Welcome To The Human Race – Escape From L.A.

How long can you leave it until it is too long to produce a sequel? 10 Years is a bit too long in my opinion in the case that you are trying to make another film in the hope of continuing a series. Maybe the best thing to do would be to leave it and either do something else or make a reboot. In 1976 when the Fantastic King Kong remake was released, a sequel began development, but it was not released until 1986 and turned out to be a disaster (0% on Rotten Tomatoes). While the time relation may not affect a film’s performance, apart from having to remind the audience what was released 10 years previously, but it means that the film can suffer from consistent development issues. Another good example of this is the once long-awaited sequel to John Carpenter’s Classic Film; Escape from New York, Escape from L.A. which was released 15 years after New York.

I first saw Escape from New York in the early 2000’s, and fell in love with it. I loved the dystopian setting of New York as a Giant Prison. The look of it all was amazing and believable, the soundtrack was beautifully crafted and the cast was fantastic. When I was watching it for the first time I was first told of a sequel film called Escape from L.A. but I did not know much about it at the time and it was not until about 2007/2008 that I first saw it. My first impressions of it were good, I liked it, but since then my feelings of the film have been “oh dear” and have constantly decreased every time I’ve seen it since.

The film begins much in the same way as New York, a little brief introduction of what has happened in the world. The Crime rate in the USA goes up dramatically and Los Angeles island sufferers its worst Earthquake to date, with waterways flooding the area and L.A. becomes an island. A presidential candidate (Cliff Robertson) who seemingly predicts this is made President for Life and brings in new Moral Laws stating that anyone who does not abide with them will be sent to Los Angeles island which has now been surrounded by a containment wall (except for the Pacific side of it bizarrely). In 2013 a Peruvian revolutionary called Cuervo Jones (Georges Corraface) seduces the president’s daughter Utopia (A. J. Langer) and gets her to steal a super weapon. She escapes to L.A. to give it to Jones. Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is captured once again for a series of crimes and is to be deported to L.A. While there he meets the President, Prison Commander Malloy (Stacy Keach) and his assistant Brazen (Michelle Forbes) who offer him a deal. He unwillingly takes it thanks to a disease planted inside him and he travels by Sub to Los Angeles Island.

Upon arrival he sees what has happened to L.A. and interacts with some of its residents including a man named Pipeline (Peter Fonda). He spots a parade with Cuervo and tries to get him, but fails. He meets Map to the Stars Eddie (Steve Buscemi) who volunteers to show Snake around. Snake does not take up his offer and goes into Beverley Hills. There he finds a twisted area and hides in the bushes with a girl named Taslima (Valeria Golino), they are then both captured and find themselves in a room full of ugly people. It turns out that the people require constant body transplants to survive and the surgeon general (Bruce Campbell) plans to use Snake and Taslima next. Snake manages to escape and frees Taslima who takes Snake through the underground sewers near to Cuervo’s base. Taslima decides to go with snake only to be killed minutes later. Snake is captured by Eddie who takes him to Cuervo who sends a tape to the president showing him the device. Cuervo then hosts an event at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum where he makes Snake play Basketball. Annoyingly Snake succeeds and escapes, meeting, and then surfing with Pipeline. Snake then meets up with gang leader and old friend Carjack Malone (Pam Grier) who helps him to attack Cuervo who has taken up residence at Disneyland. Snake successfully retrieves the device but on the way back to the mainland with Utopia his helicopter is hit and he crashes.

Snake walks out of the crash only to be surrounded by guards. Utopia is captured with the device and is sent to the electric chair. The virus turns out to be nothing more than the flu and Snake is shot. However he seemingly survives when it turns out that he is using a Hologram device given to him earlier. He shows that he has the real device, and types in the world code shutting down all electrical systems on the planet. He then finds a packet of cigarettes, has one before turning to the camera and saying “Welcome to the human race”.

