John Carpenter's Escape From L.A.

Welcome back everyone. Let's check out a sequel. It's been 17 years from the original, and the world is still in the sad state it has been. In the late 20^th century, hostile forces inside the United Staes grow strong. Within Los Angeles, the city is ravaged by crime and immorality, the United States Police Force stand ready to handle the offending town. A final 9.6 tremor on the Richter scale separates this wicked city from the rest of the United States. This is Escape From L.A

Gruff and green screened.

In the far away time of 2014, (yup still love that gag) with an presidential status putting a man in office for life, the President (Cliff Robertson of Too Late the Hero, Man on a Swing, Three Days of the Condor, Falcon Crest, The Sunset Boys, Spider-Man, and Spider-Man 2) passes laws establishing undesirables ranging from anyone deemed immoral, lesser or anyone refusing to adhere to the new moral order. The police encamp around L.A.with a 40 foot high fencing circling the town and the rules are simple. Once you are sent to L.A., you never come back. No parole.

Deemed the most dangerous man in the United States, an old soldier turned crook, Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell of Escape From New York, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Tango & Cash, The Hateful Eight and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2) is being brought into the President, USPF Commander Malloy (Stacey Keach of The New Mike Hammer, Hemingway, False Identity, Lincoln, Body Bags, Titus, Mike Hammer, Private Eye and Death Row) and Lt. Brazen (Michelle Forbes of Swimming with Sharks, Kalifornia, 24, True Blood, The Returned, Powers, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Berlin Station) to offer Snake a new deal. See kids, since NYC, ole Snake has racked up his fair share of charges and grievances and is looking ripe to make a trip to Hollywood.  

Trump's anti-immigrant laws are getting rough.

Air Force One has been overthrown by the President's daughter Utopia (A.J. Langer of The People Under the Stairs, My So-Called Life, Three Sisters, Private Practice and Kristin's Christmas Past), stealing a black box that controls satellites and its EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) frying anything electronic including batteries and items and vehicles turned off. So Stealth bombers are shielded and...yeah that is about it. Really didn't see this tyrannical "moral order" having drawbacks or people opposing it? Really?

Snake goes in, gets the box and comes back. This is the mission. One way or the other, Plissken is getting a tan. With the threat of a virus coursing through his veins, Plissken has 12 hours to get the black box or the virus kills him. Have they ever been through L.A.traffic?? Thankfully Plissken ran into Maps to the Stars Eddie, Mr. Pink himself Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs, The Hudsucker Proxy, Pulp Fiction, Desperado, Con Air, The Big Lebowski and Portlandia). Okay he isn't particularly useful but does have a few plot devices as an assist. The man running L.A.is no Duke of New York. Yeah sorry to crush Cuervo Jones' nut sack like that, but you ain't Issac Hayes, bub.

Piloting or poop think? You decide.

With an chance encounter, Snake bumps into (be still, heart) Taslima (Valerie Golino of Rain Man, Hot Shots!, Hotel, Caesar, Alive and In Treatment) as the two are snagged by roaming loonies not too disimilar to the cannibals in New York. Downside is they are set to be harvested for parts at the behest of the Surgeon General of Beverly Hills (Bruce Campbell of The Evil Dead, Crimewave, Mindwarp, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Xena: Warrior Princess, Bubba Hotep and Spider-Man).

With this gaggle of goons, loons and grade A nutbars, can Plissken accomplish his mission and defeat Cuervo? Will he have to use salt and lime? Did anyone not get the tequila joke?

Okay so let's clear the air. Yeah the surfing scene looks pretty bad in green screen, sure. Yes a lot of the CGI for the helicopter was not great. Got it. Here's what I enjoyed. Characters appearing up in a John Carpenter movie.

