When New York turned into a huge prison state, everything seems to have turned into the worst. That story began when a single air force plane crashed on the island, so the mercenary Plissken is sent on a mission to save the president from criminals on the island's ruling island. They can face a violent story of challenges and difficulties.
Maybe it's not John Carpenter's best film, but it's one of his most fun and the premise is irresistible: in the future, Manhattan has been turned into a high security island prison and Liberty Island is the guard station.
The pic functions well as both a prison escape drama and as an escapist film. It's far from a great film, but is entertaining and pleasantly cynical despite being so bleak.
When the final credits roll, you can be forgiven a vague sense of dissatisfaction, because the creativity that went into formulating the premise was never extended to the script writing stage.
It's a toughly told, very tall tale, one of the best escape (and escapist) movies of the season.
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
May 15, 2015
Snake is Carpenter's fantasy alter ego, a man of uncompromised anti-authoritarianism. 'I don't give a f--- about your war, or your President,' Snake tells the police commissioner, voicing a sentiment that was hardly unusual during Carpenter's USC days.
Power corrupts. Truth is the antidote. And if the masters of the universe don't like that, it only takes one nasty bastard in the right place at the right time to correct them. The eyepatch is optional.
The movie proudly wears its affection for crusty Sergio Leone archetypes and countdown-clock suspense sequences; Carpenter was Tarantino long before Tarantino was.