The film, while being a sequel to one of my top favourite films and has some nice moments in it, it is generally, cheesy, corny……….bad. The film suffers from the CGI revolution of the period with it mostly appearing to be in front of early blue screen effects. When New York was done before, these kind of effects weren’t regularly available and so was shot on location, however; New York as a result looked better than L.A. For pretty much the entire film, the effects are some of the worst generated images to date and while they are acceptable compared to most films, it looks like the film was made on the cheap despite its budget of 25 Million Dollars.

The film does have some redeeming qualities, the soundtrack while using an updated version of the original theme, has some nice pieces with spy style pieces and some with sounds almost in a rock sense to old western themes, particularly Snake’s theme. The film also has bits that New York did not do such as a thriving outlaw culture in the cities remains and it is nice to see that.

Kurt Russell is amazing as Snake Plissken; I love the character so much. He is the ultimate ant-hero as he really only cares for himself. He is a well-trained mercenary soldier as shown by the awards he has been given. But for the most part he appears to have a cold exterior. There is somewhat of a caring side to him though as there is the odd occasion where he feels for someone, in this case, only very briefly though, Taslima.

But for all the good things there are a lot of bad ones including the idea that Plissken is some kind of ultimate hero with him having skills that appear to be superhuman with talents including amazing basketball skills, speed and Surfing. While I still love the character I do feel that this film does not really help in any beneficial way to his character at all and we should only remember him for New York only and in no way L.A.

While pretty much the rest of cast are just unnoticeable for the most part, there are a few exceptions. Brazen and Malloy have a nice presence about them which is neither cold nor warm and offer an anchor to the film. This is pretty much the same for Pipeline too if for only very briefly.

But for me, I really like the character of Taslima. She had this nice presence about her. She had a nice look with a bizarre haircut, she had this calming; possibly reassuring voice and she wore this great Leather Jacket. For all the possible persona of being tough, she has a redeeming caring quality about her, you care about her a lot. When she begins to have feelings for Snake, in many a sense you want her to say in the film or (for several reasons) change angle and follow her. When Snake and Taslima split, you wish they don’t but then she follows him before briefly getting shot. That annoys me, greatly annoys me. Out of the top three best things about this film, her appearance is one of them. You feel sad for her death, but annoyed too as you like this character and she gets killed off. Whose Idea was it for one of the best things about the film to get shot? Why? Why kill off this brilliant character. Seriously, Why? I can keep going like this for a while now, I am mad while writing this.

Escape from L.A. does have some good points about it. It has Snake Plissken and very briefly Taslima. It has things New York did not do and some enjoyable moments while also having a great last line. But it is mostly bad, I can’t stress that enough. Not just for the death of Taslima, but other points too. There are only a few points about this film I would recommend. While the beginning, ending and Taslima parts of the film are great, for the most part I would tell you to Fast Forward. In short, Escape from L.A. is…………………………………………..you know what, I have had enough of this film, forget it. Let’s just hope that the planned remake of Escape from New York is better than this.

GENEPOOL

Your Choice 5 (Part 1): Classics

About this time every year since 2010 I have given my readers the opportunity to choose a film for me to review. On the previous 4 occasions (ok, one of them was mid 2011), I have reviewed High School Musical, Cloverfield, The Host, Slumdog Millionaire and Star Wars Episode 1. Now we arrive at the 5th vote, but over the course of the series, the voting numbers have gone down and so I have decided that after this vote, I might give it a break for a year or so and then bring it back eventually (or maybe do it next year anyway if this year does well or if I want to, but more likely I will only bring it back next year if the votes from this year go up from previous years). So because of this, I have decided to do something really big this year. Classics and Future Classics. I have chosen 7 films which are highly regarded as some of the best films produced in the entire history of Cinema, but that’s not all. I have also chosen 7 films produced this current century (2000 onwards) which I think have great potential in becoming classics themselves. For this post we are going to concentrate on the Classics, check back later in the week for the Future Classics.

Easy Rider: Directed by Legendary Actor Dennis Hopper and starring both him and Peter Fonda, Easy Rider is a road movie about two bikers going on a journey across south of America. A landmark film of its time and helped to get the wheels turning for New Hollywood Era. the film explores many issues that were happening around America at the time including Drug Use and the Hippie Movement. The film’s soundtrack is also of particular note as it used music from bands including Steppenwolf and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Easy Rider is quite possibly the Greatest Road Movie of all time.

