Red Hot '90s Action Summer: Reloaded (3) ESCAPE FROM L.A.

Continuing Red Hot Action Summer, we take a look at John Carpenter's less-revered sequel Escape from L.A., which returns to Snake 15 years later and adds a whole lot more bad CGI to the mix. We talk about the unnecessary plot twists in the film, Bruce Campbell being a shining star, and Pam Grier making an appearance! We're also drinking Prison City's Mass Riot New England IPA.

Approximate timeline

0:00-11:00 Intro

11:00-20:00 Beer talk

20:00-end Escape from L.A.

Next up: The Matrix!

Episode Transcript

(00:31):
It's red hot 90s action summer. Here at the Blood and Black Rum
Podcast, we're covering your favorite sweaty 90s action
movies all month long. Expect stunts galore,
transportation mishaps, and lotsand lots of hench men.
We've got Schwarzenegger, Chan, possibly even Reeves.

(00:52):
It's going to be hot and steamy all August long.
Hey guys, welcome back to the Blood Micron podcast.
I'm Ryan from coldplaytation.comand I'm joined with my Co host
Martin. How's it going?
Yeah. We're hanging in there.
We're, we're hanging 10. Actually, I should say on on

(01:14):
this episode, who's V continue our red hot 90s action summer.
Reloaded. Yeah.
So we've done a couple episodes now.
We got Arnold in there. We got we got Jackie Chan and
Chris Tucker in there. Yeah.
Mother. Fucker.

(01:34):
Nice addition there and today we're going to be No, you know
what? We have never had him actually
on a Red Hot Action summer episode, but we haven't had them
in the past. Kurt Russell.
Oh, I thought you were going to say Gary Busey because we were
going to be doing point break because you even.
Being 10 reference, that would have been something.

(01:56):
But no, no, no Kurt Russell, ourguest on the show today.
Come on in. Grab that microphone, Kurt.
Fresh off of the Santa Chronicles 4.
Kurt Rusk. Is that what we're doing this
year? I know him and Goldie Hawn's

(02:18):
vanity project. We, we do need to have Santa
Chronicles on here at some point.
I've seen the first one about the second one.
But yeah, no Kurt Russell again,We've we've had him on a couple
times. We did the thing and we've done
Escape from New York and we're, you know, and Tom Stone.

(02:40):
Oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah.
Forgot about that. What do you mean you forgot
about that? I I forgot, Yeah, I don't know.
I just forgot. Forgot.
Blocked it from him. Blocked it from him.
Jesus Christ. But no.
No, no, no, show's over. Show's over.
Ryan's going to remember everything but Tombstone.

(03:01):
He's going to remember fucking Uncle Sam before.
But today we're returning to a Kurt Russell fan favorites and
we're escaping again as well. I should say this time we're not
escaping from New York, though. What about the Bronx?

(03:23):
No, not the Bronx. You've no, not that one, not any
of the other, you know, Exterminators of the year 3000
or whatever other films that were escaped from New York RIP
offs. Not any of that.
But we're escaping from LA, which is actually kind of
prescient in today's political climate with the LAPD being

(03:49):
dispatched to, you know, police LA.
But it's it's escaped from LA today. 1996 film from John
Carpenter and Kurt Russell and Deborah Hill and Deborah.
Yeah. And Deborah, which by the way,
hold on, you said it wrong, what's the name of the film?

(04:10):
It's John Carpenter's escape from LA.
Thank you. And this one is in you.
You talked about this outside ofthe, you know, recording, but
this one is a movie that was 15 years after Escape from New
York. Something that John Carpenter

(04:30):
didn't do all that often is returning to some of his.
His works and he's very anti sequel and yeah, which you can
watch a lot of interviews where he talks about that that he's
got no interest and, you know, doing, you know, continuing a.

(04:53):
Franchise, which in general is probably a good idea.
In practice though, it can oftenbite you in the ass because you
can do a great initial film and then have somebody fuck up the
rest of your sequence. Well, it's funny because when
you were showing that Halloween game trailer today, it's like,

(05:13):
sorry if I butcher. I know the last name.
I don't know his first name. But like, Muhammad Akkad
presents. And it's like, that's me.
The franchise started going downhill.
Yeah, You know, like seeing, youknow, seeing the Akkads on it.
But you know. That's right, I mean, and for
good reason too. You can see why John Carpenter

(05:35):
never really returned to his hisyou know, his film's first
sequel. And Escape from LA may be the
most perfect example of why one shouldn't return to their films
15 years after their initial release.
Do you? Think I would say, do you think
because he's also the same school of like, you know,
Spielberg, Coppola, Lucas, like he saw Lucas basically his

(06:00):
entire career be stunted becauseof Star Wars?
Like he's do you think he was like, yeah, that's why I'm not
fucking doing a sequel to my Goddamn boobies.
Look at this prick. Takes him 30 years to release.
You know something I. Feel like he is just a dude who
is like, you know, he did it, it's done.

(06:23):
He lives with the, you know, with, however it was released
in, in the, the fanfare that it had and he moves on.
I think he's just that kind of guy and he doesn't generally
like to return to the same ideasand he likes to branch out.
That's another reason why he wasnot that prolific of a director
as some other directors might have gone on to be.

(06:46):
Because he, especially in his later career, started really
picking and choosing his projects because some of his
earlier projects were sort of forced onto him.
And he didn't necessarily take it out of, you know, pleasure of
doing the project, but because it was sort of he was forced to.

(07:08):
And I think later on and when once he got to a certain point,
he did have that leeway of not taking on projects that he
really didn't care about until Iguess, you know, like, I don't
know if you're counting something like his later, like
later or later career, not the 90s, but the 2000s where he sort
of phoned some stuff in. And even now, like still phoning

(07:31):
a few things. And literally, quite literally
with that one show that he did like suburban, suburban,
whatever it was called or would it was like a true crime show
that he he directed from remotely.
Oh, yeah, the one they were. I can't, I I can't remember what
the hell it was called, but I remember, like them parading
around a John Carpenter's band. Yeah, I.

(07:52):
Watched it and it was horrible. He only did.
He only directed one episode, but the whole series itself.
Well, I mean, I imagine that they paid him a lot of money for
that. They're like, listen, we just
want the cachet, boy. Yeah, I mean, not only that, I
mean his name. First of all, his name's on it.
He's presenting it and then also, you know, he did direct an
episode. I think it it was remotely that

(08:13):
he directed the episode. So, you know, he was on the end
of a camera and basically just like, all right, yeah, you guys
do that. It looks great.
It's great. Fucking just fucking rolling.
It was I. Was saying that was sorry to
interrupt. That was during COVID, wasn't?
It no, it was like 2022-2023. So productions had kind of gone
back to fairly normal. I mean, I respect the dude who

(08:36):
maybe he was like, I'm not goingon set.
Yeah, you don't right now. I'm fucking 85 years old or
whatever he is. I'm not going on set right now,
but sure. There's a lot, there's a lot of
whiskey and smokes that I want to have and so if.
You need me to direct, Sure, I'll do from afar, but you know,
so I, I, I can understand that, but from, from the capacity of,

(08:58):
like I said, I think for a lot of the years, especially in the
90s, he was able to direct just projects that he really wanted
to focus on and apparent. And I don't know that I, I'm
sure I've watched the special features that I've had from
escape from LA for, you know, and I think the first and only
time I saw this movie was back in like probably almost 10 years

(09:21):
ago now, I think whenever the Blu-ray released.
But I feel like I did. I watched it and I watched all
the extra features. And I'm sure there was some
information about the making of Escape from LA, but I don't
really know the genesis of the actual reason why they were
like, yeah, let's return to Snake Plissken.

(09:41):
I'm sure it's outlined somewhere.
But I, you know, and I don't know if this was something that
would like Kurt Russell was like, hey, John, you want to do
this again with me? Because this one, unlike Escape
from New York, it it is certainly a kind of like a buddy
project between Carpenter and Kurt Russell.
This wasn't, you know, go ahead.I was going to say, from what I

(10:03):
read on the Wikipedia part, KurtRussell has has been wanting to
do a. He's been wanting to revisit
State Pliskin in the film was originally starting to be
written and back in the 87, but Carpenter found it to be too
campy, which is funny. But I mean, I get it.

