Review of Escape from L.A. (1996) by Tonypolito — 13 Aug 2010

Fifteen years after "Escape From NY," John Carpenter and Kurt Russell here reprise its exact same plot set-up, outline and conclusion -- Someone's escape pod and secret weapon ends up behind enemy lines, Snake's injected with a count-down killer as incentive to save the day, even a tape recording that the President ultimately needs to broadcast live across the nation.

Because this sequel taps into the original so deeply, it's unjustly under-rated. Yet EFLA is still as entertaining as EFNY, perhaps even more so, due to Carpenter's injection of thoughtful social commentary.

NY was a prison for criminals; LA is an exile for 'poor citizenship' in a new, 'moral' America that outlaws smoking, premarital sex and red meat. Run by a stone-hearted Bible-thumping President who doesn't hesitate to strap his own daughter into the electric chair - for betraying him in her trying to save the world from America's satellite-based tyranny. LA's gangleader isn't a thug, he's planning a revolution to free the Third World - and he not-so-coincidentally looks like Che Guevara.

So all the action in this film is more than just action, it's framework within which the viewer can, just as in the Western genre, ponder questions of morality. And really cheer on the protagonist who, at great personal cost, is sure to make the right decisions.

Well recommended.