What the hell man. I thought there made one film. Anyway I am confused now. Which one I watched already hmmm...
Escape from NY was the first film about the Air Force One going down inside of the prison. Escape from LA was about the President's daughter and some kinda satellite "reset the world" codes.
Escape from NY is the good one. Escape from LA is this one: I really wish they hadn't made Escape from LA. A real sequel with an older Snake would be pretty good right about now. But they murdered the franchise with one chop, just like Highlander. I sometimes wonder if John Carpenter had a stroke in the mid-80s.
Those are the big two, no doubt. I also remember Pam Grier as a transsexual or something, and Bruce Campbell as some messed up plastic surgeon.
She apparently sank that last shot in real life, on the first take. Kind of like Walter White with the pizza on the roof. Crazy if true. EDIT: Looks like it took her a couple tries, but she did make it on the sixth attempt.
He was one of the world's premier filmmakers until shortly after...say...Big Trouble in Little China. He then pretty much went Full Renny Harlin the rest of the way.
there is only one snake plisskin film. an it aint that steaming pile of shit la. although the last scene was pretty cool.
No. Just watch Escape from New York and enjoy it. Then leave it that. No need to sully it's good name by following it up with that fucking turd that is Escape from LA.
I really like They Live and In The Mouth of Madness. Vampires and Prince of Darkness were decent at worse. He had some terrible stuff thrown in but he was still able to maintain a better level than most for the remainder of his career. It's nearly impossible to maintain the level of quality he produced in the 70s and 80s.
New York was great. Tried watching la recently and my exact thoughts were "I thought this was escape from la, not lawnmower man 2..." And turned it off after 20 minutes
I think his best two movies after Big Trouble were Invisible Man with Chevy Chase and Vampires. In the Mouth of Madness was kind of...amorphously scary I suppose. They Live... It's campy and fun, but almost in a "so bad it's good" way. I mean, some people give it credit for having some kind of anti-consumerism message, but I have never been hit across the head with a message so bluntly as in that film. And I love Rowdy Roddy Piper, but that was not a good performance. Anyway, if you draw a line around 1986 or so, he seems to go from classic Carpenter to something closer to Lloyd Kaufman...with the occasional effective film sprinkled in. It's just kind of puzzling that he can't even make a pretty good paint-by-the-numbers horror nowadays, just like how Renny Harlin made Die Hard 2 but now can't make a decent paint-by-the-numbers action film.
Carpenter made Halloween (seminal, classic horror film), Escape from New York (a classic film, timeless to me) and Big Trouble in Little China (undervalued film in my opinion), and the Thing in a six year run!!! Fucking amazing.
