What are your opinions on these two movies?
Posted by Cubelock@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 67 comments
I recently rewatched these and even though I really like Snake Plissken as a character, the movies themselves did not hold up too well. I still love them for what they are though.
Prior_Prompt_5214@reddit
I just want to know when are getting Escape From Cleveland?
_Gravitas_@reddit
Love them. Among my favorite movies along with Big Trouble in Little China
ThatThingOnTheFloor@reddit
Masterpieces both of them. Carpenter is a God among Men.
Jewggerz@reddit
They're the same movie. NY is great.
TheVenetianMask@reddit
I like the rifftrax version of Escape from LA
Tylerdurden389@reddit
In some ways I actually like LA more than NY, but yeah, cant beat the classic tone/vibe of the original.
AncientHorror3034@reddit
CantFindMyWallet@reddit
NY is a masterpiece, on Carpenter's Mt. Rushmore with Halloween, The Thing, and Big Trouble in Little China. LA is merely OK. Some parts are really fun, while others are incredibly stupid. Carpenter had largely lost his fastball by 96 when LA came out, but his run from 1976 through 1988 was absolutely incredible. 10 straight bangers in a 13-year stretch. But outside of that, his only great movie was In The Mouth of Madness, and then I thought Vampires was solid. But more misses than hits in the 90s and after, including some real turds like Memoirs of an Invisible Man.
OrlandoOpossum@reddit
BANGERS
Assortedpez@reddit
Loved em
Hefty-Station1704@reddit
Needs a sequel: Escape From The Old Folks Home.
C0BRA_V1P3R@reddit
Escape From New York is in my top 3 Carpenter films.
Escape From L.A. has grown on me over the years. I remember being disappointed with it when I caught it HBO back in the 90s, but I’ve come to appreciate it over the years once I realized it’s a meta-satire sequel in that same vein as Gremlins 2. It also helps that it’s got a stacked cast (Steve Buscemi, Bruce Campbell, Pam Grier, Stacy Keach, etc.).
zjuka@reddit
Oh, that what it was. The meta-satire was lost on me completely. I just thought the sequel was a sloppy moneygrab everyone kind of phoned in. But I also haven't seen it since the 90s.
thetwelveofsix@reddit
I saw Escape from LA first and enjoyed it. I later went back and watched Escape from New York and thought it was just okay.
whoopercheesie@reddit
They need to make them a video game
Ok_Breakfast5425@reddit
Check out far cry blood dragon if you haven't. It's a great send off of NY and other 80s scifi action classics
lifeuncommon@reddit
No opinion. I don’t think I’ve seen them.
Moxie_Stardust@reddit
I haven't seen either, suppose I probably will one of these days.
CelticSith@reddit
Love them both, but Escape From Cleveland was the best by far
Consistent_Drink5975@reddit
Love John Carpenter but this is/was the dumbest character name I've ever heard. Jack Burton was so much better.
Lucky_Louch@reddit
saw escape from LA in the theatre and thought it was pretty fun. I imagine it didn't age really well but for the time it was a silly action movie.
Con_Dinn_West@reddit
Escape from LA has one of the most badass endings out of any media I have ever read, seen or heard.
eastsydebiggs@reddit
A number 1
https://i.redd.it/hlqf2oy7gavf1.gif
zoom518@reddit
His theme was a banger:
https://youtu.be/nbi3Fosznck?si=4zOXcCXQa_yDZBoF
Trashman82@reddit
Duke of New York!
BullyDoggy1982@reddit
A-Number 1!!!!
zoom518@reddit
I love how Carpenter will defend LA to the death. I do think the very end is relevant these days.
frougle_mcdugal@reddit
Well, my dog’s name is Plissken. So, what do you think my opinion is?
CombatDeffective@reddit
Dog Plissken?
this_knee@reddit
I’ve only seen a small portion of the second one and was widely confused about being expected to already know all things about the main character. As of the movie makers went : “everyone, all humans, saw escape from New York, nobody won’t know who Snake is.”
EvanGooch@reddit
They’re awesome.
John Carpenter is my favorite.
TIRACS@reddit
I was in elementary/middle school when escape from LA came out, saw it before New York. Now I can’t help but feel New York ripped off LA and I know I’m wrong 😆
LastCallKillIt@reddit
NY goated. LA felt like a parody of NY.
graveybrains@reddit
He's had the name since the original Metal Gear in 1987, and didn't really start looking like Plisskin until Metal Gear Solid 3. Before that he looked a lot like Kyle Reese
LastCallKillIt@reddit
Yeah and NY came out in '81. Just going off of what I read from Hideo a LONG time ago. MGS is just going to be a more familiar game to most people.
graveybrains@reddit
Not arguing with you about the name, it seemed obvious at the time; named Snake, looked like Kyle Reese, and game play reminiscent of a Rambo movie.
Oh, this happened, although it was only in the Japanese version of the third game:
img
LastCallKillIt@reddit
I get you now.