Plissken getting into some smack down fights, underhanded gunning guys down and in general behaving like a proper antihero that he is. Russell slimmed and toned for the role so he could fit in his original costume 17 years prior.  That's some dedication.  This is also the only Carpenter sequel, Carpenter himself directed. Yeah Halloween II, Vampires: Los Muertos and the godforsaken prequel, The Thing not directed by John. Well a handful of scenes in the original Halloween II but other than that, those flicks are handled by others.

Let's see...funny trivia. Ah, both Bruce Campbell and Kurt Russell have been doubled by the bizarrely named cowboy stuntman John "Johnny" Casino. Both were also in the Disney superhero film, Sky High in spite of not having any scenes together.

This flick was stuck in development hell for over a decade. The first script commissioned was deemed too campy and was unlikely to be made until Russell told Carpenter he wanted to play Plissken again and pushed to getting it off the ground. Making only half of its budget back, 25 million to a 50 million budget, I had fun with it. Many folks complained it was too violent a movie or far too similar to the original. Aside from a handful of nitpicks, I got to see my favorite antihero back, making an impact and being a true badass.

Blam!

Rotten Reelz Reviews Audio Review #45: Halloween III: Season of the Witch

You read the review, now enjoy the rant that is...well probably not for little ears, definitely not safe for work and may offend elderly grandmothers.

Halloween III Review!!!

Little Buddy says: Happy Halloween!..with bugs in his mouth.

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Halloween Movie Time: Halloween III: Season of the Witch

The tension, atmosphere, the foreboding terror. Young Jaime Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance tangling with the Shape a.k.a. Michael Myers...will not be reviewed today. Hey gang welcome back as we tackle the Halloween spoken in whispers, loved by many and loathed by Michael fans.

This is Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

Nancy Drew and the Brawny Man are on the case!!!

Okay let's not run away already. Criminy. Now many of you are wondering of all the Halloween flicks, why does Jake decide to do the third film? Well one, it doesn't involve Michael performing acts of superhuman strength levels and regeneration. Two, this film is still being debated to this very day and three, it has been on the request back burner for a while.

Writer and director Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Fright Night 2, Aloha Summer, It and The Comrades of Summer) had the audacity, the temerity to give us a Halloween WITHOUT MICHAEL MYERS??!! As many surmised, Michael and Loomis blew up in the hospital in Halloween II and that was...well pretty much all she wrote. The initial plan was John Carpenter would write a new Halloween movie each year telling a different tale of Gothic horror during the Halloween season thus bringing an anthology of horror and macabre to the American and overseas viewers.

Is barfing insects up a sign of illness?

Unfortunately due to the low attendance and ticket sales at the box office, the idea was completely shelved because the audiences of the time just wanted more Michael in the same fashion of their Friday the 13^th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. An immortal killer that cannot be stopped but only made dormant for a time and until he rises again. Yup, that sure sounds like something people have NEVER seen.

Stupid 80s audience!!! So rather than some potential terror we are left with the first and only installment in that new direction. Is it a complete waste of your time? Does it have some bizarre and astonishing effects? Let's take a look.

So our story begins with a disturbed old man and of course the best stories always do. Shop keeper Harry Grimbridge (Al Berry of The Last Starfighter, Re-Animator, Mad About You, Empty Nest, Nick Knight and Guns of Paradise) is being pursued on a lonely road by two men in black? Making his way to the gas station, the attendant offers to take him to the hospital noticing Harry clutching a Silver Shamrock mask screaming, "They're going to kill us!!" FYI we are actually shooting and existing in Northern California not faux Haddonfield Illinois. SHOCKING!!!

Dr. Challis (Tom Atkins of Baretta, The Fog, Escape from New York, Lethal Weapon, A Stranger Waits, Maniac Cop, Striking Distance, Oz and Shannon's Rainbow) is clearly our hard ass protagonist. I mean look at him. Rugged, focused and an don't mess with me attitude.

Cripes it's Buddy.  Act natural, honey and he'll go away.

