Blu-Ray Review: John Carpenter’s ‘Escape From L.A.’ With Kurt Russell

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CHICAGO – There is no Blu-ray justice. The great “Escape From New York” sits unavailable in HD, along with dozens of other great movies of its era, but the vastly inferior sequel “Escape From L.A.” lands on the format this week. “L.A.” isn’t a horrible film, but it works mostly because of the goodwill created by love for the original, which makes that film’s unavailability on the format all the more bewildering.

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-Ray Rating: 2.0/5.0
Blu-Ray Rating: 2.0/5.0

Clearly, Paramount understands that “Escape From L.A.” doesn’t have the loyal following of some of John Carpenter’s best films (“Halloween,” “The Thing,” “Escape From New York”) and have therefore released the disappointing 1996 sequel without a single special feature. This is an upgrade in technical quality only and even that’s relatively mediocre. It’s not that the HD picture for “Escape From L.A.” is a bad one, but when it’s the ONLY reason to upgrade from your standard edition DVD, it better be amazing and this one’s not amazing.

Escape From L.A. will be released on Blu-Ray on May 4th, 2010.
Escape From L.A. will be released on Blu-Ray on May 4th, 2010.
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Home Video

It was fifteen years between Snake Plissken movies and many of us who grew up loving John Carpenter movies of the ’80s hoped that bringing back one of his major characters would shake him out of the career doldrums of films like “Memoirs of an Invisible Man” and the awful remake of “Village of the Damned” (Carpenter’s worst film). Kurt Russell returned as Snake, longtime Carpenter collaborator Debra Hill was involved, and the supporting cast was very intriguing with great character actors like Steve Buscemi, Peter Fonda, and Cliff Robertson.

So why is “Escape From L.A.” so flat? It has moments of B-movie glee as Snake hits many of the landmarks of the title town in his quest to retrieve a doomsday device from the city of angels but it’s lacking the energy and grit of the first movie. This is clearly a purchase only for hardcore fans of the mini-franchise, director, or sci-fi/action in general.

With that in mind, why not treat those hardcore fans a little better? It’s easy to comprehend why some junk gets the bare-bones treatment, but one would assume that any film featuring an iconic character or director would merit at least one tiny special feature. Do you really think Carpenter and Russell weren’t available to comment on the film? Or is it more likely they’re trying to forget this relative disaster and Paramount is quietly releasing it at a time when no one notices?

With a remake of “Escape From New York” underway and Carpenter readying his first directorial theatrical releases since 2001 (“Ghosts of Mars”), it’s possible that the cult of Snake Plissken could rise again. When that happens, Paramount will probably give “Escape From L.A.” a better Blu-ray treatment. Until then, this will have to do.

‘Escape From L.A.’ is released by Paramount Home Video and stars Kurt Russell, Stacy Keach, Steve Buscemi, Peter Fonda, George Corraface, and Cliff Robertson. It was written by John Carpenter & Debra Hill & Russell and directed by Carpenter. The Blu-Ray will be released on May 4th, 2010. It is rated R.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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