When I watched this movie on big screen, I have still not seen the original, Escape From New York. On top of that, I was not even a fan of Kurt Russell, yet. I know of John Carpenter only as the dude who directed some of the cult horrors and has a TV show with his name. I just walked in looking for fun.

Once I am in, after the credit started rolling, I was hooked. "Snake" Plisken (Russell) is back. This time, the President (Clift Robertson) has lost a small black box that can control all the electricity source in the world to his daughter, who joins a crazed revolutionary called Cuervo Jones (George Corraface) in LA. The problem, now, is LA is the land of misfits. It is inhabited by the criminal types, plastic surgeons, teenage mothers, atheist, prostitutes, etc, etc. Well, to put it mildly, the very populations of present day LA gets to be there, but separated from USA with police guarding the borders.

This time around, Snake is scratched literally and gets a virus implant which will kill him in twenty four hours. He got to go inside LA, retrieve the black box even if it costs the president's daughter's life and escape from LA. You know the job will get done. But you want to watch how he does it. And boy are we in for loads of fun!

I find this movie to be better than the original. In fact, Carpenter had better budget this time and saw the reaction of fans over the time when the original slowly became a cult favourite. They all liked the camp elements, the humour and the extreme political incorrectness of the protagonist. I believe Russell, a libertarian by political belief, also saw this as a chance to project a little bit of his cynicism on screen. This time he is also in as the scriptwriter. The president is portrayed as a bible-thumping fundamentalist who is also a hypocrite. The whole of LA is portrayed as what it is in an exaggerated form. In fact, it is shown in post earthquake environment, perfect in its futuristic vision of ruin and destruction. Carpenter takes delight in showing Hollywood, especially, at its worst. Watch it and you will know.

Like Carpenter's other collaboration with Kurt Russell, Big Trouble In Little China, he mixes sci-fi with any other possible genre, with exceptions to fantasy...perhaps. The result is an almost comic-book like, surreal adventures of one of the most anti-heroic heroes of Hollywood. In short, you are in a different world. Imagine the diving in the sea and managing to catch a glimpse of places like Universal Studio, underwater! Its a dreamworld on acid.

It must have been this movie that made me a Kurt Russell fan. I want more sequels. Too bad, Russell is getting old and it may not be appropriate for him to be back as Snake. He is very well assisted by a stellar cast like Stacy Keach (loved him as TV's Mike Hammer), Steve Buscemi (another strange dude role), Valeria Golino (sweet, sweet sacrificial lamb), Cliff Robertson (perfect parody of the republican presidents), Pam Grier (beautiful as ever, but is a transexual here) and Peter Fonda as the ageing surfer, who has not lost the 'hippie" qualities so profound in the days of Easy Riders. Love this movie. Love it to bits.