Seeing demented Harry rambling, the doc springs into action. And by springs into action, I mean check his charts, blood levels and medical history. Another man in black attends to Harry in the form of killing him, nips out to the parking lot, dousing himself in a high octane fuel and lights up. Subtle. What? Air bubble in his I.V.not good enough?

Next morning Harry's daughter Ellie (Stacey Nelkin of Going Ape!, Yellowbeard, Bullets over Broadway, Ride with the Wind, Distant Cousins and 12 Floors Up) comes to ID dead pappy, get mildly weepy and confab with Challis that Harry's death clearly had something to do with what is going on in Santa Mira.

Apparently the doc had no other patients so it is off to channel Dick Van Dyke's Diagnosis Murder without a doofy detective for a son. Yeah I know it's off topic but did that kid every do his damn job as a homicide detective without daddy's help?

So Detective McCrae is hot on the trail finding that Harry stayed at the local motel and almost the whole town are working for The Old Man of Robocop?? OCP runs Santa Mira!!!  There will be ED-209s running amok in the streets!!   Okay okay, fine! It's Conal Cochran (Da O' Herlihy of Good Against Evil, MacArthur, The Bionic Woman, Deadly Game, The Last Starfighter, Robocop, Robocop II, VR.5 and The Rat Pack) whose mask factory has saved the whole town's economy...with three masks. A witch, jack-o-lantern and a skull. Variety!!!  Two of the shop owners I just wanted to slap though. Buddy and Betty Guttman who cruelly named their son, Little Buddy. Oh sure Buddy Jr or Buddy the Second is most likely his name but Little Buddy is too close to My Buddy. Probably lock him in the basement when he has an original thought of his own.

This whole time watching this I am thinking, leave the town to the ominous and obvious dark forces. That could just be I am not an action hero with mighty pecs, zingy one liners and infinite ammo. Challis won't be swayed from skulking about as the townsfolk seem blissfully unaware of the disturbingly calm and cold security force dressed in black suits and ties.

Old Man tells Challis his masks will wipe out children on a global level and he will save this planet by replacing them...with androids apparently. Yeah I'm not sure if he thought this through well enough. Could be he is eco-friendly and wants to create a race of beings with solar cells, won't encroach more on wild life and use up natural resources??

With the dark arts, robotic servitors and a kooky curse underway, Challis must save the world in time for the sake of the children?

Okay a few of the obvious points I will no doubt have to make or fans will ream me. The Silver Shamrock theme is completely based on London Bridges children song because it was public domain. Stonehenge druid stones where transported to the mask factory but never explained. One of those, "Eh, the audience will get it or they won't," scenarios and personally that makes it fun.

With effects ranging from animatronic prosthetic, gore gags and creepy crawlers I found this film to be fun, bizarre and really out there. Many in Carpenter's mindset would agree Michael's story was finished at 2 and it was ample time to move on. While others just want a mute stalker slashing teenyboppers, elder men and women with a cold and methodical fashion. You already have that with Jason Vorhees!!!

With a budget estimated at 2.5 million dollars this film still brought in $14.4 million at the box office. Okay it wasn't a huge success but clearly folks didn't crap all over as much as the hype wanted you to believe.

They are sticklers for signing the guest book.

John Carpenter's The Fog

Hey folks. I wanted to do a passage on the Funhouse for the passing of Tobe Hooper but I think I will have an audio review for that. So instead let's have a terrifying legend.  A ghost story of a town's past and how it effects the present. This is The Fog.

Our master of horror, John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing, They Live, Prince of Darkness, Village of the Damned and Vampires) gathers us around a fire to tell tale of sailors that gone on the high seas. I mean we open with an eerie piano score and a quote from Edgar Allen Poe.

Well that could be anyone in all that fog. Cub Scouts probably.

Set in North Cali, in a little fishing village called Antonio Bay the town preps to celebrate in centennial as the mayor's aide and official busybody about town, Kathy Williams (Janet Leigh of Touch of Evil, Psycho, The Manchurian Candidate, Starman, Murder, She Wrote, The Twilight Zone and Halloween: H20) has managed to get the whole town in the swing of the upcoming festivities.

