Hayden Kane
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Portia Hilton
Blistering performances.
Allissa
.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
heinigrunbaum-786-20424
I wish John Carpenter, one of my favorite directors since my early teenage years, had taken this project more seriously. Escape from L.A. completely misses the atmosphere and seriousness that Escape from New York had.In Escape from New York you were on your toes all the time. A shadow in the background or a flash in the distance made you tremble in your seat, and Snake Plissken gave you the true feeling that the whole world could go fxxx it self for all its wrong doings.Escape from L.A. seemed more like a poppet show that didn't expect to be taken seriously. A meet up of good old friends having fun hanging out on a set together and getting paid to do so at the same time. Nobody was focused at the project at hand, but I am sure they all had a great time doing the movie.The character of Che Guevara was misplaced as most of the characters were. Sad. This could have been a great John Carpenter movie even with the same copy-pasted script that tried too hard to be a more futuristic version than Escape from New York was.I somehow wish Escape from L.A. had never been made. Just like Godfather part III totally ruins the magnificent end of Godfather part II (another sad story in the history of great movies).Only the character played by Pam Grier was interesting, but that part was only taken seriously by Pam Grier herself, not by John Carpenter.You never realize that Escape from New York is a somewhat low-budget movie. The team worked their way of that and made a true masterpiece (that I personally have rated with 10 stars here on IMDb). With Escape from L.A. they had more money and what not, but it truly seems like a low-budget flick that no one would even remember if it wasn't for the cast, John Carpenter, and of course; Escape from New York.Sad… sad when great directors loses their "touch", but it happens all the time. I still love John Carpenter for all of his great movies, but this one the world and the John Carpenter-legacy could have been with out!
Predrag
Yet, again another cool action sci-fi from the master of genre movies John Carpenter, although its not quite as good as the original it's still a lot of fun and certainly still stands up as a cult classic sequel, the story is pretty much the same as before accept it's L.A. that's now also been sectioned off and the whole island is now a prison, the presidents daughter with the black box has fallen into terrorist hands within the walls of L.A and only one man can save the day, Snake is captured once again and promised a full pardon for the bad things he's been doing between movies, this time around there's plenty more action and shootouts and going underwater, flying, and lots of crazy effects, some of the effects are a tad cheesy but its the mid 90's and they still look cool, the cast has a few more famous faces this time with Steve Buscemi, Valeria Golino, Pam Grier, Bruce Campbell.The costumes and sets are very good and make the dystopian feel of future L.A. completely believable and engrossing to experience. This film is a Sci-fi romp with a little gore and black humor thrown in for good measure, as only John Carpenter can deliver it. The movie itself leaves a lot to be desired. In short,if you're not a Snake fan you probably won't enjoy it.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
ma-cortes
Exciting and spectacular rescue into Los Angeles destroyed by earthquakes, floods, mudslides, and become a top-security prison . This thrilling picture results to be an inferior sequel to Escape from N.Y. , the latter become a real Cult Movie . It contains mystery , chills , noisy action , thrills , fights , social critical , bits of humor with tongue-in cheek attitude and a weird atmosphere with dark and surprising ending . Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell, he was the only cast member from the original film to appear in the sequel)is once again called in by the United States government (Stacy Keach as officer , Michele Forbes as deputy and Clift Robertson as President) to recover a potential doomsday device from Los Angeles, now an autonomous island where undesirables are deported and finds itself under siege by violent gangs . A previous war hero named Snake Plissken gone rebel must execute a daring adventure and bring up a powerful artifact in twenty four hours . Snake must recover it and along the way facing off villains like Cuervo Jones (George Corraface) . He's only helped by a sympathetic rogue underling (Steve Buscemi who took the part in this film to help fund his directorial debut, Trees Lounge) , and action women (Valeria Golino, Pam Grier) . As Snake Plissken to get in and out of Los Angeles . The film is a comic book plenty of action , fun , adventures , suspense , thriller and surprise-filled entertainment . Magnificent plethora of characters with decent performances by its entire cast . Middle-budget by Paramount Pictures , in fact its President Sherry Lansing was a fan of "Escape from New York" and wanted John Carpenter, Kurt Russell and Debra Hill to make the sequel in the same vein as the original. Kurt Russell as tough and valiant renegade is terrific . At the beginning of the film, Kurt Russell wears his costume from the original film, which still fits after 15 years . Kurt Russell not only came up with but wrote the entire ending of the movie , in fact it was the first and only writing credit . Escape From LA was caught in development hell for over ten years . A script for the film was first commissioned in 1985 but John Carpenter thought it "too light, too campy" . An initial script was written , but 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 favourite character, a character he loved and wanted to play again . Support cast is frankly good such as Peter Fonda , Cliff Robertson , Valeria Golino , Stacy Keach , Pam Grier , Bruce Campbell , Michelle Forbes , A.J. Langer and Peter Jason , Carpenter's usual . The picture contains an imaginative and memorable production design by Lawrence G. Paull . Colorful and glimmer cinematography by Gary B. Kibbe . John Carpenter also made the atmospheric music score along with Shirley Walker . The movie likely to satisfy action enthusiasts and Kurt Russell fans .Director John Carpenter is in familiar ground with this well-done tale on the style of comic books and old Sci-Fi serials . His films often feature important visuals shown from a video screen , as the end-of-the-world transmission from the future in ¨Prince of darkness¨ (1987), the Norwegian recordings of the expedition to uncover the aliens in ¨The Thing¨ (1982), various TV sets and the general anti-TV motif in ¨They live¨(1988), etc. ¨1997 escape from N.Y¨ was realized during his best period in the 70s and late 8os when he directed classics as ¨Halloween¨, ¨The fog ¨, ¨Christine¨, ¨They live¨ , ¨Big Trouble in Little China¨ and ¨The thing¨ . The sequel ¨Escape from L.A¨ rating : average but entertaining . The movie will enjoy to noisy action fans but packs a roller-coaster thriller and wholesome amusement . The film will appeal to John Carpenter enthusiasts . A third sequel was going to be made titled Escape from Earth which would have had Snake escaping Earth after a dark matter experiment. However, the negative reaction to this film prevented the sequel from being developed. As 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 .
utgard14
John Carpenter's totally unnecessary sequel to his classic Escape From New York. It's really just a retread of that movie with a very similar plot, similar characters, lines, situations, etc. The biggest differences being now there's a lot more campy humor and some very poor CGI. Also the supporting cast is nowhere near as good and, unlike the first movie, everybody seems very aware that they are in a sequel to a popular movie and play it up as such. It's likable enough and watchable. This is mostly due to Kurt Russell's screen presence and the little Carpenterisms sprinkled throughout. But it's not a patch on the original and ultimately there's not a lot to recommend about it to anybody who isn't a die-hard Carpenter fan.
