Rating of
2/4
Cheap but fun
poonhokong - wrote on 04/10/11
John Carpenter is one of my favourate director. He works with low budget and made the film work with atomsphere. Some of his works are really good, like the Original Halloween (1978) and the Thing (1982) which is my most favourate Horror movie of all time. Some of them are bad, but doesnt mean they are not enjoyable. They are cheap and stupid but fun to watch in a strange way I myself could not fully explain.
Escape from L.A. is one of the bad ones. The plot is pretty much the same as Escape from New York: some shit happened, L.A. is seperated from the continent by a flood and used as a place for exiling criminals and everyone who "unfit to live in a new America". The criminals seduced the president's daughter and ordered her to stole some weapons apparently, and Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) went in to L.A. to retrieve the weapon and kill the girl.
There are so many stupid scenes in this film, but all in a playful fun way. You can feel that John Carpenter is having fun with it, and aware just how stupid it is. Stupid scenes include Snake playing basketball and surfing to chase a car. But it doesnt make you angry since you feel that the director is fully aware and having fun with it, and you laughs along.
The special effects are bad, that I agree. I rather it use animatronics and minitures, but they goes for many modern movies nowadays.
Put yourself in a right mood for a movie that just for fun, and this is not such a bad movie, but this is coming from a mouth of a guy that even enjoy Vampires (1998) and Ghosts of Mars (2001). If you enjoy cheap movies like me, give it a watch.