(10:27):
Like for Kurt Russell, like again, like this should have
been and could have been like a great like spin off action
franchise. You know, Kurt Russell, Snake
Puskin is back, but they never, they never went that route.
And. It's just movie that just has

(10:48):
his name in it. Yeah, you know.
And I think, and I think too, like the fact that like by the
time this comes out, Kurt Russell has more money than God
probably at this point. So he's like, John, I want you
to fucking direct this movie andhelp me write it.
And John's like, all right, what?
You know? Well, yeah, I so I think the the

(11:12):
film's like very anachronistic. Like it's like totally a fish
out of water and but also dovetails with Carpenter's 90s
output. Oh yeah, for sure.
And it's like totally like from this you can be like, how the
hell did he get to renowned Twitter asshole James Woods?

(11:33):
And it's like in vampires, that's like, yeah, so.
Oh, that's out, yeah. He's on that.
Stuff and then. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, again, this is I, I don't know how people feel
about Escape from Lai do I do believe it has some fans.
Some. It's got a cult, fans.
It's got an occult resurgence. Sure.

(11:55):
I do remember it being called like one of Carpenter's worst
films. I mean, that's why.
When when was that though? Was that prior to stuff like
Ghost of Mars in the world? Was it after?
I think it was after still like,but I mean at the same time
though, like that's one of the reasons I've never seen escape
from LA just because at one it was never on TV.

(12:20):
It's not like it was something and then spent on a couple of
like streaming service and stuff.
I remember really had like an inch to go out and reach it
because again, it's like, I don't as somebody.
And you can watch your great 200th episode Escape from New
York, our review on that. I'm a big fan of that film and I
love it. And it's like kind of like, why

(12:42):
bother, you know, if you didn't do it?
Like, and that's one of the things I hate about modern
cinema is the fact like 30 yearslater, like here's the sequel.
It's like just the cash, you know?
Yeah. For the cache sake.
So I mean, I get it in the sensethat Kurt Russell wanted to do
it, but at the same time it is we'll talk about I just.

(13:07):
It doesn't come off as it. It doesn't like, you know.
It's it's no escape from Earth for sure.
It's a project that, you know, should have been like either
done in 84 or, you know, just left to the dustbin of time and
be like, you know. Impartially, you know, that the
problem with continuing Escape from LA at that time was that

(13:29):
Carpenter got busy in the 80s, you know, after, you know, and
again, one of his passion projects would be the thing
which released in 1982, you know, working with Kurt Russell.
Those that and Escape from New York were pretty close together
and probably that were just back-to-back that for Carpenter.
Yep. And then Christina as well.

(13:50):
I mean, he was a busy dude in the 80s.
He was putting out almost a filma year from and that was his,
you know, obviously his his shining run of movies from and
we we've done actually most of these.
I mean from the fog, escape fromNew York, the thing, Christine
Starman, you know, it's not really his everybody's favorite

(14:10):
movie from him, but it is, you know, another one of those
movies that are it's fairly wellreceived.
Big trouble in the little China Prince of Darkness, they live.
I mean, that was a huge run of movies.
And I think part of the problem with with that was trying to fit
Escape from LA in there. He's just busy.
He's just busy doing passion projects and things that he

(14:30):
really wants to do. You know, I don't, I don't know.
I just, I think that the part ofthat issue cropped up and he
didn't have time to work on Escape from LA and it kind of
snuck away. And, you know, after that, I
think village of the Dam too, aswe talked about, we did that
episode that left a bad taste inhis mouth.
He was kind of forced into that project as well.

(14:51):
I mean, he likes Village of the damned well enough, but I feel
like there was a lot of production meddling in that and
kind of forced into. And so maybe at that point he
was like, you know what, Kurt, I'm OK with doing Escape from
LA. Let's let's do it because it's
been a, you know, a dream of ours to return to that and it it
was the right time in the 96. But I think part of it is just

(15:14):
that he they got busy, you know,busy time for carp.
But all right, so let's take a break real quick to talk about
the beer that we have on the show today.
And I was the one that picked itout and I tried to be I tried to
to match the theme a little bit here.
I think I did a pretty good job with the the, the name of the
beer. So I got one from Prison City

(15:37):
Brewery, which we've definitely never had on the show, never had
a prison city. I've only had one other prison
city and I believe that was a collaboration.
So it's not one that we often get around here, which is kind
of surprising because it's fairly local to us.
It's in Auburn, NY. Don't know why.
It's just not one that we reallyget a lot around here.
But unfortunately that's the case.

(16:00):
So I've never had too many of them.
I don't think I've had anything to be honest.
Yeah, yeah, I think I've only I've had one other one.
So but this one is actually it'sa good place to start because it
is their like flagship beer, thefirst like the one that they
started with and it's called Mass Riot.
And I thought that was pretty relatable to today's film Escape

(16:23):
from LA. So I went with it.
And you know, the, the idea behind it is not like, you know,
the, the style isn't anything new.
It's a New England IPA. Of course, you know, pretty,
pretty common around here and we, we cover them quite a bit.
But you know, I thought it was acool name and cool tie in for
for an escape from LA. So, so this one is a Citra

(16:47):
mosaic Simcoe hopped New EnglandIPA.
It's it is their like flagship first beer pretty well received
as far as I've seen. And I think it is a pretty damn
good and then style IPA. It's flavorful, it's got a nice
hot balance to it. A lot of the you know it in

(17:07):
terms of a New England IPA, thisis probably like the
quintessential idea of what is aNew England IPA?
Hazy, hoppy, citrusy and fruity.Get them all together and you
got yourself a quality beer. And again, to what what I will
point out about this Prison Cityis that it is it does taste like
there are quality components in there, quality hops, quality

(17:28):
malt. It's a very well-rounded beer.
And I think, you know, as in terms of it being their flagship
or their, you know, their their starting point, it makes a lot
of sense. So really good job from Prison
City. I would definitely check them
out again, based on just having this particular beer.
How about you? Yeah, before going into the
beer, I just got to say. So I was like, aw, bro, I'm

(17:51):
pretty sure I know where that is.
It's like dead center in New York.
It's in Cave County, and if you were to divide the state in half
by east and West, it's like literally dead center in the
state. So that's pretty cool.
But also too, because it's on like the Finger Lakes.
Funny thing was, I saw a video the other day and this is

(18:15):
somebody who's giving out about people complaining that like,
which I agree with what the people who say anything.
You know, Yonkers in the north is upstate, right?
And the person was listing all the areas of New York like, you
know, the Adirondack Capital Region, central western.
You know what they forgot? What?

(18:35):
Did they forget? That's right, the Southern Tier,
the forgotten part. That's right, the forgotten part
of New York State. Even though this has nothing to
do with it. I was just thinking like, wow,
our hypothesis is being, you know, proving true.
The Southern Tier, the forgottenpart of New York State, which it
is that sidebar all being set. This is a very good night book.

(18:58):
Got a pretty, you know, for tropical fruitiness, like a
blood orange, you know, very dry.
Yeah. I mean, I would say like blood
orange, like tartness to it, grapefruity.

(19:21):
Obviously it's got a good hot, but it's got like, you know,
some pretty big pine notes for adiaper.
But it's got it's well balanced.It's very nice.
I like it. Basically, I want to try to have
some of them more beer, some of them some more of their beer.

(19:43):
Yeah. So yeah, I mean, where, as I
say, where did she even get this?
Because I've never even seen it around.
This was actually just at Hannaford, our local
supermarkets, they have been attempting to get a few more
beers in that are, you know, like specialty but still locally
sourced. And so I think this was part of

(20:04):
it. And I was actually very
surprised to see Prison City there.
It's definitely like there's a few that they've started getting
in there that I don't know if they have like a sort of small
distribution. But yeah, I've never seen Prison
City there. So I was excited and I was like,
you know what, I'm going to? Grab that while I'm here.
I'm, I was just saying I'm very curious to see who's
distributing this right now because you know.