The local parish is looking to find records from that time in 1880 on the founding of Antonio Bay. Father Malone (Hal Holbrook of Wild in the Streets, The Brotherhood, The People Next Door, The Great White Hope, Magnum Force, All the President's Men, Lincoln, Midway and Creepshow) is digging into the archives. Meanwhile at night, a strange glowing fog seems to almost engulf the town. With fishermen out to sea and no one has heard from them since they had a near collision with another vessel. 

A pickled preacher and some vino. What could go wrong?

 During all this, the new DJ Stevie Wayne (Adrianne Barbeau of Maude, Creepshow,Swamp Thing, Escape from New York, Diagnosis Murder, The New Batman Adventures and Mad Max) is giving it her all to make your mornings bearable as the piece of driftwood her boy gave her seeps water and speaks through her 8-track and tape deck announcing" Six Must Die," in a ethereal voice.

With more crazy in the night, horns honking, Tvs turning off and on, windows shattering. Da works. Only one thing to do with this level of strange, make like Nick Castle (Tom Atkins of Halloween, Escape from New York, Maniac Cop, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Night of the Creeps, Lethal Weapon, A Stranger Waits and Drive Angry) and pick up a hot hitchhiker like Liz Solley (Jamie Lee Curtis of Halloween, The Fog, Terror Train, Prom Night, Halloween II, Trading Places, Perfect, True Lies and NCIS) whose only crime is wanting to get to Vancouver. Sad really.

 The twosome got a little froggy in the night and then got bombarded by more bizarre phenomena. All this nuttiness started after the stroke of midnight, but our heroes don't need to know that.

Hey!  I never get a hitchhiker that hot. I cry foul.

Nick and Liz charter a boat to hit the Sea Grass and see if they can't find out where the hell all this fog originated. No sooner are they at the vessel it just looked trashed. Like it fell under a tidal wave and all the plankton, moss and water logging could happen, did happen. They also find the crew in mass levels of decomposition that occurs in weeks not hours.

With familiar faces and voices like Charles Cyphers (Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween and Escape from New York)and Darwin Joston (Assault on Precinct 13, Eraserhead, The Fog, Wild at Heart, Hill Street Blues, Coast to Coast and Gunmen's Blues) so I was safe. Best part is both these men could provide exposition and plot point drops and not feel like it got shoe horned in.

A dark ghoulish story of a town wanting nothing to do with a leper colony leading that ship to the jagged rocks leaving them to drown and die.

Sounds pretty damn festive to me. Our collective townsfolk must try to break this horrible curse before all 6 descendants die. Who knows if this even frees their souls? Maybe it will allow them to torment the town for decades to come.

With director/writer John Carpenter tipped his hat to references to Waitely Point and Arkham Reef both used by H.P. Lovecraft in a fair number of his tales. Primarily it was the influence of the The Creeping Eye that helped him pen this dark tale. Still love that the town doctor is named Phibes. Any Vincent Price fan I am aware of has seen The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again. While the main leads Curtis and Barbeau never share screen time with each other, it is rare a male writer knows what the hell to do with an actress aside from making her the femme fatale or clinging love interest. John has shown time and time again, that it isn't that difficult.

My God! She has a cigarette!! Horror movie confirmed!!!

Stephen King Week: Christine

Welcome back King fans to Day 2 of Stephen King Week.  As there have been more than a few TV movie adaptations, we easily forget the directors involved.  How does the collaboration of  director John Carpenter (Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog, The Thing, Village of the Damned and Prince of Darkness) and horror novelist Stephen King grab ya?    Join with me as we view the disturbing haunting of a 1958 Plymouth Fury and its murderous mayhem it ensues.   This is Christine.

Yeah, I need a car for girls.  Why are you snickering?

