Quick Review:
Remember ESCAPE FROM N.Y.? Change it to L.A., go further over-the-top with the humor, and change the final plane escape to a helicopter. The rest is detail.Kurt Russell claims a special affinity with Snake Plissken, but I think it's more a case of a good boy trying to imitate the bad boys. In any event, this sequel does not begin to convey the original's dark menace, but it does have some wonderful, ludicrous comic moments -- as when Snake is surfboarding with Peter Fonda on a flooded L.A. aqueduct and hops on the back of Steve Buscemi's car. As a self-spoof, ESCAPE FROM L.A. is fun. If you insist on treating it as a real action thriller, then you have to be disappointed. I laughed a lot. ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK fanatics almost cried.