(20:25):
Again, like, I don't know if it's like decresenti or
whatever, but Saratoga Eagle, yeah, yeah.
It's probably decresenti, but I mean, but still, it's just fun
to think about. Like I don't you know, because
it is nice when you see like stuff like this come in, they're
like, oh, where did it go? When it's like, you know, you
were the only people buying so. Yep.

(20:46):
And again, I don't know too muchlike, you know, I didn't see any
other varieties like they reallyjust had their like this
flagship mass riot. But yeah, I mean, it's cool to
see Hannaford kind of expanding out a little bit, especially
because I tend to go there and try to get this, the deals on,
you know, like larger 12 pack beers of, you know, standard,

(21:08):
you know, breweries that we havearound Sam Adams, Saranac, stuff
like that. I'll, I'll if I'm looking for,
you know, a pack, I generally goto Hannaford because it is
cheaper. They generally have deals on it,
but. Especially especially the
seasonals, because then we're we're the only schmucks going in
to buy it. And they're like, they're
putting like the, you know, rollbacks that was not Walmart,

(21:29):
but they're putting like the, you know, Mark Town sticker.
And it's like, don't mind if I do, you know, but.
Then when I was there, you know,I saw this and I was like, you
know what? I think I'll grab one of those
too. So it's nice to see and yeah,
hope to see more of it coming toHannaford and I hope to see more
Prison City as well because again, like you said, even
though it's it's smack in the middle of the state, we don't

(21:50):
get, we don't see it that often around here.
I mean it's a 2 hour drive to from where?
We are, but I mean, there's there's further buries that we
get pretty readily around here. So I'm surprised that it doesn't
distribute as much as would be expected.
So yeah, let's get right into Escape from LA.
I'm sure there's a lot to talk about, so we might as well dive

(22:12):
in. What?
So I get we didn't actually talkin the intro.
You never saw Escape from LA, right?
You just kind of knew about it. And you?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mentioned that.
I've never seen it before. I I've been aware of it.
I've like, didn't some of the stuff like we'll talk, you know,
some of the scenes that people are very familiar with, but I've

(22:35):
never gone on my like one. It was never on TV, so it's not
like I ever caught it on TV. And two is somebody who is a big
fan of Escape from New York. And just with the reputation
that had, I didn't really feel like it was worth, you know,
just searching out. Yeah, because it, yeah, it

(22:56):
doesn't have a great reputation.And I think, you know, initially
the film itself, you know, it starts off, I would say, fairly
strong in the fact that it does seem very reminiscent of Escape
from New York. I think Carpenter does a pretty
good job setting it in the beginning of kind of setting the

(23:17):
tone for the film, setting up the idea of behind the the
change in location. You know, this time instead of
New York, it's LA. It's been separated from the
rest of the mainland by an earthquake.
And so it's now just an island that people are shipped off to,
much like ICE is doing currentlyto parts of the population.

(23:41):
It's it's great. Like so this is like the one of
the things that is really great about the movie, like the set
up, like again with Escape from New York.
The premise is very, you know, bare bones.
We just know it's a future dystopian authoritarian fascist

(24:01):
America because of what you get to see and experience.
Obviously turning New York City into a, you know, giant gulag
open air prison would hint at that, You know, in spite of down
Pleasants being such a wonderfulman.
But that being said, so like, here, they set it up and they

(24:21):
really go into it. And it's kind of funny to think
about it because, again, the film talks about the president
who was elected turned the country into a theocracy.
And he said LA is full of sod, You know, is the city of Sodom,
is the city of Gomorrah. And it deserves to be, you know,

(24:42):
a blight and then earthquake hits, a tsunami, it breaks away
and wipes them out. And if you commit moral crimes,
you are no longer a citizen of the United States and you are
deported to this hellscape land as the LA island.

(25:03):
It's a great idea. Like it really makes it more
nuanced. Again, we already know from
previous Carpenter films his like stance on politics, you
know, anti fascism, antique, youknow, in a kind of at first two,
I was laughing like the whole opening, like welcome to the
theater, you know, no talking, no red meat, no smoking, no

(25:25):
marriage outside the health department.
It's like kind of like a Dennis Leary bit where he's like, I'm
going to eat all the red meat and you know, smoke all the
cigarettes that I want. I don't give a God damn, you
know, but. Yeah, yeah, That doesn't come in
till later in the like till the end of the movie though, where
they kind of dropped that. Like, you know, they they talk
about at the beginning of the film like, you know, there will
be no sin in the United States. So, you know, which makes sense

(25:47):
because they at the beginning when you're seeing steak get
wheeled out with the procession of guards, like he's Luigi
Mangione. He's, you know, we, we see a
bunch of other people being basically deported as well from
the LA deportation area. And in that scenario, we see

(26:09):
them like you get to kind of tell the personalities that they
have. Like, you know, there's
prostitutes and they kind of talk about that too.
There's prostitutes, there's, you know, there's any, any other
people that they deem as unworthy within the the normal
population. Ungodly, yes, ungodly.
And they, they kind of run over the, you know, they don't say it

(26:32):
outright in carpenters, but we can imagine it's probably gay
people. It's probably, you know, any,
any other people that they deem as as poor in the eyes of
religion. So that's who they're deporting.
And they're just basically sending them all over to LA.
Whereas, you know, an Escape from New York, it was kind of
the worst of the worst people like, you know, the criminal,
the hardcore criminals that you would normally find in like

(26:54):
maximum security. And no, instead they were just
sending them over to, you know, within Escape from New York.
But. Bad, I would say badass is like
Isaac Hayes when he starts driving down the road.
That's not the soundtrack play, that's real pimp music just
coming out of the car 'cause he's such a badass.
And I guess the, the, the distinction here for, for LA

(27:16):
too, is that, I mean, there's probably a lot more people to
send over there from LA for one thing, because of just the, you
know, I think that's also kind of the wink wink of carpenters.
Like there's probably a lot of people that would fall into this
life of what they call sin within this, you know,
futuristic world. So they're sending a lot of

(27:38):
people over to LA and in that scenario, a lot of times
throughout the film, they kind of comment on the fact that
like, no, it's kind of cooler over here actually than than
living in the rest of America. The rest of America is kind of
square and and boring. Can't.
Get good ain't good St. Tacos.
Exactly. And over here, you know, we've

(27:59):
got vendors, we've got new metalmusic that you don't get over
there. How dare you.
That's not even new metal. Let's just really bad.
Punk like. Really bad.
You know, we've, you know, we'vegot, we've got surfing, we've
got, we've got all this awesome stuff.
And then, you know, along the way too, we've also got a little
bit of crime here and there. You know, what are you going to

(28:19):
do? You live free, you live hard.
So. I do love the fact that when
he's entering and they're like deporting people and they're
like, if you want to like, you know.
Like set up yourself. And yeah, yeah, like that's
fucking great. Like, you know, like it's a
stupid. Like thing not only that, but
people take them up on the offer.
They're like, because they show a few people being electrocuted

(28:40):
in chair. Now, it would be maybe a little
bit different if they were like,you know, we're going to be
instead of like a literal electric chair.
I kind of could see it being more like, you know, like sort
of electric shock therapy in terms of like how they used to
treat people in insane asylums. I was thinking more like, I
mean, like, it's, I mean, it's way over the top of these
electric chairs, but it kind of works with the film's kind of

(29:02):
style. But at the same time, I think it
would be better. It's like if you feel like you
want to repent and not go over to LA, get on your knees and
pray to God and maybe he'll accept you as to putting a
bullet at the back of your head,like, you know.
But again, the film doesn't havethat kind of grid that sorry, it
doesn't even come close to having the grittiness of Escape

(29:24):
from New York. It's very wrapped up in a mid
90s Sheen, that is. Very inappropriate and it's not
really nuanced either. For the most part, you know it.
It kind of lacks, again, like, whereas Escape from New York
kind of left things open-ended as to how the viewer might take

(29:48):
the idea of sending hardcore criminals over to like their own
area. I mean, of course it was
critical of that. But, you know, it, it, it kind
of left it open to the audience what to think about that here
that it's very clear, you know, that the audience is not
supposed to see this idea of sending, you know, any old

(30:10):
person that they don't agree with over to LA.
You know, it's it's it's a lot more in your face and I think,
you know, a lot of times that's what John Carpenter's doing in
this film. It's it's a lot more in your
face. No matter regardless of what is
being shown on screen. Like it's pretty much presented
to the audience in a way that's you can't really miss the
overall overarching meaning of it.