Will Darnell: Look... uhh... I know you don't exactly have money falling out of your spoiler.  If you did, you wouldn't be here.



In 1978, nerd stereotype Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon of Jaws 2,  All That Jazz, Dressed to Kill, The Legend of Billie Jean, Back to School and I Love Trouble) is as about as cool as Eddie Deizen but his jock buddy Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell of Eddie and the Cruisers, City Limits, My Science Project, Top Gun and Born to Ride) sticks by his childhood buddy to the thick and thin.
 Arine becomes to the age of needing wheels to get him to and fro, spies this rusty red 1958 Plymouth Fury.  It needs some love to repair it proper and crotchety George LeBay (Roberts Blossom of Another World, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Escape from Alcatraz and Home Alone) off loads this heap for 250 clams.   Forced to park his car in a local garage ran by surly Will Darnell (Robert Prosky of Thief, World War III, Hill Street Blues, Loose Cannons, Gremlins 2: The New Batch and Last Action Hero) tries to tell Arnie the car is a lost cause and he is better getting something newer but Arnie cannot hear him.  Enamored with the Fury dubbed "Christine" Cunningham proceeds to put time, money and effort in every inch of this car bringing it back to life.

Ah, chicks DO dig the car. Not an urban legend after all.

For some reason the stock radio only seems to play 1950 rock and roll era music but this doesn't bother Arnie at all and starts spending more and more time with his fully restored creation.  His shy demeanor seems to ebb out of him and he takes on more of a dark and cocky attitude.  So he was Goth before it was popular.   This new persona concerns his buddy Dennis and he asks LeBay the former owner if he knows anything.  He tells Dennis that his brother took on the same level of obsession to the point he committed suicide in it.

Arnie's nemesis, high school football jocko Buddy (William Ostrander of Fire and Ice, Red Heat, North and South, Knots Landing and Angel) cannot believe the most popular girl in school is talking to Arnie let alone seems into him and he and his buddies follow Arnie to thrash Christine.  The car seems to repair itself in front of Arnie and you get the vibe she and he are becoming inseparable.   Mysterious vehicular homicides seem to be be happening and local police is trying to blame Arnie for it who seems to have an airtight alibi for each one.  So who is doing this?

I had just a few tidbits on the film now.  According to the screenwriter Bill Phillips, the level of violence was not substantial enough to warrant a R rating.  To combat this problem, Phillips dropped the "F" bomb into it to put more butts into seats to see it.

Rock and Roll Blues artist George Throughgood was buddies with Phillips and ended up making a cameo in the film as a junkyard worker.  Phillips suggested that Bad to the Bone be added to the soundtrack of the film and RIGHTFULLY SO.

Being a fan of both George Romero's work and enjoying King's novels, a conversation with Romero convinced Carpenter to do Christine with King.

King's popularity was beaming so that the film was going into production before his manuscript was completed.  That my friends, is pull in the industry.

Death Race: 1978

Carpenter Week: Halloween

Back again all with the continuation of Carpenter week and hey why not touch base on his greatest success rate for a flick that cost all of $320,000?  By helping redefine a scary movie in the slasher genre prior to the success of Friday the 13^th, its predecessor brought terror, mystery and horror to the small town of Haddenfield Illinois.  So grab your mask, get your hefty bag for candy and hey let’s stay out til midnight.  This is Halloween.

Spoilers have the blackest eyes…The Devil’s eyes.

With the horror genre of the 70’s, directors and writers went from the absurd to the brutal evil that resides in humanity.  With the draw of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and follow up Eaten Alive, Bob Clark’s thriller Black Christmas and Lucio Fulci’s monstrous Don’t Torture a Duckling this time line started to reshape Horror as we knew it and made the monsters a bit closer to human with still a primal driving force to kill victims and destroy lives as they knew only how.   John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 gave him the credibility that he needed to start on his filmography that he decided we let’s create a ghost story and flesh it out on the big screen with the working title The Babysitter Murders.  When executive producer Moustapha Akkad hears this title he cautions Carpenter that we don’t want the MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America) losing their minds over such a title due to how much flack Tobe Hooper received and maybe it was better low key.  With the amount of money and time constraints already there Carpenter decided let’s get this done and over with unaware of the impact this film would have on generations to come.

