Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

aarondevoll John Carpenter's film stars Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, a rugged, one eyed man who is jettisoned into a thuggish New York City that's been taken over by a crime lord named the Duke (Issac Hayes) to rescue a president (Donald Pleasence) taken hostage. To say anymore would spoil the fun but certainly it is quite memorable.The film uses the tropes of many classic westerns. Carpenter (himself a huge fan of westerns) turns a futuristic New York into a land brimming with grimy, sleazy men. The legendary Snake Plissken resembles the man with no name (who was based on Kurosawa's Yojimbo). Speaking one sentence at a time, Russell plays him with so much macho elegance, it's hard not to be absorbed when he's on screen.Escape from New York is similar in ways to The Warriors, another cult classic, released two years earlier but it's the casting in Carpenters film (Hayes, Stanton, Van Cleef) that give it a certain flavor despite its minimal plot. Carpenter would direct a sequel 15 years later with Escape from L.A. which is mostly dumb and worth watching only for a couple cool sequences with Russell.9/10. Escape from New York5/10. Escape from L.A.

Red-Barracuda This early 80's bit of dystopian sci-fi set in a future America which is now a fascist state has gone on to garner a cult reputation. Set in the future of 1997, Manhattan Island is now a high security prison where the criminal dregs of society are contained. When the president's aeroplane crashes in the middle of this city prison and captured by the resident criminals, a mercenary called Snake Plissken is sent in on a do-or-die mission to retrieve him within twenty-four hours.Escape From New York is another in the long line of strong movies director John Carpenter made in his 70's-80's heyday. After a couple of big horror hits under his belt he returned to the more action-oriented style of his earlier Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), except in this case adding a science-fiction premise to add considerable colour. To this end, the film features dark dilapidated New York settings for the action to take place and these, added to the nice panoramic views of the darkened city add considerable atmosphere. As does Carpenter's main theme music which is amongst the very best be ever composed and given the high calibre of his original soundtrack music, that's saying quite a lot. The film also benefits from a cast of b-movie legends, we have Donald Pleasence as an improbable President of the United States, Isaac Hayes is a blaxploitation styled Duke of New York, Kurt Russell as the iconic eye-patch sporting anti-hero, Adrienne Barbeau appears throughout in an eye-popping low cut tight red outfit, Ernest Borgnine is a comic-relief cabbie, Lee Van Cleef is a hard-bitten police chief and Harry Dean Stanton pitches up as a shifty character called Brain. The film isn't always fully exciting stuff it has to be admitted and it sometimes promises more than it delivers but the set-up, settings and cast are very good, while there are some memorable scenes such as the death match and mine-infested bridge to keep the pace up. Ultimately, this is a very solid bit of early 80's sci-fi action, with enough distinctive elements to ensure its ongoing cult appeal.

inspectors71 I felt disappointed when I watched John Carpenter's Escape from New York some 36 years ago, and when I saw it again two weeks ago, getting over a viral menace that makes everything ache, except the muscles for the remote, I found EfNY just as disappointing and silly. Now, mind you, this isn't supposed to be a big, thoughtful dystopian nightmare, just an adventure into the bowels of Manhattan-as- Supermax, wherein the President, Donald Pleasance, of all people, crashes, and it's up to our hero, Kurt Russell, to get him out. Read that last sentence again. Yes, I know it's a ginormous run-on, but all you need to know is right above this paragraph.It's that pretentious and dumb. And it's not even very good. Carpenter lets the reins go in the third reel, and the movie meanders and muddles until its inevitable "big message" ending. The whole thing is only 80+ minutes long, and I got bored. Never a good thing for dystopian nightmare action flicks.I guess Escape from New York was the first true inkling that Carpenter was going to collapse as a major director. I think he had one more goodun' in him, The Thing.

jac-44480 A highly entertaining sci-fi action thriller, though a bit dated. It is a Classic in the weakest sense of the term. You cannot put it in the same category as all-time classics like the Terminator, Rambo, or Alien franchises, but it is not far behind. I would put EFNY on the very cusp of being a classic.There are 3 things that make this film great. First, the star of the film is Kurt Russell as the iconic anti-hero "Snake Plissken". Russell really nails the part down as good as any iconic action figure in movie history. He delivers plenty of classic one-liners that moviegoers will quote forever. Second, the musical score by John Carpenter is fantastic. Taking a page from 1978's "Halloween", Carpenter really sets the mood of an apocalyptic NYC overrun by violent criminals. Third, the dark visual city-scape of New York created by Carpenter with abandoned buildings, dumpster fires, and maniacs roaming the streets is very well done.Now this movie is very dated looking, and does not age well. EFNY debuted in 1981, but was made in the late 1970's, and it shows. The special effects are a joke by today's standards. Watching those 70's computers with red and green signals flashing, you feel like you are in a museum. The explosions that take place in the film are laughably fake. Almost like someone lit a firecracker off and a little smoke comes out. Another trademark of this late 70's-early 80's period, is we see a prominence of big American land yacht vehicles such as Cadillac Deville's and Ford LTD's. Somehow, the dated look and primitive special effects actually lend the movie a favor. It wouldn't be the same if we had modern CGI and high def graphics.The secondary characters are mostly forgettable. Donald Pleasance as President is convincing, but is given too little screen time. Isaac Hayes as "The Duke of New York" makes for an interesting foe at first glance, but is given no memorable dialogue. The rest of the cast are used as cannon fodder. This is fine, however, because all we care about is Snake Plissken and his mission. Everyone else is expendable.What holds this movie back is they could have done so much more. By the movie's end you feel like the writers barely scratched the surface on the movie's potential. What could have been. They could have developed the secondary characters more. They could have done a more thorough story on Snake Plissken's background. Instead, the movie rushes to the action and ends rather abruptly. Still, despite its flaws, this is a great sci-fi action flick to watch on a night at home.