Review of Escape from New York (1981) by Sam C — 23 Jul 2012

Escape From New York to me is just a fun little film, this movie is not great any means necessary but it's an enjoyable hour and forty minutes. The 80s was a great time for action movies and has some of the greatest out there and Escape From New York has always appeared to one of the best from the 80s so I've been wanting to check it out for a while. Well this movie has a lot of things to like about it but I just don't think of it as a great movie. Now John Carpenter is a great director and has brought us many great films and one thing that I liked about this film is that you can tell it's one of his movies, it always has a creepy feelings, the story is good, and has some great actors that portray good and likeable characters. I enjoyed Escape From New York very much but will not say it is great, some may disagree but this is just my opinion on it.

The year is 1988 and the crime rate in the United Stated has gone up 400% so the government turns New York City into a maximum-security prison. Once you go in that prison you never get out, escape is impossible because the bridges are mined, the walls around the prison are fifty feet tall, and police surround the whole area. Air Force One soon crashes into this prison leaving the President of the United States (played by Donald Pleasance) left for dead, but there is one man they can send in to get the President. The United States Police Force Commissioner Bob Hauk (played by Lee Van Cleef) get's Snake Plissken (played by Kurt Russell), an ex-soldier and a bank robber sentenced to life in New York City, but if he excepts this mission and succeeds he will have his freedom. Snake accepts the mission but to make sure he doesn't run off, Hauk puts a device in Snake that will kill in 24 hours and will only be taken out if Snake get's the President out along with a package that the President brought with him. Once Snake get's in this prison he realizes how hard this mission is going to be with prisoners running all around the island, can Snake complete his mission or will he die inside this hell hole?

A few of the problems I had with this movie was in the writing department. I thought the writing to this movie was pretty good but I had some problems with it. Overall the story to this movie was actually very good and interesting. I thought the whole concept of having an entire island turned into a prison was just great because it could make a very interesting story, for the most part I thought it worked very good. I thought all the situations that Snake got into were very good and kept me interested but there are some other things that I had problems with. One of the problems that I had with this movie is that this movie felt a lot longer than it was. At some parts the writing was very weak and because of that I felt bored at times. Some scenes just felt very boring and made lose interest in the film. Like I said earlier there are some very good scenes and that makes up for those boring parts of the movie. Other than those scenes the story kept me interested with the movie and some parts were just very well done. One thing that I had a bit of a problem with is that not all the characters were well written, the character of Snake was written well but the rest weren't. I felt that I needed more background on the characters, and throughout the film I was hoping we would learn more about them but I never got that. Snake was written very well because he was very cool but even had some problems. Throughout the movie people always say something about him (I'm trying not to spoil it) and I was hoping they would explain why they're all saying it but they never did. Overall the writing here is good but it does have it's flaws.

One thing that does work well in this movie is the directing and action. John Carpenter's directing is always very good and it works very well in this movie, New York just looks so dark and creepy and I liked that a lot. The action in this movie is very exciting and entertaining but I felt it needed a little bit more. Although I felt the movie needed some more action I was happy with what I got.

As far as acting goes it's actually the best part of the whole movie. Kurt Russell is just great in this movie as Snake Plissken. Snake Plissken is just so cool and a total BA and Russell just captured all of that. He was always entertaining on screen cracking one-liners and just kicking as. Lee Vann Cleef is also great in the supporting role, even though he's not in the movie a lot he's still terrific in every scene he is in. Every time Russell and Van Cleef are on screen or are just talking to each other by walkie-talkies it's just amazing because of the chemistry between theses two characters. The chemistry between their characters is just so entertaining and very funny at times. Donald Pleasance is a great actor but he's not in the movie for a lot of time either. Every time Pleasance is on screen he's very good and is one of those actors who can practically become any one. Harry Dean Stanton and Adrienne Barbeau both give good performances but I just didn't buy the romance they had. Ernest Borgnine is very good in this film as well, the only performance that I didn't really like is from Isaac Hayes because he wasn't that menacing of a villain.

Overall Escape From New York is a very entertaining film but not quite great. I really liked the performances in this movie except from one and I thought John Carpenter's directing was very good like always. The problems I did have with this film did make me enjoy the movie a lot less but I still enjoyed the film. If you enjoy action movies from the 80s I would recommend this movie or if your just looking a good time you should watch this movie. I wonder if this movie will ever inspire someone into turning a city into a prison, if so where would it be?