# Escape From L.A., wow is it horrible! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 21, 2014, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899 "2014-05-21T05:13:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/1 "2014-05-21T05:13:55Z")
Watched Escape From New York recently for the first time, loved it! Carpenter did not disappoint with a B-movie that while slightly tongue in cheek also took itself seriously enough to deliver some great action scenes and real scares. Also loved the uh twist at the end. Great score too, whole film had the feel of a kind of dream or nightmare. There was one slightly out of tone sequence with the wrestler but that is small criticism. Escape From L.A. the sequel, good god! It is like a spoof of the first movie, and very unfunny at that. Goofy celebrity cameos, has the absolute wrong tone for a sequel to EFNY and the topical jokes fall totally flat. They even repeat the twist ending:rolleyes: This would be like if Empire Strikes Back was a spoof of Star Wars, with a sequence where Vader is offered an asthma inhaler. I think this is one movie that had I seen it in theaters, I would have walked out on it! Anyone know why Carpenter would well go goofy, totally against his usual style? ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/2 "2014-05-21T05:20:35Z")
EDIT:Also hated the repeat of the first movies plot, off the top of my head Escape From America where Snake is trying to escape a post nuclear war USA would have been better. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/3 "2014-05-21T06:29:52Z")
I love EFNY, but I do kinda balk at then ending. So Snake destroys the tape with the superweapon data, which, according to the President, was going to end the war. So, does that mean the war continues? Is Snake consigning the USA and the Soviets (I assume. Remember Leningrad, Harold?) to years more of fighting, with possible nuclear bombs? But I am with you on EFLA. It was really like a re-do of EFNY. It wasn’t a sequel, really, at all. But, stupider. In this case, Snake condemns the US, and possibly the rest of the world, to a life without electrical machinery. Does he care he’s going to cause massive suffering and death? Why? Just because? And I did pay good money to see it in the theater when it was new. Hated it from about the first half hour on, but kept with it, hoping it would get better. But every scene was like some untalented Jr high version of EFNY. It got the superficial resemblance, but the heart was missing. ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/4 "2014-05-21T20:35:51Z")
Funny, I just finished EFNY this morning and am about 25% through EFLA. Glad I saw this thread today. EFLA came out when I was 10. I lived down the road from a small movie theater and could pay $2.50 to go watch it (and that included popcorn and soda…hah!) - I did so at least 3 or 4 times. As a kid, I loved it. Also, please understand that our theater only showed 2 movies at a time, and there was nothing else to do after 7 pm really. My dad told me about EFNY after I watched the sequel, which was kind of odd because I had seen the sequel without really learning it was a sequel. We rented it from the video store and it was great. After seeing it, I was much less impressed with Escape From Los Angeles. I was raised on a large number of post-apocalypse style movies. Escape from New York is probably one of my very favorites still. I think part of the problem with LA is exactly what was pointed out in the OP - the plot is basically a repeat, including the twist at the end. Although special effects had come a bit further by the release of LA, it felt like there was a reliance on it more than story. As a kid, I didn’t notice that, but watching it as an adult it has become rather painfully obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/5 "2014-05-21T20:53:43Z")
I liked the Surgeon General of Los Angeles. Other than that, a pretty forgettable film. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/6 "2014-05-21T20:58:01Z")
Pretty much only good for the ending. Like Pearl Harbor is a perfectly fine film, if you skip the first dvd and start with the Doolittle Raid. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/7 "2014-05-21T21:18:18Z")
And yet it is 53% at Rotten Tomatoes, 57% among top critics. 40% of the audience reported liking it. It is uncommon for an action film to be better liked by critics than audiences. EFNY is 83/67/77. EFNY was good until the ending. The word was so bad for EFLA that I never watched it. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/8 "2014-05-21T22:53:13Z")
You know what Escape From New York needed? More basketball. Luckily they solved that problem in the sequel. 😑 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/9 "2014-05-22T00:16:49Z")
Escape from New York had Isaac Hayes. Of course any sequel that didn’t is going to pale in comparison. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/10 "2014-05-22T00:47:04Z")
Hell, _Escape from New York_ had Adrienne Barbeau. Two of the best acting jobs I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/11 "2014-05-22T00:57:22Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > You know what Escape From New York needed? More basketball. Luckily they solved that problem in the sequel. 😑 And surfing, don’t forget the surfing. I had the misfortune of seeing it in the theater. An hour and forty minutes of my life I’ll never get back. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/12 "2014-05-22T02:17:33Z")
I love Escape From New York and find it great that just about everyone loves it too (even the stuffiest of critics). I liked the ending even though (as others said) it means more years of war and possibly WW3. Nonetheless, the ending does fit with the movie’s “screw it all” mentality. As for “Escape From Hollywood”? Oh yeah this one is a real stinker!! :mad: Someone rented it and I barely watched a few minutes of it. Bruce Campbell as the “Surgeon General of Beverly Hills” was the one bright spot in this cinematic clunker. But this movie needed a LOT more. I think “Escape From New York” had people expecting that “Escape From Hollywood” was going to be another action film fun fest, but this only added to the wretchedness of the sequel. :mad: Yes it is bad !!! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/13 "2014-05-22T02:19:21Z")
> [@Johnny\_Q](#): > > Escape from New York had Isaac Hayes. Of course any sequel that didn’t is going to pale in comparison. And Ernest Borgnine, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, and the inimitable Lee Van Cleef. _Escape from L.A._ was like a concocted film school example of what not to do in a sequel. Everything about it was terrible. Even Kurt Russell–a usually solid actor who can carry an otherwise lame movie by personality alone–couldn’t save it, and clearly wasn’t even trying. And Carpenter himself was on a nose dive from Cronenberg-esque quasi-schlock-horror cult status to a director of pictures even Roger Corman would pass on. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/14 "2014-05-22T03:05:47Z")
I love Escape From New York and Escape From LA (though in a different way and of course NY is a superior film) half of LA is great because it’s an hilarious parody of EFNY and half of it is just Snake being a genuine badass. and the ending was awesome it’s also eerie how relevant EFLA is to modern society ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/15 "2014-05-22T05:15:33Z")
“New York” is far superior, but I don’t think either it or “Los Angeles” are intended to be high art. I have both on DVD, and while NY gets more play than LA, both are great fun. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/16 "2014-05-22T18:23:49Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > “New York” is far superior, but I don’t think either it or “Los Angeles” are intended to be high art. I have both on DVD, and while NY gets more play than LA, both are great fun. I agree. EFNY has a shittier look to it which fits New York… especially the contemporary New York of the time the movie came out. There’s some pretty silly shit in EFNY (wrestling ring baseball bat fight with Ox Baker?) EFLA is just a lot of that same mindset, just transported to what makes sense for LA. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/17 "2014-05-22T19:36:56Z")
My chief gripe about EFLA is that it’s less a sequel than a remake, like Blues Brothers 2000 was. The sentimental appeal of delayed sequels is seeing what has happened to the character over time, rather than a fresh run over the same gags. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/18 "2014-05-22T20:00:50Z")
I don’t remember anything about _Escape from L.A._ except giving up and turning it off after about 30 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/19 "2014-05-22T22:42:38Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > And Ernest Borgnine, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, and the inimitable Lee Van Cleef. And Donald Pleasence. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899/20 "2014-05-22T22:44:11Z")
And consider the ending! Smoke all the American Spirit cigarettes you want, Snake, you ain’t ever gonna get another pack! When you pushed that button, you ushered in the [Emberverse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emberverse)! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escape-from-l-a-wow-is-it-horrible/688899.md?page=2)