MovieChat Forums > Escape from L.A. (1996) Discussion > What's really so bad about this movie?

What's really so bad about this movie?

posted 14 years ago by jackson-219
30 replies | jump to latest

I know it bombed at the box office but I really enjoyed this film when I saw it at a discount theater in 96'. People were just overly hard on this film for reasons beyond my understanding. It moves fast, Carpenter does have all his trademark zany characters, wide screen shots, action packed, and a goofy tone. Yeah, it's not dark like the original and more in tone with films like Big Trouble in little China but it still is a lot of fun. The only scene I hate is the basketball scene. They could have left that one out but other than that I liked the film. Some people complain about the villain, was Isaac Hayes really any better? The villains in both movies are silly and cheesy, which is what I think Carpenter goes for in his films.

[–] Ramoa 11 years ago

Beyond cheesy on the following examples:
CGI my 15 yr-old cousin can make at his home computer.
Cheap, on-the-nose dialogue: “call me snake”
Bottom-end bad acting: the president’s daughter. She talks like someone with an anal rash.
The bad guy being a cheap copy of Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
“Look at me l’m a badass! I’m a badass look!” black-leather everything.
BIC-drawn tummy tattoo

[–] bond_98 10 years ago

Didn't you hear. Having fun watching a film has been outlawed by Lord Killjoy.

[–] Darthfrodo58 9 years ago

I know that Carpenter went for a tongue-in-cheek feel for this one, but it just didn't work for me. Some people liked it, and that's fine. Snake was supposed to be this man's man type of guy that wouldn't take crap from anyone, and then they went too far outside of that. Kind of like when Arnold kept putting bad puns in his movies, it was just getting to be too much, or when Roger Moore was 007. They weren't really staying true to the character.

What I really couldn't like about this (loved EFNY though) was: A bad guy that has Snake Plissken playing basketball???? The surfing scene with Peter Fonda???? Hang gliding and dropping grenades??? It was too much of a parody of EFNY than an actual sequel.

Snakes....I hate snakes

[–] Willant80 9 years ago

Loved it in '96 and even more now!

Bend the knee

[–] jnatch 9 years ago

everything, literally everything. Ive seen 4,000 movies this is in the bottom 1% easily

[–] isbabo 9 years ago

well if you enjoyed it that is great, don't let anyone tell you it was a bad film.

Personally, I didn't care for it. I thought EFNY had a much grittier feel. The special effects, while hardly groundbreaking even in 1981, still worked in a way that even the best CGI doesn't (of course that is a bias of mine).

I thought it was an over the top version of the original, without the atmosphere. But it was essentially a remake, and a poor one at that.....

Maybe that is what is original about it. A bad remake/sequel/"reimagining" that didn't live up to the original. That is all Hollywood does today.