Movie Review: Escape from L.A. (1996)

My experience with this movie may be a bit different from others, but I found this movie to be rather depressing. John Carpenter and Kurt Russell had teamed up for some outstanding movies in the ’80s, but sometime after that, Carpenter kind of lost it. Russell has continued to do some quality stuff even today, but Carpenter, man…

It’s evident very early on that this movie is just ugly to look at. There are still some decent matte paintings, as there were in the original, but there is way too much ugly CGI. It seems like some filmmakers, Carpenter included, who came up before CGI was widely used, just couldn’t figure out how to use it right. Spielberg and Cameron obviously made the transition just fine, but their story isn’t everyone’s, I guess.

While this movie has a pretty good supporting cast including Steve Buscemi, Peter Fonda, Stacy Keach, Pam Grier, and Cliff Robertson, Russell’s really the only one who’s enjoyable. He may be in a bad movie, but he is still Snake Plissken, and that character is just so damn enjoyable.

He keeps it from being a complete waste of time, but I still just couldn’t help but feel pretty bad watching this. It’s just a reminder of what could have been.

Rating: 3/10