(30:32):
You know, there's no a shooing, you know, political stances or
anything like that. It's it's pretty clear.
And that's what's the thing thatreally bothers me about the
film. Like the set up on that idea
alone is like really good. Like again, it could.
Be the idea behind like the earthquake happening, LA being
separated. And like the like just the

(30:53):
explanation of the fascism and the theocracy and how that's all
working. Right, all makes sense.
All and it's all great, you knowyes and it's very you know
wonderful, but then you go down the rabbit hole and it's like
Che Guevara and like just over the top Steve Buscemi is your

(31:13):
guy to the stars and it's like. I do the.
It's like, again, the word that I would use from this film is,
and I've said to you, it's, it'slike an anachronistic because
again, it doesn't know, or at least I don't think it knows
what it wants to be. I think it wants to be all of
these things, but it just doesn't work.

(31:34):
And that original opening basically means nothing because
again, it turns into Looney Tunes like for 90% of the film.
So it's like in a world of fascism, Snake Puskins here to
go would stick a finger up someone's ass like it did just.
How do you so like I I agree. I think I agree with you for for

(31:56):
the most of that. I like the the idea behind the
opening of the film and how thatis presented, bringing Snake in
and kind of how everything does look sort of like Escape from
New York in a way and kind of follows along the same pathway.
You're not saving the president this time.
He's taking his daughter. Yeah, I mean, I think all that
works pretty well in my opinion.Like I'm, I'm cool with that all

(32:19):
the way up to there. And I think, you know, even
having Kurt Russell kind of a little bit more maybe hamming up
a bit. Yeah.
And expressive it snake, I mean,I'm still OK with that.
It's it, it obviously is a little bit more over the top
than Escape from New York, but I'm, I'm fine with all of that.

(32:41):
And I think it does set up a pretty intriguing premise that
works off of escape from New York and basically kind of seems
like, hey, remember Escape from New York.
Well, we're going to redo that again, but we're just going to
do it a little differently this time.
And I, I think if, if everythinghad gone well with that, I think
Escape from LA could have been apretty good movie by just

(33:01):
following those guidelines. But instead it really goes off
the rails throughout the movie. And I think it it, it suffers
from a lot of mistakes that occur where John Carpenter
relies on the audience sort of suspending disbelief and sort of
going along with the flow. And I don't think it works that
well once it get really gets into the ideas.

(33:23):
And I think you touched on that a little bit.
You know, again, the whole the, the set up is fine.
But when you really start to to get into the nitty gritty
details of what occurs when, when Snake gets to LA, that's
when things start to run afoul of the audience.
How do you feel? I guess we can go kind of go
through step by step as to like the encounters that Snake has.

(33:45):
Like how do you feel about Snakemeeting up with, with the
surgeon general of LA? You know who's who's played by
the the great Bruce Campbell. Let's say the.
Immortal Bruce Campbell. Apparently so, yeah.

(34:06):
How do you wait? What do you think about the the
surgeon general? I mean, that's kind of a, you
know, once he gets over there, besides a few run insurance with
like, you know, vagrants and things like that, that's his
first real encounter with any any.
It's great offensiveness. Yeah, it's great.
But the problem is it's Bruce Campbell's on the screen for
three minutes. And that's true.

(34:26):
Like it's literally like a one note beat.
Like he shows up like I'm the surgeon general looking like
Michael Jackson. And then like, you know, snake,
you know, puts a dart in his head and then he's out and rock.
I would have been cool with Bruce Campbell being like the
overall villain in this movie because I do think it has like a
nice yet like he is. He's great when he comes in and

(34:48):
he's he actually, unfortunately,he kind of steals the moment in
that scene because I think the surgeon general is a really cool
idea. I think it works really well.
Like again, so like kind of a sarcastic nod to LA and the
plasticness. Yeah.
And, and not only that, but all the women that he's been
reformatting look like, like MAGA face now.

(35:09):
And you know, like it kind of looks like Christy Noem and all
of those those people that are. How dare you?
Ice Barbie. She killed Crypto the dog.
Isn't that the funniest part about that?
The whole South Park? But if she's bitching up a storm
like I don't look like that. And she's not even commenting on
the fact that the show has her plugging like 40 different

(35:31):
puppies. Yeah, that doesn't bother, no.
Did you see? I would say did you see like the
Paramount plus ending where she like plugs like 20 dogs?
No, I didn't. She walks into a like a dog's
story this year, starts uploading at the store.
Like at the very end, like one dog sneaks out and she's fucking
pucks. Yeah, I mean, but I'll be

(35:52):
honest, I really think that the idea behind the surgeon general
is really great. I think it works really well.
Again, it's sort of like understated, but, you know, in
your face and and I think Bruce Campbell does a really great
job. It's just too bad he doesn't get
much more screen time than that.He's like, I think he would work
better as like he because he is like he's a sub boss, like a

(36:13):
henchman. But the fact like, you know, Che
Guevara, but they don't, you know, there's no tying to it.
He's just you know, and it's like, and that's one of the
things too, I hate about this movie.
I don't think especially in the 90s with this horrible, horrible

(36:34):
CGI job, even for 96 and green screen effects, LA does not look
like a place like you would evencare to do.
It doesn't have the same menacing and character, you
know, because an escape from NewYork, the city itself is a

(36:55):
character. It's that legendary 70s shithole
New York where you walk down thestreet and you're going to get
mugged and raped at the same time.
Whether that be true or not. It's like, you know, that's
Charles Bronson's New York here.It's just here.
It's just a fucking green screen, like, and like, you

(37:16):
know, there's no, it doesn't. You don't feel like you're in LA
except for the fact that, like Hollywood Pool, Sunset Blvd. and
the USC Stadium, you know, it feels very detached.
Yeah, it. Doesn't feel, I mean like a
character. Itself, that's I mean, it's not

(37:37):
to say that LA doesn't have its own issues that, you know, are
kind of pointed out similarly toNew York.
I mean, New York, you know, backin the late 70s, early 80s when
Escape from New York was createdwas certainly like a place that
people were heavily attuned to knew that it was a, you know,

(37:58):
violent, lawless place. Basically, criminality was
running rampant. LA in the 90s, you know, not so
much, but it still had its places.
You know, Skid Row, it's, it's got, it's, it definitely has a
character to it now. I don't know that most people
think of escape. Think of LA as some place like
lawless place. Well, back in, I would say back

(38:20):
in the 90s, like during like theOJ and Rodney King guy, it's
like I can see the connection there.
But in the film they don't, which I from what I've run
again, Wikipedia, what Kurt Russell said, like he was
inspired by, like, you know, theriots that were going on to
like, want to make this. Yeah.

(38:42):
I can see that. I mean, and I think that, you
know, they are one of the problems with LA though here at
at least in what they've done with the film, is that it's
somewhat faceless, right? Like, if they didn't tell you
this is LA, would you really know that it was LA?
Besides the fact that, like, youknow, they've got Beverly Hills
Hotel and, well. Again, like I, well, like I

(39:02):
said, like, because the fact that they're like, hey, look,
it's sunset Bullet. Yeah.
They have. To hey, look, it's you know,
it's the Hollywood bull it's it's and and just like again,
because it's a lot of it's greenscreen it just.
The problem is that it doesn't really have a a character of its
own to it and that in they do have to keep drawing attention.

