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The Dominator reviews

Escape From L.A.

Distributed by
Pioneer LDCE

Cat.no: PLFEB 36121
Cert: 15
Running time: 97 minutes
Sides: 2 (CLV)
Year: 1996
Pressing: UK, 1997
Chapters: 28 (15/12+1)
Sound: Dolby Surround
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
Price: £24.99
Extras : Theatrical trailers : War of the Worlds, The Phantom, Virtuosity, Star Trek: First Contact.

Director:

John Carpenter

Halloween, Escape From New York, Dark Star

Producer:

Debra Hill and Kurt Russell

Screenplay:

John Carpenter, Debra Hill and Kurt Russell

Music:

Shirley Walker and John Carpenter

Cast:

Snake Plissken: Kurt Russell

Escape From New York, Executive Decision

Utopia: A.J. Langer

Arcade, Wes Craven's People Under The Stairs, My So-Called Life (TV)

Map to the Stars Eddie: Steve Buscemi

Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Fargo

Cuervo Jones: George Corraface

Christopher Columbus: The Discovery

Malloy: Stacy Keach

Mike Hammer (TV), Jesus of Nazareth (TV)

Brazen: Michelle Forbes

Kalifornia, Swimming with Sharks

President: Cliff Robertson

633 Squadron, PT 109, Renaissance Man

Hershe: Pam Grier

Nico - Above The Law, The Big Bird Cage, Roots (TV)

Taslima: Valeria Golino

Rain Man, Four Rooms, Leaving Las Vegas, Hot Shots!

Pipeline: Peter Fonda

Easy Rider, Love And A .45

Surgeon General of Beverly Hills: Bruce Campbell

Evil Dead trilogy, Congo, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (TV)

Skinhead: Robert Carradine

The Long Riders, Revenge of the Nerds I-IV

John Carpenter's Escape From L.A. is the sequel to 1981's Escape From New York, with Kurt Russell reprising the role of Snake Plissken.

The film begins in 1998 where a 9.6 earthquake hits the city of Los Angeles, tearing it to pieces to such an extent that it separates the city from the rest of the USA. Cliff Robertson plays the God-fearing Senator who predicts the quake, and upon it happening is sworn in as President for a life-long term in office. After the quake is over, security posts are placed around the coast of the USA close to the separated city which is now the place where all offenders and non-desirables are exiled for a lifetime. Once you're out, there's no way back in.

Now it is the year 2013, and the President's daughter, Utopia, played by the babelicious A.J. Langer, has rebelled against her father, stolen a top secret prototype unit from the Benford Space Defence Lab during a tour for government officials, then highjacked Air Force Three demanding the surrender of her corrupt father's presidency, before leaving in the escape pod which was bound for L.A.

After her sister's suicide, Utopia withdrew from life and spent days at a time in a Virtual Reality simulator, making tapes of her experiences. She wiped all of them bar a five-second sequence involving Cuervo Jones, a Peruvian terrorist and member of the Shining Path, who runs the gang to end all gangs in L.A. Jones convinced Utopia to steal the black box, and it needs to be retrieved considering that the original rescue team sent in all perished, bar one.

"Hell of a team", muses Snake.

Snake has been reluctantly recruited to take on Jones, and retrive the doomsday device and the President's daughter. However, whereas in the original he had close to 24 hours to complete his mission before a fatal disease kicked in, this time he has only 10 hours. Failure to comply or complete the mission will result in the Plutoxin Seven Virus being fully absorbed into his bloodstream causing a painful death for Snake.

"You better hope I don't make it back", promises Snake to Molloy, Brazen and the President.

Let's get one thing out of the way first, this film came under heavy criticism for being just a re-run of the first film, and in essence it does, with Lee Van Cleef's original role now taken by Stacy Keach, and Michelle Forbes, who appeared in the David Duchovny/Brad Pitt thriller Kalifornia, as his sidekick, but each of the new actors in the film have their role to play, however brief, and each make it memorable.

Such actors include: Steve Buscemi as "Map To The Stars Eddie", Snake's biggest help in getting through his task; Pam Grier, star of the 70's Blaxploitation films as Hershe; Valeria Golino who takes a trip with Snake to see the Surgeon General of Beverly Hills, possibly the worst plastic surgeon in the world, played with menace by an unrecognisable Bruce Campbell. Rounding out the extras is Peter Fonda as Pipeline, the best surfer in town who teaches Snake how to surf along Wilshire Boulevard when the tsunami approaches.

The picture of this release is very good indeed, bringing the crisp layout of John Carpenter's vision to life, much sharper than any video release could, although there was a number of "sparklies" on my review copy, on parts of side two including the first couple of scenes, and the final scene which brought the mark down by one.

The sound quality is fantastic though with directional effects benefitting from the Dolby Surround set-up. If you only have your front speakers built into the television set, you're missing out - it's time to upgrade!

After John Carpenter's first film, Dark Star, shot in Academy 4:3 ratio, every film since has been shot in 2.35:1 Panavision. Carpenter's vision is such that nothing other than the original ratio will do. Anything less is not so much a compromise, but an impossibility. Put simply, this and his other films cannot be viewed in anything else than the original widescreen ratio. This film has been released in a widescreen video, but for the best in picture clarity, you owe it to yourself to buy this laserdisc.

Click on this title for a review of John Carpenter's Halloween and John Carpenter's Escape From From New York on PAL LD, plus John Carpenter's Escape From New York and Dark Star on DVD.

Film: 4/5
Picture: 4/5
Sound: 5/5

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1997.

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