Our story is about a young man raised in an asylum by the name of Michael Myers (Tony Moran of James at 16, The Waltons, California Fever and The Lucky Break) who after brutally murdering his older sister with a butcher knife, looms in the ward waiting. For 15 years he has remained silent and almost inert that the staff of said hospital doesn’t view him as a threat let alone a risk.  His doctor, Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence of You Only Live Twice, The Great Escape, Dracula 1979, Escape from New York, Alone in the Dark and Prince of Darkness) has urged the head of the mental institution that Michael is not to be taken lightly, is scoffed at and mocked by his higher ups.   As a result, Myers escapes from the institute grounds, steals a car and peels out.    Myers returns to his hometown and proceeds to wreak bloody havoc on the night of Halloween.  That’s right, kids the boogeyman is on your streets.

Good girl Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis of Prom Night, The Fog, Terror Train, Halloween II, Trading Spaces, A Fish Called Wanda and True Lies) is relegated to babysitting on Halloween night while most of her friends are out partying, engaging in hijinks and of course pre-marital sex.    Watching not only her charge Tommy Doyle but her friend Annie’s (Nancy Kyes of Assault on Precinct 13, The Sea Gypsies, The Fog, Halloween II and Halloween III: Season of the Witch) little sister Lindsey so she can have some alone time with her man.  Dr. Loomis desperately trying to get the Sheriff to see the terror that has been unleashed on his town must stop Michael at any cost, even his own life.   A horror classic to be sure and of course one that gets rented over and over for the holiday.  Heck Zombie’s version while with a different spin really tried to make it the homage this film deserved.  

Last tidbit is the mask for Myers is a William Shatner mask from Star Trek: The Motion Picture spray painted white.   Yes, Shatner is the face of evil. Dun dun dun!

John Carpenter Week: The Thing

You hear every sound as the tick of the clock allows for another minute to pass by.  You feel the sweat on your brow lightly trickling down and you know in your heart of hearts the person next to you may not be what he or she appears to be.  This is The Thing.

Lordy, how could spoilers survive in 0 degree weather?

In 1982, John Carpenter remade Howard Hawks 1951’s science fiction film The Thing from another World into simply The Thing; an alien entity that has the ability to change its molecular structure and DNA into something or someone else through assimilation.    On an Antarctic research station deep in the snow and ice lurks something man has never seen, 12 men will be pushed to the breaking point of sanity and paranoia will seep in.   OoOo got carried away there.  

Based on the original story, “Who Goes There?” by Science-Fiction writer John W. Campbell Jr., the screenplay for the 1982 version was written by Bill Lancaster (The Thing, The Bad News Bears film and TV series) and helmed by director John Carpenter (Assault On Precinct 13, Halloween, Escape From New York, Big Trouble In Little China, and Vampires) unfolds a story of 12 men encountering a malamute being shot at from a helicopter by a Norwegian research team when the copter explodes and kills the pilot and co-pilot.  The rifleman still trying to kill the dog is shot by the station commander Garry (Donald Moffat of The Thing, When the Time Comes, Clear and Present Danger).  

 Helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russel of The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Escape From New York, The Mean Season, Soldier and Deathproof) and Dr. Copper (Richard Dysart of Being There, L.A. Law, The Thing and Spawn the Animated Series) discover a camp completely ruined and torched. A few deaths consistent with suicide and outside in the snow is a body with two heads burnt to almost lack of recognition.  The body is wrapped and research documents are taken back to the station.  Through an autopsy Doctor Blair (Wilford Brimley of The Waltons, The China Syndrome, Brubaker, Roughnecks and Borderline) the two faced creature is perfectly normal.  The malamute starts attacking all the other sled dogs and is toasted with a flamethrower wielded by Chiles (Keith David of The Thing, Platoon, They Live, Clockers, Gargoyles, and Spawn the Animated Series) then brought to Blair to do I guess a necropsy on it.  Blair finds cells in it that are not animal DNA and proceeds to comb the Norwegians’ records.  He discovers that an alien life form that was said to have came to Earth in a flying saucer and they speculate millions of years ago trapped under sheets of ice as far back as the first Ice Age. 

Finding this research everyone becomes skittish around one another, locking their doors and arming themselves.  Who is who?  Am I next?  FX wizard Rob Bottin (Maniac, The Howling and Robocop) is responsible for ¾ of the creature creations and prosthetics.  The dog creature was crafted by none other than the late Stan Winston (Dracula’s Dog, Parasite, The Terminator, Aliens, Predator 1 and 2).  35mm film with a Panavision anamorphic lens shot at a slower speed of 2.35.  Tight shots, a soundtrack composed by Ennio Morricone (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, The Untouchables, Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon a Time in America) rather than Carpenter.    In conclusion, if you don’t mind feeling a bit twitchy and love a good scare then this flick still stands the test of time but never watch it alone…

Call me Snake..

In the far away timeline of 1997(huh?), crime has risen nearly 400% so prior to that in 1988 New York City has been converted into the world’s maximum security end all prison.  Those that have been convicted of high treasonous crimes are deported to New York and given no chance of parole.  New York is surrounded by a 50-foot high wall of concrete and razor wire, the bridges are mind and waterways are patrolled by regular routine helicopter fly bys.   The United States Police forces are camped around it like an army.  China, The Soviet Union (Communism is the wave of the future!) and America are in negotiations when Air Force One is hijacked by a terrorist liberation front called the National Liberation Front causing the President to use an escape pod and landing in the prison.  A rescue attempt must be made. 

Lotta spoilers in the Hudson.

Hiyas folks today we review the 1981 despotic future storyline Escape from New York.   Brought to us by legendary director/editor/composer John Carpenter (Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog, Remake of the Village of the Damned and Vampires) and writer/director Nick Castle (Major Payne, The Last Starfighter and Taps)   America has become a police state enforcing law with extreme prejudice and vital information needed for the summit, Police Commissioner Robert Hauk (Lee Van Cleef of The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Gunsmoke and Have Gun Will Travel) must recruit former special forces solider “Snake” Plissken (Kurt Russel of The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from L.A.) to infiltrate the prison, get back the President (Donald Pleasance of You Only Live Twice, Halloween 1,2,4,5,6) and off the island in 24 hours.  A full pardon is offered for this blatant suicide mission and Snake is tagged with a dissolving explosive in his system to keep him in check.    Snake uses a glider to land on the Sears Tower in order to take off at a later date.   Getting to ground; Snake runs into a cornucopia of criminal elements of all types, ranging from cannibals, small time offenders to mass murderers.  Now added by temporary alliances the clock is running out for the President and Plissken must reluctantly save the day.

At this point I would love to point out what it is about this movie that makes it so enjoyable.  Cost effective effects for the glider’s radar was done with a scale model of Manhattan Island with a series of reflective tape to look like a mapping process.  With a 6 million budget in 1981 managed matt based shots, aerial helicopter shots of which was used with the St. Louis National Guard as Blackhawk police copters and furthermore due to the fire in 1973 for two days; this area’s safety was blocks devastation that according to Carpenter it spoke volumes to him and was the ideal set for his steady cams via dolly track.  His minimum lighting techniques always give his films a more eerie feel in the same fashion Hitchcock had.  His love of anamorphic camera lens gives his sets more scope and depth to the film. 

If you enjoy this particular genre of possible futures, Do NOT skip this film.  With memorable lines, excellent character development, this is an overall great experience to be had.