(39:24):
And not only that, but like you said, the the really poor CGI.
Like one thing that I'm thinkingof in particular is that first
submarine scene with Kurt, you know, basically flying through
the the waters of I was. Thinking like gung like the
fucking gunggen shit from like episode 1 like why God we used

(39:47):
to going down to BC coding CD that's my jogger.
Impression, you know, and I mean, I think that's it's really
not, it's not good for one, but the CGI is is horrible.
But then not only that, like youhave these really kind of
cringey moments where he's like,Oh my God, he just he just drove
past Universal Studios and stufflike that.

(40:09):
That it just, I don't know, it just is really goofy.
And I I think that's, that's like far part of the first part
where it's going to really bringyou out of the film because I
think overall, like Stacy Keach really good in his role.
But I like that, like this sort of like set up for all of these
guys and why they're sending himin and the whole idea of like,

(40:31):
oh, this time you've been infected with a neurotoxin and
we've scratched you. Which by the way, I I do like, I
do think it works that they're so blunt like because again,
it's dystopian future. So the fact that they're like,
yeah, it's a virus. And then we can time it and get,
you know. Yeah, it's been.
That that works enough for me. Like it's not like, you know,

(40:52):
like what do you mean it works like that?
It's like the techno Babble there works.
So it's like it's a dystopian future under fascism.
Who knows? You know what biochemical
weapons they made wonderful. You know, I just hate though.
So let me ask you a question. Do you think this film is a
slight slight or a big bastardization of Snake plus

(41:17):
skin? Because he is a fucking idiot
for 95% of this film. I mean he doesn't he doesn't
really have the cunning that thefirst you know, escape from New
York. Snake has granted a man a few
words, but here half the time islike, yeah, like you fucking
retard, that's a hologram. And he's like, yeah, I.

(41:41):
Mean, I think that I think it's slight.
I I won't say it's because I do think part of the problem is
that they've just given him too many lines.
That's that's a that's a big part of it that, you know,
again, they wanted him to have that sort of like one liner
approach that a lot of 90s action films would feature is
like, you know, you've got to have the lines, the end that

(42:03):
like somebody might catch on to and create a catch phrase from.
And I think that the problem with that is that Snake is
really, like you said, from escape from New York is a man of
few words and that's on purpose.You know, you don't we don't
want to see the inner workings of his mind like literally
verbalized. And so I do think that's an

(42:24):
issue with escape from LA. We don't need to have him
creating catch phrases, things like call me snake and then at
the end call me please get like why?
Why it doesn't? Even.
Yeah, exactly. And that too, it's like it
doesn't really like those aren'tcatch phrases, John.
Those are just like. Well, I think also those are
like Kurt Russell, because Kurt Russell also did Co write the

(42:46):
film. So I think like he was probably
like, what if I said this? Yeah, I don't.
Yeah, I don't know about that one, Kurt, but yeah, I mean, I
do. I think that's a huge, but I I
think that overall I would say spite.
I don't think it it necessarily like Mars, the idea of snake
plus skin that you have, but it's certainly.
No, I, I, I, I don't say that, but the film I don't think does

(43:08):
a great job at like, you know. Making Snake look like the the
kind of guy that it tries to make him out to be.
Yeah, yeah, I think, I think it like, I think it just, you know,
it's a poor man's, you know, Metal Gear.
Speaking of the the neurotoxin, what do you think about that?
Because, you know, again, in thefirst movie he was on a timer,

(43:32):
but it didn't necessarily make him any worse.
Well, didn't he had like a bomb like it was a.
Yes, it was like, again, that didn't really make him like it
didn't make him fatigued, right?It didn't make him worse
physically. In this movie, he does have a,
you know, he has a timer and it does make him worse physically.
And I think that, that, you know, I, I kind of like that

(43:53):
inclusion of like, not only do you have a timer, but the longer
you go on that timer, the worse off you're going to be because
you're not going to be physically fit towards the end
of that timer. So I kind of like that idea of
what in a, again, it's, it's a short window too.
It's like what he gets like 9 1/2 hours like when he gets gets
off and gets into Lai, like the the whole like urgency that it

(44:17):
sets up. I think that works pretty well.
I I would say I, I would agree with that.
I think it's a good plot point, I think to kind of up the stakes
because again, it's like, well, you know, can't have you being
just, you know, all drunk home. Yeah, you got to suffer through
it the entire time, so. Yeah, I mean, I, I, I think that

(44:38):
works well. What it does do too is it sets
up that stupid basketball scene.Oh, Jesus.
Christ, basically, you know, once he once he captured a
snake, he's like, you know what you going to do?
You're going to play a basketball game and we're you're
going to you're going to play till 10 and we're going to see
if you can, if you can make 10 points on the basketball.

(45:00):
And it's like, I don't know where.
I don't know where this idea came from.
Who would think that in an apocalyptic future?
You know at that time in the future.
It was 2013 in the movie. I remember when this happened.
In fact, I remember watch Got NB.
C back yeah, right. We're well past 2013 now, but in
this in this apocalyptic future,a good idea for a you know, part

(45:24):
of this action oriented movie isto have snake Plissken play some
B ball on the court. I I don't know what where this
came from, but it's a really dumb idea and I don't think it
translates well in the film because the, you know, Carpenter
has to use like slow MO to show like Kurt Russell shooting
baskets. You know, it's it's so silly.

(45:45):
I. I almost think I I almost think
though is a Kurt idea because again, Kurt Russell was an in
also before he got into ACT well, he was a child actor, but
also to his dad owned an independent baseball team and he
played independent baseball. So I think it was like him being
like, let me show my skills. Just a physicality thing like
let me show off. I don't know.

(46:06):
I mean, I just think again, I. You expect something good like a
dunk or something. How does he fucking dunk?
He like the coolest thing he does is like he's like, oh, I'm
almost tired and he just throws the ball from half court and
like it goes in like. Yeah, I just, I love that last
part where he just hucks the ball like sidearm hucks the ball
and just like goes in it's. I do, I do.

(46:28):
I do like I it is stupid, but I do like the whole after
everyone's like die snake, die like snake, snake, snake, and
then they go to Steve Boucheri. Like what city of likes winter
like, you know, like? Yeah.
That is, that is funny. But again, like that whole bit
is fucking beyond stupid. Like it's a 10 minute waste of

(46:51):
time. Like remembering how an escape
from New York, like they had like, oh, we're going to have to
fight your way out. And like, you know, and this,
you know, cage match here, It's like, here's the real here.
Instead, it's like, here's a basketball.
Yeah. I don't know, I I just thought
it was, it's just a super silly inclusion.

(47:12):
I mean, and that's not the only thing.
An escape from LA where again you're like, oh, come on, come
on, John, what are we doing here?
You know another one is the fucking Hang Gliding sequence.
Oh, that's fucking horrendous. And you know, not only is it
paired with some really God awful CGI of them, you know,

(47:33):
apparently over the LA horizon, but also, you know, it's also
the the whole idea of them like doing this Hang Gliding, gliding
into the encampment that Cuervo Jones has and then, you know,
basically blasting everybody while they flying around on
their little hang gliders. They got cheat codes.

(47:54):
They got cheat codes in because they no one can hit them.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Because they're like sputtering
about in the air. Everyone's like, oh.
No, it should basically be just like skeet shooting, yeah.
Because they're literally like, just like like a leaf in the air
slowly falling down, like that'swhat they're like.
And it's just totally ridiculous.

