Escape From New York doesnt seem all that great to me.
I will admit that EFNY is a sentimental favorite for me. I was only
13 - 14 when I snuck in to see that bad boy on the big screen.
Remember the state of FX at the time, and the anemic budget
Carpenter was working with. And yet never once did I think
"that looks fake".
And Snake Plissken.... You've heard of him? I heard he was
dead.
Remember, at the time I'm coming from heroes like John Wayne
and Luke Skywalker and here all of a sudden is this antiheroic
badass who trusts no one, likes no one, and respects no one
not even the President of the United States!?!
WTF?
As a child of the cold war, long before the Berlin wall
came down, when Star Wars was still the name of a movie
and not a missile defense system, Snake epilogue FU to
the POTUS really bothered me, seeing as the Doomsday
Clock just got reverse snoozed. Hell, I'd wager half the people
on this board couldn't tell you what it was without googling
it, but back then stripping out that tape was tantamount to
throwing the whole country under the bus.
And that was the "good" guy?!?
Plus, Isaac Hayes as the Duke of New York is worth ten
points right there. Curve Jones? Pleeeeze.
And ol' what's her name spilling out of her top for the last
half of the film didn't hurt anything either.
Adrienne Barbeau?