Cubelock@reddit (OP)
https://i.redd.it/p3v3o28wgavf1.gif
Comprehensive-Fact94@reddit
I couldn't have said it better.
iwasnotarobot@reddit
Anti-urban propaganda by Big Sprawl and Big Lawncare.
/s
MaxHeadroomba@reddit
Escape from New York was great. It was a product of the era and was a fun movie that overachieved on a relatively low budget. Escape from LA felt like a poor imitation with some bad choices (e.g., the surfing, of course). It wasn't all bad, but it lacked the urgency of the first movie, and the sets felt very fake. In the original, everything was dark and run down (I think they filmed in a rundown part of St. Louis if I recall), whereas in LA many scenes were brightly lit with a red artificial glow.
thebeaverchair@reddit
My incredibly unpopular opinion:
Love them both, but I think L.A. is better than NY in almost every way.
In contrast, Ernest Borgnine is the only actor carrying his weight in N.Y. besides Kurt. Even the great Harry Dean Stanton seems to be going through the motions, though he's not given much to work with in terms of character.
Better villain with a more threatening agenda: South Park aside, Isaac Hayes isn't a very good actor imo, plus the Duke's personality is virtually nonexistent and his whole plot is just so... boring. Georges Corraface, on the other hand, is extremely charismatic and expressive and Cuervo Jones is an ambitious villain who poses a threat so much greater than "Maybe I'll kill this one guy."
Better social commentary/satire: L.A. was ahead of the curve in popular media with its commentary on the rise of religious authoritarianism in America, and it much more clearly and effectively paints the government as the flipside of the coin to Cuervo's terrorist gang.
N.Y.'s set up felt much thinner and Donald Pleasence's president did not match the energy of the police state he is supposed to be heading.
Which brings me to...
Snake himself: Snake feels much more lived in and Carpenter and Russell bring a sardonic edge to him here that was absent in N.Y. It makes him a more likeable antihero. It doesn't hurt that he has better foils in Stacy Keach and Steve Buscemi.
Big dumb fun: L.A. embraces its inherent campiness to a degree that N.Y. did not, which combined with its big budget results in some genuinely fun and memorable scenes: Bangkok rules. Surfing with Peter Fonda. The hang glider raid. Snake is a character made for over-the-top action and L.A. lets him have it.
Not_So_Bad_Andy@reddit
I love them both. LA isn't great but it's such stupid fun.
tunafeeesh@reddit
Bangers. 12 year old me wanted a duster so bad after Escape From LA.
loureed1234@reddit
Escape from LA is my favorite “it’s so bad it’s good movie” of all time.
WileyPap@reddit
Desperately needed another sequel 15 years later to complete the trilogy.
fearless-penguin@reddit
Escape From The Retirement Home?
mouse6502@reddit
I need to know what happened in Cleveland!!
Trashman82@reddit
I still want Escape from Earth, dammit!
CHNLNK@reddit
anuncommontruth@reddit
Escape from LA soundtrack was a banger.
BullyDoggy1982@reddit
Loved Snakes’s theme on this one.
Itsnotbabyyoda389@reddit
Both great but New York was better.
Trashman82@reddit
NY is an all time classic and one of Carpenter's best. If you like SciFi, action, or Carpenter's other work and havent seen it yet, do it now.
LA is over the top campy and dumb, but that was done on purpose. LA is a meta satire on the genre that NY helped popularize, as well as making fun of LA culture in the 90's
GuidoCarosella82@reddit
Escape from New York is amazing!!!!! Escape from LA is... a movie that was made. I saw it in the theatre and never watched it again.
InfidelZombie@reddit
Two words: "Fuck yeah"
Mr402TheSouthSioux@reddit
In John Carpenter we trust. Love both these films.
psilosophist@reddit
Feral Historian just did a video on the Escape From LA, worth watching if that's your kind of thing.
https://youtu.be/h0aUyqVyhOQ
Both of those movies are perfect for their times in terms of their look and mood. Escape from LA is definitely an inferior movie but still, it's John Carpenter and that's usually a good time.
Get-Weird-In-Washoe@reddit
DUKE OF NY! A - #1!
QuoVadimusDana@reddit
I watched them both once as an adult bc my ex was obsessed with them. I guess maybe since I didn't grow up with them and I'm not a man they just didn't do anything for me.
Frosty_Cloud_2888@reddit
Snake
mustachiomegazord@reddit
I saw the end of LA on tv and was like FUCK yes! Burn it all down snake! Fucking hero
Allaplgy@reddit
I just want the pimp ride with chandeliers.
col_akir_nakesh@reddit
That first one is badass. I like the second one too. The theme is great too.
misterlakatos@reddit
My parents have always loved Kurt Russell and naturally watched his movies all the time growing up. I made the mistake of watching parts of "Escape from New York" and the Chock Full O' Nuts scene freaked me out so much that when I finally visited NYC in middle school I felt an uneasy feeling near any manhole/sewer.
Wyldawen@reddit
Glorious, utterly glorious. The surfing scene is lol. Maybe not as good as Total Recall, but still nice.
bloodectomy@reddit
Timeless classics that belong on the same shelf as Gone With The Wind and Citizen Kane.