Escape from New York (1981)
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Escape from New York Movie Review
Escape from New York is a 1981 science fiction action film directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell. It’s one of the director’s most overrated films.
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“We’d make one hell of a team, Snake!“
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The plot itself is simply very implausible with this post-apocalyptic, crime-ridden future seeming very unlikely and even ludicrous. I will get to the positives later in this review, but the plot is a negative to me personally. It had many intriguing concepts in it, but none of them are properly explored owing to the film’s annoying approach.
And that approach is of course the one which favors action instead of science fiction. I did not find the action particularly entertaining and the SF elements were more intriguing for me, but those were definitely in the minority here. Also, the weird side to this movie is mostly showy and not particularly earned, though interesting in a way.
The characters are all very forgettable and the actors as well, though Kurt Russell does a good job with the stuff that he’s given, but he’s also a regular tough guy from the eighties. The dialogue is solid and the direction is fine, but the acting and characterization are not.
Escape from New York has some positive elements to it and those are mostly the technicalities. I really liked the film’s sound and score. Both are great. But the cinematography is so good as is some of the production design as some sets are great. The darker look goes well in tandem with the film’s darker atmosphere and overall very dark tone.
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But what annoyed me was the film’s unwillingness to go deeper and larger with its themes and world building. That’s because this film featured indie sensibilities from Carpenter and it suffered for it as it needed a much bigger scope and epic factor to it in order for its plot to work properly. There was a potential for greatness here, but all of it was squandered unfortunately which led to a film that is a passable genre flick, but really nothing more than that. To me, this is one hugely overrated movie.
Escape from New York is a disappointing John Carpenter SF action flick with some solid technical aspects and an intriguingly dark atmosphere to it, but the plot and the characters are both thin and the movie is never as epic in scope or as entertaining in its action as it should have been.
