In the early 1980’s, I used to help my Dad do the off-hours cleaning of a major electronics store, with payment for my services being that I could play all the Atari 2600 I wanted. Unfortunately, some days all of the Atari cartridges were locked up, and I was forced to find other diversions in the store. This led me to the A/V department, and the original RCA Selectavision Video Disc player.
Although Star Wars IV was always my favourite, one day I found Escape from New York in my favourite Selectavision player. I was suitably impressed (as most 14-year olds are) with the post apocalyptic artwork on the cover, so on went the player, and into my memory went one of my favourite movie memories of my preteen life.
It was therefore surprising that when the long-awaited sequel Escape From L.A. came out in 1996, I had no real interest in seeing it. So was it worth the 14-year wait?
Film 
In a nutshell, no, this movie was not worth the wait. Cheesy artificial looking sets, bad primitive CGI, and every action-movie cliché available including my personal favourite: everything that is shot or crashes blows up.
In many ways, this movie is not much different than its predecessor. Stick something in Snake Plissken that will kill him, give him a count down timer, make him retrieve something from a city which is now a penitentiary (L.A.), and have everyone try to kill him except for the odd helpful criminal.
However, instead of this movie being set during World War III, it is set 16 years later during a Pax Americana where the US is the unquestioned ruler of the world. Run by a fundamentalist Christian “President for Life”, the US possesses technology orbiting Earth that can render all electronic or mechanical devices useless.
However, this technology has been stolen by the President’s daughter who has fled into L.A. with it. Snake is sent in against his will to retrieve the control system for this technology, and to kill the wayward daughter.
This is a very self-aware movie. John Carpenter revels in the idiocy he puts on screen, including a society of plastic surgery victims, surfing in an aqueduct, hang gliding through L.A., and his gleeful destruction of many recogniseable Hollywood and L.A. landmarks. In short, this movie does not take itself too seriously. Overall, it is fun to watch, and provides decent entertainment.
Where it does not work is that self-aware movies can’t be self-aware all the time. Case in point – Army of Darkness has to be one of the best self-aware movies I’ve ever seen, yet it does so with humor, action, and a reasonably good storyline – it does not always rub the viewer’s nose in its cleverness or outlandishness.
Also, there was a certain dystopian creepiness to Escape From New York that is sadly absent from Escape From L.A. Possibly, part of it is the poor sets, part of it may be the superior villan Isaac Hayes was as the Duke of New York. Possibly part of it is that something that was a unique concept in 1982 now feels rehashed. Regardless, this movie is like a pale imitator of its superb predecessor.
Video 
The video in the movie is not bad, considering the original year of its filming. Unfortunately, the Blu-ray treatment makes this movie look worse, as the increased sharpness over DVD highlights all of the poor special effects and amateurish sets used by John Carpenter.
Grain is noticeable, and does effectively soften the picture at points. This is made even more challenging by the fact the majority of the movie is shot in low light. However, macroblocking and black crush were pleasingly absent.
Overall, a decent presentation, but one that highlights the shortcomings of the film itself.
Audio
The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio presentation of this movie was fine, but sounded very “crushed” – the dynamic range was not what I would expect from an action movie. Surround channels were used lightly, though dynamic levels were pretty good, and dialog was clear through the centre channel.
Generally, there was nothing remarkable about the audio on this disc, and was it was overall more resemblant of an average Dolby Digital track rather than a Dolby True HD one.
Special Features 
Well this is pretty easy – the Blu-ray includes the original theatrical trailer. Not much to review here. It is what it is.
Final Thoughts
I’ve often thought that many of the things we like when we’re 14 lodge themselves in a special “fond” area of our memories, regardless of if it was even actually good or not. Escape from New York is one of these pleasures for me, and I still found I enjoyed it when I recently saw it rerun on a movie channel.
Unfortunately, I do not believe Escape from L.A. will lodge itself in the memories in the same way. Being over-the-top, self deprecating, and clichéd will relegate this movie to the bottomless pile of movies labeled as “mindless entertainment”. That the Blu-ray presentation was so average further relegates this film to an afterthought.
