Escape from New York & L.A.

John Carpenter... the man, the myth, the legend. Probably my favorite director of all time (well him and a few others) and one whose movies I can easily watch at the drop of a dime. I decided to rewatch two classics in his arsenal... Escape from New York and it's predecessor Escape from L.A. Boom!

Escape from New York
(1981) [Trailer]
Director: John Carpenter [IMDB]

Synopsis: In a dystopian future Manhattan Island has become home to all the United State's prisoners... glad I moved over to Queens recently.

A good way for me to write you off as a person is for you to tell me you don't like this movie. Sure you could joke around and say it, but if you were honest, I'd would think differently about you.

This film is so easy to watch and take in... and even as ridiculous as the concept is, it still makes for a great film. It obviously takes some suspension of disbelief to get behind what Carpenter is selling in EFNY, but if you can, you'll find a story that's dark, satirical, and filled with suspense. I've said on the site before how much I love Kurt Russell and in the role of Snake Plisskin he is the man. A quiet badass who doesn't give a shit about anyone, but still has this code that he follows that make you respect his character.

I could go on about this title, but you just need to see it; stop reading and watch it, or rewatch it.

Escape from L.A.
(1996) [IMDB]
Director: John Carpenter [IMDB]

Synopsis: Same thing as Escape from New York, except in L.A.

Snake is back, yeah buddy! I think the last time I saw this was when I was fresh out of high school.  I had forgotten most of it and really the only thing I remember is everyone always saying it sucked. I would disagree completely. This movie rules and if you're a fan of the first one there's no reason not to like this. It's more of the same... only slightly different. I felt like EFLA was a lot more satirical... I especially loved that they moved the capital of the U.S. to Lynchburg, VA. The story is still completely absurd and some of the effects don't hold up, but I really thought this was a fun movie.

Also the surfing scene with Peter Fonda is incredible... one for the history books.

Evil Dead

Evil Dead
(2013) [Trailer]
Director: Fede Alvarez [IMDB]

The original Evil Dead trilogy is up there as some of my all time favorite horror. The Evil Dead was basically already remade once with Evil Dead II (which I am extremely fond of) and that caliber of film means the 2013 remake will have some pretty big shoes to fill. I knew all the people involved in this new installment, Bruce Campbell included, had good intentions going into it and wanted to honor the original... so I was pumped to finally check this out after missing it back in April.

Synopsis: A group of teens head to a remote cabin in the woods to help ween their drug addicted friend off the smack... their plan works and everyone lives a happy life... just kidding... they all die.

This remake definitely tries to do things differently from the original, which isn't a bad thing, but ultimately it just doesn't succeed in my opinion. The original is so effective at just getting into the shit and blasting its way through story and character development to instead offer you 70 minutes of blood, guts and gore... and strangely it worked perfectly. This remake tries to build up the characters and story a little more, but honestly I found it boring and uninteresting. If you're going to spend that time, you better bring something unique and Evil Dead does not. I also felt the actors were forgettable, as opposed to Bruce Campbell, who had so much charisma that worked in the roll.

This is the one problem remakes face. It's really hard not to compare them to the original. I know I should treat this as a stand alone, but I can't. After seeing a remake I look at whether or not I'd sit down and watch the original over it. Unless the remake goes somewhere profound, then what's the point?

Now it's time for the pros. 2013's Evil Dead is highly successful in the gore department. There are tons of awesome moments including people cutting their mouths off, getting stabbed in the face repeatedly by a syringe, extremities being cut and ripped off... basically good wholesome family entertainment. The scares are also very prominent and had my wife covering her eyes through most of last 40 minutes of the film.

I didn't despise Evil Dead but given the chance to rewatch it... I'm gonna go ahead and pop in the 1981 classic and roll with that any day over this.