Escape from New York (2000, DVD)

After all of my family had left and most of the clean-up was done, I sat down with a full belly on Christmas day and was ready to relax with a good movie. So I turned on the tube and started surfing. Much to my delight I happened across a film that I hadn't seen in many years....Escape from New York. Considered one of the greats in the sci-fi/action genre, I think it is one of John Carpenter's better efforts. Though not as loud and explosive as one might expect, it nonetheless satisfies as an action film. Blessed with an original plot, great casting, and one of the more memorable sci-fi...

There are so many great actors in this movie from Lee Van Cleef to Kurt Russell and Donald Pleasance. As a fan of the Metal Gear franchise my first thoughts were that this was just another cheaply made action movie without any direction into how display and convey the thoughts. Posting it together as a world on the verge of destroying itself New York has become a prison system, with that during a flight over New York air force one is destroyed by an insane woman. Taking an escape pod the president lands on the island and is then taken as a hostage. Sending out a SWAT team, which is sent a...

Another one of those early eighties movies that is remembered rather fondly. Kurt Russell stars as Snake Plisskin (what a name!) who is blackmailed into rescuing the President, who was aboard Air Force One as it crashed in New York. Unfortunately for all involved, New York is now a maximum security prison, filled with all kinds of freaks, degenerates and lowlifes, and Snake kills almost all of them, even his friends. Equal parts comic book, dark comedy and straight violence, Escape from New York is yet another minor classic from genius John Carpenter. His first non-horror movie has some great.

Up here in Canada, stores hold their best sales during the week after Christmas. They call them Boxing Week sales. (This peculiar custom its genesis, evolution and nonsense is deserving of its own review.) This year s Boxing Week shopping yielded me good deals on several DVDs. While mainly I consummated long desired acquisitions, one purchase was pure impulse. When I spotted the newly released DVD of John Carpenter s Escape from New York as a door-crasher, priced at the equivalent of US$6.50, I could not resist. The last time I had seen it was on the big screen, back when it was released in...