(48:15):
But I know I don't, I don't get that either.
It's, you know, not well found out.
And then of course, we have. Sorry about the surfing scene.
Peter Fonda gets top billing because of the for his two
minutes of fame. Hey man, pretty gnarly out

(48:38):
there. It's going to be a big one.
I've just been sitting around waiting.
Everybody's, everybody's going to the to the other place.
Where do they call that? What's the like, what's the home
base that they call that? Oh, I don't know, happy, Happy.
Town or something like that. Everybody's heading over to
happy town. I'm waiting for this tsunami,

(48:59):
man. And yeah, no, it's, it's again,
I don't know where the ideas came from when they're like, you
know what'd be really cool? Snake Plisskins randomly surfing
a giant wave for some. Do you know what movie also had
something like that? Die Another Day, the James Bond
film, you know, in which it had the sky, the parasailing in then

(49:24):
into tsunami surfing. You know what wasn't fucking
cool either Then back in 2001? That shit like just like like
like it's so like just like again, like the, the tone again,
the film is so anachronistic because again, it starts off

(49:45):
hard with like this this, this time's the place what's going
on? And then for a satire, it just
leans like it's just you can't go like that hard in the opening
with like your your your politics and be like, by the
way, dank, dank, like, you know,fucking Miseru playing like

(50:09):
there's surfing. I don't know, I the surfing is
just that fall flat out ridiculous.
And again, you know, this is something that John Carpenter
should have laid out with the limitations of what they had
available to them because again,the the CGI is just terrible in
this scene. But I think I, I think the
problem is back like by that time, like at, well, it's in the

(50:31):
mid 90s, everyone's thinking like CGI is to cure all for
everything, right? So they probably were looking at
like, yeah, it's going to look, believe me, look a little bit
like shit, but at least looks better than what we could
probably do. Yeah, it's true.
It's true. I mean, I just feel like the,
the I, I can't imagine sitting down even in 1996 and seeing

(50:54):
the, you know, the CGI testings come in and saying, yeah, you
know what I mean? Let's let's roll it.
Because, you know, I feel like there could be a cut of Escape
from LA where all that CGI wasn't included and it still
would have been serviceable in terms of what they were able to
show. Because the film does, you know,

(51:15):
besides utilizing a lot of CGI, it still does have a lot of good
action oriented sequences and, and true explosions and model
usage. Like, you know, especially in
the beginning of the film with like the earthquake sequencers,
clearly some models being used there.
There are some, there are some good, sorry to interrupt, but

(51:38):
there are some really good when like they're not using the green
screen like matte pavings for like, yeah.
That too, Yeah. The matte paintings in the
background, I mean, those are pretty good and showcase what
could have been if they were like, you know what, let's just
cut all the CGI and let's just try to do it as physical as
possible, you know, and we'll, we'll go from there and the, the

(52:02):
audience will just accept that, you know, some of these
limitations were, you know, we couldn't do it and obviously cut
some of the Dumber stuff like surfing.
No unnecessary, just cut it likethis is completely, definitely
not needed. Stuff like that.
I think, you know, just making afew executive decisions would
have put Escape from LA in a much better place.

(52:24):
It wouldn't have fixed some of the major issues towards the
end. Like, of course, the whole idea
of Cuervo Jones is pretty awful.I mean, the, the, the, the way
that he's supposed to be Che Guevara.
And it's really just way too in your face.
Like I I don't not only it's redeemable really.
Was this it? Not only that, though, to they

(52:46):
don't like expand into like the politics like you can't go so
hard as like about like, you know, I'm not saying he's wrong
again, fascism, fascism, fascism, child theocracy sucks,
but you can't go so hard and be like, here's the enemy that's
attacking Cuervo Jones, Peruviancommie and then be like, that's

(53:07):
it. You don't get like, you know,
there's no there's no development there.
It's just like he's a commie. So he's the enemy, which in the
terms of the American mind, veryeasy.
You know, I guess, yeah. It's easy thought, but again,
it's not nuanced at all. Like, so like you got the

(53:29):
opening and then and then like this, it's like there's no
nuance. Where the hell is the nuance for
that one? And like, again, the film just
doesn't know. It's such a weird makes up.
It's trying to be they live. It's trying to be escaped from
New York, trying to be fucking Prince of Darkness.

(53:50):
It just does just like it's infuriating.
Like like because they had for like every good thing they do,
there's like 3 bad things. It's like when they lean into
the whole western thing, like when he's like, have you heard
of a Bangkok showdown? I'm going to throw the can.
And then when it's the ground weall draw and as he throws the

(54:11):
can and he shoots everyone down,he's like, guess I win.
You know? That's cool.
Does it do anything? No, it's just like like, oh,
that's like a cool little Western thing, you know, bit.
Yeah, Yeah. I mean, because again, John is
is really combining all the the genres that he's used throughout

(54:32):
his career. And again, like in the 90s, he
had this, you know, particular fascination with more Western
elements, which I think we see here, an escape from LA and then
really leading into stuff like vampires and ghosts of Mars,
where he really leaned into the perhaps a little too too much.
He leaned into the Western stylings.

(54:55):
But, you know, I think that there is the there is the corpse
of a of a good movie with escapefrom LA.
It definitely needed a lot more nuance.
It definitely needed. And again, I'm not we're not
saying like Escape from New Yorkwas particularly nuanced or not

(55:16):
over the top in some ways. You know, if you think about
some of the characters and some of the the the villains that
populated escape from New York, they were sort of over the top
as well. But I mean in AI feel like in a
more believable sense, I feel like the like immediately when
you see Cuervo Jones in that hologram, when the they pull him
out at the beginning of the movie and escape from LA, it's

(55:37):
just so ridiculously Che Guevarathat it's it's like, I mean, if
you missed that, I I don't know,man, you missed you.
You can't mistake it. And it's just a little bit too
tongue in cheek for Carpenter toinclude it like that.
And I don't know if that's partially George Coraface who's
playing it up way too much or ifthat's just how it was written,

(56:00):
but. No, I think it's more how it was
written, I don't think because again, that role, what are you
going to do with it? Yeah, I mean, and he's not even,
it's not like he's like super hamming it up or anything.
It's just. I do.
I do. And it and it like it is what it
is. Like what the fuck do you want
him to do? I mean, I do also think that the
film suffers from an overall lack of perspective on what the

(56:26):
goal is between Cuervo Jones andthe United States.
Because like again, they kind of, it kind of sets up a very
generic and not really well explained idea about like, well,
what if we had a like a special device that could control

(56:46):
satellites and we could EMP certain areas of the, the world?
So they just saw it. Just saw a Goldeneye, Yeah.
And. But it's, but the idea behind it
is not very well defined, so it's not really clear like what
is the United States really wantto do with this device?
Not only that though, too. Really want to do with this
device. Not only that though too like

(57:08):
again like why would you programa world ending one?
Yeah, yeah, right. Like, OK guys.
That would turn that would he EMP the entire world.
Like we, we did set up like individual ones, but for some
reason George over there, he setup one that can take out all of
the satellites. Like, is that a good idea,

(57:29):
George? Like no one's going to use it.
They'll never realize that the number code is 666.
I know, which again, it's very like, you know, just on the nose
like, you know. I the one thing too I love about
this device is that it has to bein some ridiculously oversized
black box that's not conspicuousat all.
So, like, again, the the whole setup of this movie is that the

(57:53):
president's daughter Utopia is in an area where she can steal
this black box. And it's like, why would you put
a device like this that you definitely don't want to draw
attention to in a gigantic blackbriefcase box?
Like, why not hide it somewhere like nice Halliburton.
Yeah. It's like, I don't know, I, it's

(58:15):
again, it's, it's a stupid idea,but I like, I feel like the, the
film does not set up the, the whole idea of like what will
happen with using this device that well, because it towards
the end of the film, the president makes it clear like,
oh, we've got, we've got enemiesstorming our borders.
We must use the device to like EMP them.
And it's like, really, where did, where did that come from?

(58:35):
Like all of a sudden. No, no, they, no, they said.
They said in the beginning like that they're about like they,
Che Guevara and his guys were going to invade America.
It just, it just doesn't. It's not, but again, it's it's
again, but again, it's just really like, again, stupid
because it's like commie and 3rdworld.

(58:55):
They're all just brown people, poor brown people going to storm
America. And it's again, there's an
opportunity for good nuance there.
And they just piss, piss and in the wind.
And I do love the fact that the president basically is.
It's Kenneth Copeland. That's great.

