Escape From L.A. Is an Underappreciated John Carpenter Movie

Escape From L.A. Is an Underappreciated John Carpenter Movie By On this day in 1996, John Carpenter finally directed a sequel to one of his films.

While historically it might be seen as a failure, is a genuinely entertaining follow-up to 1981’s that . returns as Snake Plissken, thrust into yet another death-defying mission on behalf of the government. This time he must infiltrate Los Angeles, which has become an island filled with the worst of the worst.

Once in, he needs to retrieve the control unit for a doomsday unit to prevent nuclear annihilation. Of course, it’s not as simple as it could be. Joining Russell was Steve Buscemi as the slimy agent-type Map to the Stars Eddie, Pam Grier as Hershe Las Palmas, Peter Fonda as Pipeline, and as the demented Surgeon General of L.

A. John Carpenter had contributed to sequels to his films before, such as Halloween 2, but Escape From L.A.

remains the only sequel he’s ever handled himself. For many reasons, that would be an unfortunate statistic. A Less Than Sweet Escape Escape From L.

A. cost $50 million to make and only recouped half of that at the box office after a critical hammering. CGI was still relatively new for many studios and Buena Vista Visual Effects had never used computer effects before.

So it was unsurprising that Escape From L.A. was roundly criticized for its terrible CG.

Coming 15 years after the original, Escape From L.A. certainly suffers from a perception of what it should be rather than what It is.

Arguably.