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Escape from New York

Escape from New York

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $13.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good movie, below average DVD.
Review: This was the first John Carpenter movie that I ever saw way back in the eighties. In was a very fine trip down memory lane. My only complaint with the film is that Snake lands on the World Trade Center at night, fights in the ring in the morning, and then its night all of a sudden again as they race back to the plane and then have to cross the bridge. In other words - its a big massive time blooper that most people don't even notice. Look for it yourself when watching.

My complaint with the DVD is that there is only one bonus feature and thats the film trailer. You would think that there could have been a documentary of some sort but there isn't.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The greatest anti-hero of them all
Review: Snake Plisskin is not a nice guy. He doesn't fight for any noble cause. He isn't out to save anyone's life but his own. He doesn't care about anyone but himself. And yet, we can't help but cheer for him. May the Snake live forever!!
5 Stars!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Snake! Snake Pliskin?
Review: Another Russell-Carpenter movie that is a lot of fun. No nudity in this one. Apparently, high taxation finally destroyes NY City and it becomes an unregulated unsupervised prison. Russell is Snake Pliskin and must rescue the president after he crashes inside the city prison and is captured.

I like this movie, but it is only my #3 favorite Russell Carpenter movie. Big trouble in little china is #1.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Modern Day Spaghetti Western
Review: If you're an old Clint Eastwood, Spaghetti Western fan, John Carpenter's 'Escape from New York' will seem vaguely familiar. Only the faces and places have changed! The action is robust, and the dialog is sparse. The year is 1997, and New York is now a maximum-security prison. Air Force One is hijacked and crashes into a Manhattan high-rise; and the President (Donald Pleasence) survives by ejecting in an escape pod. It's Kurt Russell's job to get him out; and he has only twelve hours in which to do it!

Isaac Hayes is this film's gun-toting big-man-on-campus. Lee Van Cleef (looking as trim as he did years ago with Clint) appears as Kurt Russell's handler. Adrienne Barbeau ...... (And I had almost forgotten, after all of these years, just how heavenly they were!)

The movie builds to a climactic drive-across-a-booby-trapped-bridge-and-shoot-me-with-a-machine-gun finish. Isaac ends up looking cooler. And Adrienne takes it like a bowling pin and is run over by a car (which, for some reason, I found to be hilariously funny). But her gorgeous chest somehow manages to remain intact. (Thank god!).

If you enjoyed, as I did, John Carpenter's more recent work, 'Ghosts of Mars', you're sure to love this unabashedly formulaic blast-from-the-past antecedent. I thought it was great!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Dark Future and the President Has Crashed in Manhattan
Review: In a dark future where violence and crime is staggering, the government has shut down Manhattan and made it into a high security prison where prisoners have been put for life to govern themselves. There are no ways out, since the government has mined all the bridges to and from the island and a wall has been erected on the shores around the island where guards are equipped with heavy firearms. When cynical Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is sent to the prison to serve his life sentence he is offered amnesty, if he can recover the President of the United States who has crashed into Manhattan. In addition, he is forced to follow a certain time line and if he does not follow the time line a bomb will explode within his arteries. Escape from New York is an action packed science fiction film that keeps the audience interested in the plot, however, the story suffers from incoherent characters and the technology that the can be seen in the film inhibits the audience from getting a good feeling for the story.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SNAKE! SNAKE! SNAKE! SNAKE!
Review: Even though I gave the movie 5 stars, I would give the DVD 1 star, but more on that later. Escape From New York introduced us to one of the greatest action stars of the last few decades.... Snake Plissken. This was Kurt Russell's first action role after doing Disney movies for years, and it's incredible how well he pulls it off. Carpenter deserves all the credit in the world for casting him. This movie is a futuristic action thriller that had a low budget, but you wouldn't know it by watching it. It was shot in St. Louis after a huge fire destroyed several city blocks, and it literally looks like you'd expect a prison colony to look.... burned, trashed, and dark. A lot of the cast are Carpenter regulars, and the music is very "futuristic 80's" sounding. Even Jamie Lee Curtis has an uncredited cameo as the voiceover in the prologue just as she did uncredited voiceovers in Halloween III.

The DVD is really a disappointment despite being fairly low in price. The transfer is dull and in some spots downright blurry as it was on the VHS tape. Case in point, right before Snake gets the injection in the beginning, watch the bottom of the frame as he and Lee Van Cleef walk down the hallway. Likewise, the sound is as unremarkable as it was on the tape..... this movie deserved a 5.1 mix. The upcoming special edition will feature a remastered 5.1 track, but for now we have to live with the 2.0 surround track. The extras are seriously lacking here.... no commentary, no bank robbery scene (which had really good music by the way), no nothing. Well there is a trailer if you count that as an extra. The price is low on this disc though, so it's worth picking up considering the special edition won't be out until next year. Also check out the soundtrack for this one if you want to hear the bank robbery music.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: original
Review: would this b the origin of the legend of the one eyed trousered snake?
as a plus u get the caddy with chandelliers as headlights,how's that for goth?
either file under irrelevant or just wallow in it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the Greatest Kurt Russell Movies Ever!!!!!!!
Review: This truely is a great movie,I suggest watching this over & over. To bad this DVD doesn't have the features it deserves hopefully it will soon ...Just found out S.E.EFNY DVD Slated for Dec.2003 release.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Huh? Alright, alright it's a cult classic
Review: This movie takes place in 1997? I didn't know NYC was a maximum security prison then and now.
Posted February 15th, 2003. Addenda: Why do they have the putrid sequel to his film listed as an 'essential video' while this one isn't? Quote: "Just call me Snake."

I should add this film is quite good considering the budget it was made on. Probably Carpenter's best non-horror opus. Recommended!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: an interesting futuristic action movie from the past
Review: It's a good movie. A nice suspense, a good intigue and a lot of action in a surreal atmosphere. It also shows some interesting pieces of high technology from the 1980's (like pumpkin-size walkie-talkies), or from the science-fiction of the time (micro biological implant bombs). Snake Plisken is an interesting character, well played by Kurt Russel.


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