This is one of the dumbest movies I have seen in a long time. And I mean that; the stupid is just OVERFLOWING out of this film. I watched it immediately after watching Escape from New York, and be sure, this monstrosity of a sequel does no justice whatsoever to the first film.
Let me do a recap of just SOME of the stupid for you: - The terrorist in this film is the PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER and she joins forces with a bad Che Guevara knockoff.
-Shortly after this scene, Plisskin embarks upon his journey to Los Angeles by way of a jet-powered submarine that can SOMEHOW GENERATE THRUST UNDERWATER (as if it were a a fighter jet) DESPITE THAT THIS VIOLATES BASIC LAWS OF PHYSICS. While underwater, he puts the thruster into 100% overdrive, ignoring his commanding officers (the ones he randomly tried to kill earlier) who advise him that he shouldn't do so. What follow are shots of Kurt Russell in his submarine careening through one of the most laughably bad CGI sequences ever put to film. The highlight of this sequence is that, as Kurt Russell is underwater, he passes the wreckage of Universal Studios sign, and a giant shark comes out of nowhere and tries to eat the submarine, but misses it completely. The shark is completely unconvincing and wreaks of not only a poor special effects budget, but also a poor effort on the part of the effects team all around.
-A scene in which Kurt Russell surfs a giant tidal wave in a sewer while AT THE SAME TIME Steve Buscemi is cruising alongside him in a hot ride. (I can't make this stuff up) -And finally, in order to save his life, Plisskin must earn 10 points in a basketball court. Plisskin DOES accomplish this heroic feat (we are literally shown Russell running up to the goal to make lay-ups) and yet the bad guy (the Che Guevara knockoff) STILL decides to shoot him, but remarkably, Plisskin just hops over the fence and escapes unscathed. (Also of note in this scene. We first see a guy who doesn't get 10 points, and so he is shot. The way this is done is so brainless... basically there are tons of set up right outside the fence, lining the basketball court. So picture the basketball court as a rectangle, and there are guys EVERYWHERE, on all sides of the rectangle, tons of them. Well, when they are ordered to kill the guy, EVERY ONE OF THEM fires blindly at the guy in the center of the court. If this movie had an ounce of intelligence, most of the bad guys would be dead from shooting each other!) -Toward the end of the film, Plisskin hangglides (along with Buscemi and the president's daughter) into a warzone, mowing guys down with a submachine gun, all the while remaining completely unscathed.
Now rest assured -- if you consider yourself a connoisseur of the stupid, there is PLENTY more of it in this film. What I offered are simply SOME of the highlights. And no, none of this is intended as camp. I have SEEN camp, and this is not it. This is ATROCIOUS and indecisive writing that tries to do a lot of things and FAILS at everything. As if the barrage of stupid weren't enough, the plot is also incoherent and unclear.
What really kills this movie for me is the wasted opportunity it is. Escape From New York was at its core an enjoyable movie that took liberties with reality but ultimately followed it more than it deviated. In EFNY, Plisskin was just a badass war veteran taking people out with his silenced TMP submachine gun. In EFLA, Plisskin is some kind of borderline comic book super hero with a trench-coat and placticized toy-looking guns that have no place in reality. Really, NONE of this movie has any place in reality, which made my suspension of disbelief IMPOSSIBLE. The events of EFNY were a little "out there", sure, but not to the extent that I couldn't suspend belief and enjoy things.
EFLA is dumb trash, plain and simple. I don't even recommend this movie to hardcore EFNY fans as you have already seen this movie -- the GOOD version.
Let me do a recap of just SOME of the stupid for you: - The terrorist in this film is the PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER and she joins forces with a bad Che Guevara knockoff.
- In one of the opening scenes of the film Plisskin inexplicably tries to blow away two of the people sending him on his mission, despite the fact that he NEEDS THEM in order to carry out his mission. His gun makes a lot of noise but doesn't harm them, at which point the two people tell him, "We thought you'd do that. That's why we filled your first magazine with blanks." GENIUS! They totally KNEW that Plisskin would randomly try to kill them for no reason whatsoever.
-Shortly after this scene, Plisskin embarks upon his journey to Los Angeles by way of a jet-powered submarine that can SOMEHOW GENERATE THRUST UNDERWATER (as if it were a a fighter jet) DESPITE THAT THIS VIOLATES BASIC LAWS OF PHYSICS. While underwater, he puts the thruster into 100% overdrive, ignoring his commanding officers (the ones he randomly tried to kill earlier) who advise him that he shouldn't do so. What follow are shots of Kurt Russell in his submarine careening through one of the most laughably bad CGI sequences ever put to film. The highlight of this sequence is that, as Kurt Russell is underwater, he passes the wreckage of Universal Studios sign, and a giant shark comes out of nowhere and tries to eat the submarine, but misses it completely. The shark is completely unconvincing and wreaks of not only a poor special effects budget, but also a poor effort on the part of the effects team all around.
-A scene in which Kurt Russell surfs a giant tidal wave in a sewer while AT THE SAME TIME Steve Buscemi is cruising alongside him in a hot ride. (I can't make this stuff up) -And finally, in order to save his life, Plisskin must earn 10 points in a basketball court. Plisskin DOES accomplish this heroic feat (we are literally shown Russell running up to the goal to make lay-ups) and yet the bad guy (the Che Guevara knockoff) STILL decides to shoot him, but remarkably, Plisskin just hops over the fence and escapes unscathed. (Also of note in this scene. We first see a guy who doesn't get 10 points, and so he is shot. The way this is done is so brainless... basically there are tons of set up right outside the fence, lining the basketball court. So picture the basketball court as a rectangle, and there are guys EVERYWHERE, on all sides of the rectangle, tons of them. Well, when they are ordered to kill the guy, EVERY ONE OF THEM fires blindly at the guy in the center of the court. If this movie had an ounce of intelligence, most of the bad guys would be dead from shooting each other!) -Toward the end of the film, Plisskin hangglides (along with Buscemi and the president's daughter) into a warzone, mowing guys down with a submachine gun, all the while remaining completely unscathed.
Now rest assured -- if you consider yourself a connoisseur of the stupid, there is PLENTY more of it in this film. What I offered are simply SOME of the highlights. And no, none of this is intended as camp. I have SEEN camp, and this is not it. This is ATROCIOUS and indecisive writing that tries to do a lot of things and FAILS at everything. As if the barrage of stupid weren't enough, the plot is also incoherent and unclear.
What really kills this movie for me is the wasted opportunity it is. Escape From New York was at its core an enjoyable movie that took liberties with reality but ultimately followed it more than it deviated. In EFNY, Plisskin was just a badass war veteran taking people out with his silenced TMP submachine gun. In EFLA, Plisskin is some kind of borderline comic book super hero with a trench-coat and placticized toy-looking guns that have no place in reality. Really, NONE of this movie has any place in reality, which made my suspension of disbelief IMPOSSIBLE. The events of EFNY were a little "out there", sure, but not to the extent that I couldn't suspend belief and enjoy things.
EFLA is dumb trash, plain and simple. I don't even recommend this movie to hardcore EFNY fans as you have already seen this movie -- the GOOD version.