Jaws: Steven Spielberg‘s 4th film as well as in many ways being the archetype film for all future Summer Blockbusters, this classic film about a monstrous Shark who comes and terrorizes a small town in America, is one of the most critically acclaimed, successful, well-remembered and much-loved films of all time. Based on the book of the same name by Peter Benchley, and starring Roy Schneider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw, the film looks to the more human side of the film than like with some other monster movies who just look at the Monster. The film also has one of the cinema’s most well known pieces of music produced by John Williams who would later work on Star Wars. Almost 40 years on since it was produced Jaws still captivates movie goers around the world and on many occasions, may still scare people into not going back in the water.

Jurassic Park: 18 years after frightening people with Jaws, Steven Spielberg would once again captivate audiences with one of the worlds most ground-breaking, modern films. Based on the book of the same name by Michael Crichton, the film follows a group of explorers played by Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum who travel to a safari park where Dinosaurs have been brought back to life, what could possibly go wrong. With another excellent score provided by John Williams and special effects that shook up an entire industry and still to this day are pretty much unmatched in sheer scale and the experience it gives, Jurassic Park has thrilled audiences world wide and has created a Legacy that continues to live on to this day in the hearts of many a movie goer.

The Hidden Fortress: From Legendary Director Akira Kurosawa comes The Hidden Fortress. Released four years after Seven Samurai, the Hidden Fortress is a classic in its own right. Starring Legendary Japanese Actor Toshirô Mifune, the film follows the journey of a couple of fools as they are enlisted by a General to help escort a princess through enemy territory. The films score was produced by Masaru Satô who in the space of 44 years working with Toho would produce 300 film scores. 19 years later the film would become a huge influence to director George Lucas when he produced his first Star Wars film, but in many a way, The Hidden Fortress is better than Star Wars.

The Lion King: Produced at a time when Animated CGI films had yet to make an appearance, this animated musical would become on of Disney’s most well-loved classic films. The film follows young lion Simba on his quest to take his father’s place and prevent his uncle from taking over the land (I had to look that up as I personally have not seen The Lion King). The film was scored by Hans Zimmer, one of his earliest successes and at the time of its release became the second highest grossing film after Jurassic Park. While films of this style don’t really exist anymore these days, films like The Lion King continue to make an impact to audiences worldwide.

Top Gun: Directed by the Late Great Tony Scott and starring Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, Top Gun follows Navy Pilot Maverick as he is given the chance to train to become one of the best pilots in the navy at the Navy’s Fighter Weapons school. An action film with scenes of Drama intertwined, the film is amazing shot with many amazing airborne shots as well as those that are more grounded on Earth. included with that is one Amazing and well-remembered soundtrack by many moviegoers that like the film has essences of both Drama and Action. Top Gun is a shining example of Action and Drama films but also a crowning achievement for Tony Scott.

Zulu: Directed by Cy Endfield and starring Stanley Baker and the breakthrough performance of Michael Caine, Zulu is one of the great War Films. Set during the events of the Battle of Rorke’s Drift where 150 British soldiers defended their small outpost against the might of 4000 Zulu Warriors. With an amazing cast of actors, great scenes almost unparalleled to any other film produced to date and a soundtrack which consisted of both studio produced music from John Barry and the voices of the actors playing the Zulu Warriors many of whom were descendants of those who fought in the great battle. Zulu is a one of a kind film that should be viewed by all, one of the real Greats.

So those are the films of the first part of this vote to choose from. So how do you vote, well that’s easy, just choose which film you would like to see reviewed (or if unsure, you can choose 3) by clicking in the required fields on the poll and then click vote. While the poll does block previous voters, you can always get over that by using another computer, so if you really want to see your choice win, just keep doing that. The poll will be open from now until the stroke of midnight into the new year this coming December 31st. So, take a look at the choices above choose one (or two or three), and place your vote. Check back later this week for part 2, in the meantime, get voting, Thank You.

GENEPOOL