Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

i must have seen a different film!!

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Ah, older movies. There should be an age restriction for reviews on IMDb. You can tell who the young people are by the idiotic things they write about older movies. For some reason, young people just don't understand what FICTION means. Hence, the numerous one-star reviews in which the premise of Escape from New York is reviewed as opposed to the film itself. God love the youth, because I sure don't!Escape from New York is a great example of stretching a budget as far as it will go. For its time, it had a much bigger budget look to it. That explains why it inspired so many artists, including William Gibson. As much as I love Blade Runner, Escape from New York, essentially, beat Blade Runner to the punch with respect to the dark look that Blade Runner would eventually get credit for inspiring.The premise, that New York City would be turned into a giant prison, is actually not that absurd, though, for a work of fiction, that shouldn't even matter. In 1981, New York City was a giant toilet. It makes perfect sense that a totalitarian, post WWIII government might send all its criminals there to, pardon the pun, duke it out.Several of the kiddies here have complained about the script. They are not taking into account that all the Bibles of scriptwriting we know of today (Story, Save the Cat, etc.) were not published until well after this film was made. Regardless, if you actually take the story apart, you'll see it meets all the demands of traditional, storytelling structure.So you kids really have nothing to complain about, other than the fact that your poor generation has been deprived of the joys of REAL fiction. Stop looking for reality in fiction and stop using social media to make your reality a fiction!End of lecture. Now get off my lawn!

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.

You've probably heard of Snake Plissken, right? You know, that guy with the eye-patch. Solid Snake? From Metal Gear Solid? Yeah, basically the same guy. This particular bloke is the protagonist of Escape From New York, one of the classic 80's action films I mentioned in my Turbo Kid review (click it, you know you want to). It's set 16 years in the future, the far-out year of 1997 – weird to think that I wasn't born then – in a USA that saw a 400% increase in crime-rate and so had Manhattan made into effectively a massive prison, where criminals who enter are there for life, in the society that they have built.Snake Plissken happens to be a convicted bank robber, and is sent to the giant prison for life for his crime. However, when the President crash lands in the heart of the island, Snake is sent in (as a former war hero) to bring him back in time for an important TV conference. That's all the story is, really. A simple one, but one that works, if only just because it throws Snake into the perfectly designed ghetto streets of New York. There is a sinister and dark undertone flowing through the ruined streets, as many urban dwellers run around in flashy and cave-man like outfits like a mixture between costumes in Streets of Rage and Golden Axe. These features coupled with flashing street lights and an electronic Mega Drive beat-em-up soundtrack make for a perfectly cheesy and overblown 80's techno aesthetic. There is a constant 8- bit beat throughout the movie, giving it a tempo that really works. I wonder where Streets of Rage got its influence?Nonetheless, the tempo is too slow, because there is a 22 HOUR TIME LIMIT, so of course Snake's gonna take his time! There is too much of him just strolling around, and people sitting around, and people just generally doing things around — slowly. The soundtrack isn't quite used to full effect, either, because the film is often just too quiet for my liking. Gun shots N that don't have the effect they could have, too, because they're so muffled. I guess this might be effected by the time it was made, but still, I'm sure I've heard better sound editing in films of its time.More importantly, Snake Plissken is a douche. I know that's kind of meant to be his thing, but still, and he's definitely a dude, but he could be a little less annoying and growly. He doesn't show off his fighting skills enough, either, which leads into another problem of the film. For a film with such a simple premise, a lot of action would really help the movie drive along. There just isn't enough of it. There are some great moments, and whenever there is a bit of fisticuffs, it's great fun, but it simply doesn't happen enough. It's partly made up for with its cool atmosphere, but Escape From New York can be a little boring.Most of the rest of the cast of characters ain't at all perfect, to boot. 'Brain' is a boring ass smart guy who doesn't seem all that smart. Maggie is just there for the boobs, let's face it. And Cabbie is just annoying and badly acted. The Duke knows what he's doing though. He's the big dawg. Just a shame he has about 10 minutes of screen time to his name. His right-hand man with the crazy hair is a big victim of lack of screen time, because he only gets about 5 minutes, which is a huge shame, because he's one of the only interesting characters in the whole thing.Regardless, the film's whole shtick is pretty cool, and the world creation is on point. Also, the camera-work is pretty good, with some surprisingly ambitious shots.Although Escape From New York has a spot-on and flashy 80's aesthetic and some good moments, it falls fairly flat with paper thin characters (along with some underused characters) and the fact it's just too darn slow and quiet.Mildy disappointing but never a slog – decent(ish) fun.

It's the future New York has been turned into a cut throat prison Isolated from the rest of the world When Air Force One is high jacked It crashes in New York The President is held hostage by criminals In the cut throat hell that is now New York City And only one man has any chance to enter this hell on earth And escape alive from New York it's the hardened Criminal Snake Plissken This is without a doubt a movie that showed how good actions could be This is an absolute classic it must be seen by all genuine movie fans There is a reason this movie has stood the test of time and always will It's truly one of the greatest films ever to be made at the end of the day to be honest It's how action films should be so do your self a favour watch this movie Watch and enjoy