(59:19):
Yeah. So yeah, you know who that is?
Yeah. OK.
I do like that. But what do you think about
Snake basically putting mankind back until you know the the SO
age? Yeah.
Like, I mean, while I don't really think that the film has a

(59:40):
good nuanced approach to its ideas, I do like that.
I like that ending a little bit where he's got the match with
the fire. Like, you know, man finds fire.
Stone Well, it's funny. Well, it's funny too, because
like when he's getting all his tech, cool tech stuff and he's
like, what's this? And like they're like just stick
matches, never know when you're going to need them.

(01:00:00):
And at the end he smoked. He finds a pack, a soft pack.
American Spirits. Get up and he's sitting there
and he lights him up like American spirits.
No filter. Yeah, I don't.
This could be great. I definitely don't mind the fact
that he sets everyone back to the Stone Age, because I do

(01:00:20):
think that's in snakes characterand that snake really doesn't.
Again, if we think about from escape from New York, he really
doesn't He's he's not a guy who plays by the rules.
You know, I don't give a yeah interms of and for putting it in
CBS procedural terms. I don't play by the rules.
I think it makes sense for his character to not really be on

(01:00:42):
any one side. He's, you know, kind of
individualistic and he makes decisions brashly.
And I think that that. So he's a libertarian?
Yeah, maybe in some capacity. Yeah, it is.
It's probably so, you know, and I think that it makes sense for
his character. Is it a good or bad idea?

(01:01:04):
You know, I don't know. That's I think that's kind of an
ideological question and. I think in the world that he
lives and it's a good idea. It's a good idea because like,
you know, everything is so shit,you know, like you may even just
hit the reset button. Right.
And I think that's, you know, to.
Be fair though, I don't I I to be fair.
I don't understand though how anEMP knocking out all the like

(01:01:26):
how that works on the whole. Yeah, they're just like, like is
it, is it like temporary? Is it like I'm saying, I've
never heard, I've never heard ofEM PS being like a permanent
like not, you know, blackout. Shit, every fucking system
circuit is fried. Which is funny too cause again,

(01:01:48):
it's like who says back? It's like you already know how
to build like computers and stuff.
So it's like you can and like you know how to get power so you
can figure it out. Like you'd be back in no?
I, I think it's funny, 'cause like they act like there's no
technicians around, like they'vegot that, you know, the guy from
NASA, it's like. They sent them all to LA.
Yeah, they sent them. All to ask the guy from NASA.

(01:02:09):
It's like, do you, do you know how to turn, turn the
electricity back? I was like, yeah, of course I
do. Yeah, of course.
What are you fucking standing? Yeah.
I do think he's like, we'll havemy bail out there in no time,
like in the Home Alone. But yeah, it's it's it's I don't
really understand the EMP element of it either.
But, you know, it would be something different, I guess, if

(01:02:31):
they like crashed every satellite and I don't know,
something like that. But but the way that the film
ends, yeah, I don't see how it would be the, you know, reset
that they make it out to be. But, you know, I'm I'm OK with
it for the sake of the purpose of the storyline.
But, you know, I don't know, I feel like it's, I feel like it's

(01:02:53):
kind of a cop out to not have toexplain anything a little bit
further. You know, the people, people
hear EMP and they're like, I don't know what that is.
You know, especially for the 1990.
I don't know what is that? They didn't have Call of Duty
back then. OK, so then they weren't, they
weren't accustomed to hearing EMP in everyday language.
So. So they.
Yeah. Anything else?

(01:03:16):
Well, Pam Grier shows up here. As a trans woman, it's
wonderful. Very progressive Hershey with
the the little. Voice very progressive, yeah,
very progressive until Snake grabs her twat and was like.
Glad to see you're still packinga gun between your legs.
That's the thing too. Also that's like again like why

(01:03:39):
this film is so in anachronistic?
The whole constant referral to like Snake in Cleveland, like
that should have been like Escape too.
Like, like, you know how to fillin the back story, like what's
going on? Because it constantly like snake
pliskets slowed down since Cleveland.
Can you imagine though? I don't think it would have been

(01:03:59):
that well received. Escaped.
Leesland. You know, like that, that sounds
like an Italian knock off film. Is that where the Italians were?
Like what's a big city in the United States that people would
recognize? Cleveland.
All right, Cleveland, All right.Let's they had like one of those
like boards where they like spin, like, yeah, Cleveland,
Cleveland rocks, yeah. You know, rock'n'roll the Hall

(01:04:20):
of Fame. Yeah, I don't know.
Do you think do you feel like itwas like an attempt?
Yeah, actually I think the 90s may may have been a little bit
too early for that. But like, you know, you could
kind of see that being sort of like a comic series knock off
that they would do like, Oh, youknow, we'll we'll write like a
tie in series where Snake and it's it's you're in Cleveland,

(01:04:42):
something like that. It's called The Drew Carey Show.
Yeah, I mean, it's nice to see Pam Grier.
I don't know if she get get a whole lot to do in this movie,
but you know, nice to see her realize.
Again, she gets like Peter Fonda, like top billing and
she's in that for like 7 minutes.
Yeah, but it's fine. I mean, yeah, no, it's.

(01:05:02):
It's that she was never an escape from New York.
It's true, we've got a nice case.
It's probably, you know, probably Carpenter had had
nightmares about not including her an escape from New York.
And so I had to rectify that escape from LA.
I like the fact that her name's Hershey.
Not with AY though, like the candy bar, but missing Ayi get

(01:05:27):
it like 'cause it's like her shebut she's not she's trans.
It's a little play on it, but. In black, you know so.
Yeah, I mean, it's nice to see Pam, but not not her best work,
of course. It's not even Steve Buscemi's

(01:05:47):
best. Work.
It's true. It's true.
I mean, he's fun enough. He he adds a little bit of
energy to the film, but yeah, not his best work.
You know what his best work is, Hubie?
Halloween. This is That's true.
Anything else? What else?
What else are we talking about? Anything we didn't cover.
And we didn't cover this. The soundtrack, of course.

(01:06:09):
It is the Carpenter soundtrack again.
And Charlie Walker. Yeah.
And, you know, I think it's probably at its best when it's
just reiterating the escape theme, which.
Is the opening to us. Yeah, I mean, it's just always
been a very reman, you know, a very memorable theme, the way

(01:06:34):
that it plays out. What like, what do you think
about the other stuff though? It kind of incorporates a lot of
different elements. You know, again, we talked about
it a little bit. You you didn't like to call it
that, but new metal is in there a little bit.
Got surf rock in there. I.
Mean the end and end songs from white Zombies so.
Yeah, yeah. That's all I could think of.

(01:06:55):
Well, let's start playing like Jesus Christ, that fucking White
Zombie. It it I, I think it's not.
It's definitely not the best. Best work from.
For sure. No, no, he's definitely phoning
it in the whole like bluesy again, that's like one of the
things like it works, it's fine,but like the like when you see
the subtitles pop up like bluesyguitar band band and it's like

(01:07:20):
film's not western. If you, you should have just
made a goddamn Western out of itor like, you know, whatever the
hell, lean into one style. Like the fact that again, the
film is. And again, this film, the way it
plays and is written, should be like the fourth film in a

(01:07:40):
franchise, but it's a parody on itself.
That's like an unwanted, unnecessary parody of a film
that is well regarded in the name of why not so?
Yeah, All right, let's give Escape From LA a rating on a

(01:08:02):
scale of zero to 10 times. Bruce Campbell gets to grab that
woman's breast and say they're real.
By God. By God, they're real.
Which is funny, by the way, the 4K that you gave me, he's has an
interview on there. Yeah, it's 9 minutes long.
They couldn't be bothered to, like, be on screen.

(01:08:23):
It's by phone. Yeah.
Did you watch that or no? No, I, I mean, I, I have, but
like, like I said, it was a while ago, like whenever that
that Blu-ray came out, which wasa while ago.
Yeah, when you were, when you were viewed it for, Yeah.
Like like 10, yeah, like 10 years ago.
I I want to say yeah I think it did actually get a 4K and I
don't have it but probably should.

