ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981)

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981)

Tagline: 1997. New York City is now a maximum security prison. Breaking out is impossible. Breaking in is insane.

(Adventure, Action, Snake, Why Does It Always Have To Be Snake) [R]

You wanna see him sprayed all over that map, baby? Now, where's the President?

This movie takes us to the future in 1997 when crime has gotten so out of control that the nation had a maximum security prison on Manhattan Island. The entire prison is surrounded by a giant fence and the United States Police Force. No guards are inside the prison so it ends up being the perfect place to take the President after he is kidnapped by The National Liberation Front Of America as leverage to get what they want. They have some issue with imperialism or some crap. No one wants to go into the prison, so of course, they pick Snake who is a one-eyed bad a-s thought to be the only one with the skills to get the President out of harm’s way. Freedom is on the line if Snake can…ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. 

First off the music at the beginning of this is cool but sounds like what you would get if you watching any cop show in the 80s, having said that it is distinctly John Carpenter. This is another movie I had to watch twice to really start to appreciate. There are some pretty funny lines in here and Snake is actually a pretty cool character played by Kurt Russell, but I gravitate more towards Jack Burton from BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA as my favorite character Kurt Russell plays. 

Acting wise this movie is just loaded with talent. I really think they underutilized both Tom Atkins (NIGHT OF THE CREEPS) who plays Rehme and Donald Pleasence (HALLOWEEN) who plays the President. The legendary Isaac Hayes (OBLIVION) is awesome as The Duke (even though he’s a bad guy). We also get Harry Dean Stanton (DREAM A LITTLE DREAM) as Harold ‘Brain” Hellman who gets a pretty big role in this. I thought everyone did amazing jobs, but yeah, screen time for Tom and Donald was way low. 

There are some cool graphics in this movie given the budget or at least what they made “look” like graphics. They also did a great job with the use of models etc. Cinematically nothing in this movie is going to blow your mind, a lot or maybe all of it is shot at night in mostly junkyard-looking settings. You know, basically, just go to Los Angeles these days and you have this movie's aesthetic. The pacing is slow in the middle and that was an issue for me. It feels like after the opening there is just not a ton going on until The Duke gets introduced. 

If this movie loses me anywhere it’s in that middle section where it feels like there is a lull even when we get the action sequences. The movie is 99 minutes long and I feel like they could have cut out 19 more minutes given what we got. Apparently, there was an opening scene with Snake robbing a Federal building that did get cut because the test audiences didn’t care for it. That’s kinda how I feel about several scenes that made it into the movie.

Because this thing has several saving graces like the score, the idea, and Kurt Russell, I can’t give it any lower than a 5 out of 7 it’s still a classic and is pretty fun. I do wish I liked it more than I did. It is superior to its copycat ESCAPE FROM THE BRONX. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF AVCO EMBASSY PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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