BEFORE: Oh, that wacky Snake Plissken...always escaping from somewhere...
At least this film is set in 2013, so it hasn't "not happened" yet.
THE PLOT: Snake Plissken is once again called in by the United States government to recover a potential doomsday device from Los Angeles, now an autonomous island where undesirables are deported.
AFTER: OK, some vast improvements in special effects since the first film, but that's to be expected. Special effects are probably needed to make it look like Kurt Russell can shoot hoops without getting winded...
The massive earthquake in the year 2000 (!) separated downtown L.A. from the mainland, and it's been turned into the dumping ground for criminals and illegal aliens after they get deported. But it's also where the President's daughter escapes to, with the country's secret weapon - where she meets her boyfriend, a Che Guevara-style revolutionary named Cuervo. (what's his last name, Gold?)
Snake is sent in to retrieve the device - and he's injected with a deadly substance that will kill him in just 10 hours if he doesn't succeed. Again, it's mostly good campy popcorn action/fun - but with Steve Buscemi and Pam Grier as his allies on the inside, this feels more like a lost Tarantino film than anything else.
If they ever make another sequel, the next logical step would be "Escape From Chicago" - but the characters keep making reference to "that time in Cleveland" - so there's an untold Snake Plissken tale waiting in the wings...
Also starring Stacy Keach, Cliff Robertson (as the President), Peter Fonda (as a surfing hippie burn-out, that's a stretch...), Valeria Golino, Bruce Campbell, Michelle Forbes, and my buddy Peter Jason. Oh, and there's Leland Orser again, who was also in "Alien: Resurrection"!
RATING: 6 out of 10 missile launchers
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