(01:08:46):
Still still looks great though. Yeah, yeah, the.
The Blu-ray looks good, but. Fantastic upgrades the film from
a lot. Yeah.
I would give I I would give it a5 1/2.
The film's not bad. It's not the desecration,
miserable piece John Carpenter work that's like the biggest

(01:09:09):
piece of shit of all time and but it does bastardize snake
plus skin themself. It's an OK film.
There are good ideas here. I think it's a film that's a

(01:09:29):
trap of its time in the 90s withits CGI, the pacing and overall
like you know, plays to like MadMax and other things.
It's a fun enough film. I don't think it's there's
nothing here that's overly overly offensive.

(01:09:52):
I think if you're a Carpenter ora Escape from New York fan.
But I do think it's just a incredibly generic action film
from the 90s with really bad CGI.
It's got some fun points, but overall it's not.
This film is pretty unmemorable and I don't I see I would like

(01:10:18):
to have seen like a more worthwhile effort from
everybody. But yeah, fire in half.
It's not bad, but it's it's definitely not anything I would
ever, ever recommend to anybody because it's just there's
nothing. There's nothing here.
Yeah. I would I would give it a. 6 out

(01:10:39):
of 10. I think I did enjoy it just a
little bit more than I did when I first watched it.
You know, I think it has a little bit of pulpiness to it
that I did enjoy. I think it's really over the
top. It certainly is not as nuanced
as Escape from New York and it doesn't have that gritty
atmosphere that that one does, which sits very well in line

(01:11:02):
with stuff like the Warriors from that time period.
Escape from LA is much differentand it does suffer from sort of
the 90s of Vacation of Things. You know, things had really
progressed at that point. People were heading more towards
CGI and I think that John Carpenter kind of got it in his
head that he could include some things that possibly were not

(01:11:26):
available to him at the time when he made Escape from New
York. I think it's that's kind of part
of the problem though. To try to try to modernize this
movie into what it is for with Escape From LA is sort of a poor
approach and kind of takes away from the elements that made
Escape from New York work reallywell.

(01:11:48):
I think the interesting idea about Escape From LA is it does
try to follow the formula of Escape from New York, which
works really well actually. And if they had done that in a
more grounded approach, I think the movie could have been a
pretty good sequel. But with the way that Carpenter
kind of went about it and included a lot of like really
goofy, hokey stuff doesn't always work out that way.

(01:12:13):
And although I think it's a pretty like, I don't know,
streamlined movie, I guess I would say at an hour and 40
minutes, I think there there's acouple of cuts that they could
have made here where it would have been a much more enjoyable
film for cutting out some of that excess CGI that was really
unnecessary. So overall, I mean, I think it's

(01:12:34):
it's an OK movie. I think it's as long as you go
into it knowing that it's kind of a over the top sort of kind
of parody of it of itself, then you might find it's somewhat
enjoyable to watch. And again, it's not Carpenter's
best movie. It's not his best work.

(01:12:54):
It's not his worst either. So I'll point that out and say
that, you know, for his 90s output, it's not too terrible.
And I think you know it. It does enough where it matches
some of the ideas of Escape fromNew York.
It just can't, you know, stick the landing all the time.
So and again too, Kurt Russell looking great in this 15 years

(01:13:18):
later, still looks great. This film still kind of ogles
him at times. You know, he's got that leather
suit thing going on that. So 90s, yeah, so horrifically
90s that like one piece leather suit he's wearing.
It does remind me too, of how like, restricting that probably
would be. You know, he's got like straps

(01:13:39):
around his legs. He's got a over like, you know,
full overcoat on like that does not seem like something that,
you know, if you're going to be hightailing it through LA trying
to, you know, get around quicklyseems really restricting.
And not only that, too, I like the fact that they keep calling
it like it's it's a heat sensor proof.

(01:14:02):
So like, but then he only has, you know, he has like cut off
arms. So it's like, by God, I only see
two arms moving around out there, giant biceps moving her,
you know, on the heat sensor. Just kind of silly sometimes.
But I I like the, you know, again, they said Kurt Russell's
still looking great here 15 years later.

(01:14:22):
His his snake. So overall, I, I enjoyed it
enough. So did it did what it set out to
do. All right, so that's escape from
LA. We got our last movie coming up
for red hot 90s action summer reloaded and it's it's a biggie.

(01:14:45):
Oh yeah, one of the the biggest 90s action sci-fi films of that
decade. So and I have only seen this
movie one other time very long time ago, which is.
Pathetic. Very.
We're also lucky it it came out at the tail end of the 90s,

(01:15:06):
nineteen 99. So we're lucky that it was
included in this this time frame.
But we're going to be doing the Matrix.
OK, wait, yeah, like I said, I've only seen it one other
time. Of course I know the whole and
actually I've never seen the sequels.
What? Jesus.

(01:15:26):
Never seen the sequels, should get that right out there.
I've only seen the Matrix, and Ibelieve I've also seen, at least
I think most of the Anna Matrix.I was going to say.
Yes, I have. I believe I've seen the Anna
matrix, but yeah, other than that it's it's been a really
long time. How?
Does it? How does it even happen?

(01:15:50):
I'm just saying they don't even understand how it happens.
It's a film that was so, so everywhere, inescapable.
I think it falls into that same meme of, you know, like if
someone who didn't watch Game ofThrones, then you must be
socially just retarded. No, not retarded, no, but you,

(01:16:14):
you, you cannot be influenced by, you know, your peers or
social social situations. You you are just immune to that
sort of thing because again, like.
I still need to watch it. Yeah, it's that, it's that idea
that like, you know, everybody was talking about it, everybody
was watching it and you were, you just, you sat there and
you're like check it out sometime and you just weren't

(01:16:38):
interested. I guess that's me.
That's me with the Matrix stuff.Because I like I said, yeah, I
did see the Matrix back when it first came out, but I did not
see the sequels. I actually even, I believe I
even owned the Matrix. Which one did I own?
I want to say it was reloaded. I think I I even owned it on DVD

(01:17:04):
but I just never watched it so. I can't wait.
We're going to have to do the other going.
To be fun, Yeah, it's going to be fun to do it.
But I don't even know that therewas another.
I forgot that there was that 2021 when they made the Matrix
resurrection. Still haven't seen it.
I kind of, I kind of refused to watch it.

(01:17:27):
Yeah. It's, it's it's nothing against
the Wachowskis. It's more just like I don't want
to. So you don't want to ruin the.
Well, the rest of the films kindof do that Well, I mean, true,
true. Yeah, yeah.
I don't, you know, it'll be fun because I, I haven't seen this

(01:17:47):
movie in a really long time, so checking it out again.
It's Mr. Anderson. Hear that?
That is the sound of inevitability, yeah.
It's going to be a good time. Can't wait to watch.

(01:18:08):
Yeah, I can't wait either. Mom, thanks for listening to our
episode on Escape from LA Hope you enjoyed Hold.
On Yeah, let's say it, say it, right?
John Carpenter's escape from. LA Thank you.
If you want to listen to our episodes coming up, including
The Matrix and also we'll be getting into the Halloween stuff

(01:18:30):
soon. I believe we have a theme
already picked out so. But if you have ideas.
Yeah, it sounds to us bye, but Ibelieve we already have a theme.
You'll you'll want to tune in and subscribe to us on any
podcast out that you use. We're on it our home base at
Spotify or Apple podcast. Whatever you use, subscribe,
leave us a nice review. We're on Facebook and blue sky

(01:18:52):
search for us on there blood andblack Rum podcast.
We have an e-mail address at [e-mail]
where you can write to us. Let us know what you like, what
you don't like, what movies you want us to cover, and we'll keep
that in consideration. And you can also donate to us on
our Patreon or Spotify pages. Anything you donate goes back
towards beer. Appreciate anything that you can
give our way. Thanks for listening to our
episode. Hope you've been enjoying Red
Hot 90s Action Summer Reloaded so far and we'll end it next

(01:19:15):
time with The Matrix. And until then?
Take care.