This Ain’t New York City

“Escape from L.A.” (1996) — movie review
Today’s review is for the dystopian action sequel “Escape from L.A.” (1996), starring Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken (the one-eyed antihero drafted once again to clean up America’s mess), Stacy Keach as Commander Malloy (a military bureaucrat with a mission and a moral blind spot), Steve Buscemi as Map to the Stars Eddie (a sleazy opportunist with a knack for survival), Cliff Robertson as the President (a theocratic despot ruling with moral absolutism), Peter Fonda as “Pipeline” (a spaced-out hippie surfer), and Georges Corraface as Cuervo Jones (a revolutionary leader with a Che-meets-surf-punk vibe). “Escape from L.A.” revisits the cynical terrain of its predecessor with (supposedly) more satire, more absurdity, and a bigger effects budget — but not necessarily more impact.
Background:  This was my first viewing of “Escape from L.A.”  I came to it as a interested viewer of “Escape from New York” (1981) (review here).  I was curious whether Carpenter and Russell could recapture the (somewhat) gritty magic of the original.  (I rated the original as “Low to Moderate recommendation.”)  They didn’t — but they did definitely come up with something stranger.  This film was justifiably not a commercial success, earning just over $42 million against a $50 million budget.  It received mixed reviews and no Academy Award nominations, though it has since gained limited cult status for its audacious tone and unapologetic (to say the least) weirdness.  Watching it now, nearly three decades it’s release, it feels less like a sequel and more like a self-aware remix — part parody, part prophecy – and mostly missed opportunity.
Plot:  Set in the year 2013, the film opens with Los Angeles transformed into a penal colony after a massive earthquake separates it from the mainland.  The U.S. has become a theocratic police state, and the President-for-life (Robertson) rules with divine authority.  When his daughter steals a doomsday device and flees to L.A., Snake Plissken is captured and coerced into retrieving it.  Injected with a virus that will kill him in ten hours, Snake must navigate a surreal landscape of exiles, warlords, and plastic-surgery cults.  Along the way, he surfs a tsunami, plays basketball for his life, and ultimately decides that the only way to save the world is to shut it down.  The film ends with Snake triggering an EMP that plunges the planet into technological darkness — a final act of nihilistic liberation.
So, is this movie any good?  How’s the acting?  The filming / FX?  Any problems?  And, did I enjoy the film?  Short answers:  No;  committed but uneven to terrible;  stylized and dated;  many;  no.
Any good?  NO!  — even if you approach it as satire / camp.  “Escape from L.A.” is not a tight thriller or a profound dystopian drama.  I think it’s trying to be a genre pastiche, a self-aware sequel that mocks its own premise. The film’s tone is inconsistent, veering from grim to goofy, but it simply lacks charm.  It’s not trying to be “better” than “Escape from New York” — it’s trying to be louder, weirder, and more absurd.  IF that is what it is really trying to do, it succeeds.
Acting:  Russell, who co-wrote the screenplay, reprises his role with even more growl and grit, turning Snake into a walking indictment of American decay and the character is more jaded, more sardonic, and more mythic than in the original.  He delivers every line with gravel and disdain, turning cynicism into performance art.  Buscemi (typecast) is delightfully sleazy as Eddie, and Pam Grier who one would hope would add gravitas, merely adds a measure of camp.  Fonda’s Pipeline is a one-note surfer sage, and even that fails (even as camp).  Robertson’s President is cartoonishly evil, and Corraface’s Cuervo Jones is more caricature than character.  Bruce Campbell’s cameo as the “Surgeon General of LA” is grotesque and ridiculous.  I think he’s meant to be a highlight of the film’s satirical edge, in a kind of “Rocky Horror Picture Show” tip-of-the-cap way.  It fails.
Filming / FX:  The film’s visuals are poor at their best and horrible the majority of the time.  The CGI — in particular – from the start to the end — has aged poorly, resembling early video game cutscenes.  The production design, however, is inventive:  ruined landmarks, neon wastelands, and bizarre subcultures populate the island of L.A.  But the film lacks the atmospheric tension of the original.  The FX are frequent and their quality is (frankly) abysmal.
Problems:  Many.  The plot is derivative — a near beat-for-beat remake of “Escape from New York” with new set dressing.  The pacing is uneven, with long stretches of exposition followed by bursts of “action”.  The (supposed) satire is blunt, and virtually none of it (the plastic surgery cult, the moral cleansing laws) lands effectively.  The film’s tone — part parody, part action — creates confusing dissonance.  Also, the ending, while thematically consistent with the original is still without emotional payoff.  This is cult cinema at its worst.
Did I enjoy the film?  NO!  — and strictly for traditional reasons – it’s worse than terrible, it’s boring.  “Escape from L.A.” is a film that wants to reward genre / franchise fandom and ironic viewing.  Instead, it’s messy, loud, and mostly ridiculous.  Bizarrely, it’s also strangely prescient to our time and the reign of the Trump Administration.  Watching Snake reject the binary choice of control vs. chaos and then shut down the world’s technology is a moment of punk defiance.  I didn’t enjoy the film as a thriller — it’s not even enjoyable as a cinematic middle finger.  It’s a film that “seems” to know it’s absurd, leans into it, but still never reaches the viewer (me) as satire or camp.
Final Recommendation:  Very low recommendation — (skip it, altogether).  “Escape from L.A.” is not a good film, satire, camp or otherwise.  If you’re a “crazy” fan of Carpenter, Russell, or dystopian satire, it might be worth watching.  (But I doubt it…)  Expect plastic surgery mutants, moral cleansing laws (no smoking, no alcohol, no extramarital sex), and Snake Plissken playing basketball to save his life (yes, it’s that bad).  This is, without a doubt, one of the handful of the worst movies I can remember sitting through.  The interminable introductory screens, which seem longer than the movie, are better viewing than the movie.  You’ve been warned.
.
Click here (7 November) to see the posts of prior years.  I started this blog in late 2009.  Daily posting began in late January 2011.  Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

Read Full Post »