic system and brainwashes her into stealing her father's remote control to the "Sword of Damocles" super weapon-a series of satellites capable of destroying electronics anywhere on the planet. The President intends to use the system to destroy America's enemies' ability to function and eventually dominate the world. While traveling aboard Air Force Three, Utopia leaves the plane in an escape pod and lands on L.A. Island to join with Cuervo. With the satellites under his control, Cuervo promises to take back America with the assistance of an allied invasion force of third world nations that are standing by to attack. Cuervo claims that if the President tries to stop him, he will "pull the plug" on the country and black out the capital. Cuervo also knows the secret world code that can knock out power for the entire planet. Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is captured for another series of crimes and is scheduled to be exiled to the island. Upon his arrival for deportation, Snake meets the President and is offered the mission of retrieving the weapon. The President says he will give him a full pardon if he is successful. The President indicates he does not care if Utopia is returned or not, declaring her a traitor. To ensure his compliance, Snake is infected with the man-made Plutoxin 7 virus that will kill him within ten hours. If he completes the mission, Snake will be cured...

Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote that the film's in-jokes "go a long way toward keeping afloat a hopelessly choppy adventure spoof that doesn't even to try to match the ghoulish surrealism of its forerunner". Esther Iverem of The Washington Post wrote that the film "tries but fails to be an action-hero flick or even a parody of one". Kim Newman of Empire rated it 2/5 stars and wrote, "Apart from a few good characters, this is really not up to scratch in most departments especially the ludicrous plot." John Carpenter later reflected: "Escape from L.A." is better than the first movie. Ten times better. It's got more to it. It's more mature. It's got a lot more to it. I think some people didn't like it because they felt it was a remake, not a sequel... I suppose it's the old question of whether you like Rio Bravo or El Dorado better? They're essentially the same movie. They both had their strengths and weaknesses. I don't know-you never know why a movie's going to make it or not. People didn't want to see Escape that time, but they really didn't want to see The Thing... You just wait. You've got to give me a little while. People will say, you know, what was wrong with me? While "Escape From New York" is amongst my absolute favourite films, this "remake" or whatever you call it makes no real sense in my world. "Escape From L.A." is just poor in all departments and is not even close to the first film. The irony is that Carpenter had not that much of a budget in the first one, but managed to make it really work, while in "Escape From L.A." he obviously had a bigger budget but everything is so much poorer and we see so many shitty painted backdrops, poor effects and general vague studio settings. The original had a serious, dark and menacing undertone that worked, while here we get an over the top attempt with campy cheap action, poor acting despite so many well known names (Steve Buscemi, Peter Fonda, Valeria Golino, Stacy Keach, Pam Grier and Bruce Campbell) and nothing that engages you. The surfing scene makes you just go wtf is going on!?? I hated "Escape From L.A." when it came out, I am maybe a bit more forgiving now when re-seeing it, but the fact is that "Escape From L.A." is a failure in my eyes and should never have been made. Trivia: "Escape From L.A." was caught in development hell for over ten years. A script for the film was first commissioned in 1985 but John Carpenter thought it was "too light, too campy". It remained dormant until Carpenter and Kurt Russell got together with frequent collaborator Debra Hill. It was Russell's persistence that got the film made. Snake Plissken was his favorite character, a character he loved and wanted to play again. The movie was a notorious failure on release, making around $25 million (just half its budget) at the US box office. Many reviews criticized the film for being too violent or for being too similar to the original film.