Escape from L.A./John Carpenter's Escape from L.A./Escape from Los Angeles (1996) or, Snake Plissken in Crazy-World!

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+ Costliest Flop of the Year: 31.12 mil. $ range

Kurt Russell looks cool in the intense colors on this poster for John Carpenter's Escape from L.A.

Snake Plissken is back, this time in the year 2013, in which he avoids deportation by getting imposed an assignment by the mad president of the United States to capture his daughter and a weapon on the prison island that is Los Angeles.

Escape from L.A. is a colorful an very wacky sequel to New Yorker master co-writer-director John Carpenter's (Halloween (1978)) own great Escape from New York (1981). It features some early CGI, which looks curious today, and an exaggerated plot that doesn't reach the heights of the first film or another comparable 1990s sci-fi-action great like Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall (1990).
But Escape from L.A. does have its own kind of charm and a cast that contains several smaller scoops, including a scene where Bruce Campbell (Burn Notice (2007-13)) plays a crazy plastic surgeon, which is a favorite, and Pam Grier (Linc's (1998-2000)) playing a male-to-female transgender, (hadn't seen that coming.)
Escape from L.A. is co-written with Debra Hill (The Fog (1980)) and returning star Kurt Russell (Dark Blue (2002), actor). It is a noisy and nonsensical piece of super-kitsch. SPOILER Especially the film's ending is odd, as Plissken "bombs the world 500 years back" by turning off the power with a satellite.

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1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Christine (1983) or, Bad Plymouth!
Escape from New York (1981) - Carpenter introduces Kurt Russell as action star in dystopic dream
Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) - Solid action guerilla film-making

Watch an ad for the film from a VHS tape here - featuring creative marketing that changes the film's huge flop status by referring to it as a "25 mil. $ box office smash", - some 20 years after movies broke the 100 mil. $ mark at the domestic box office ...

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 47.2 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Escape from L.A. was released 9 August (North America) and runs 101 minutes.  The film was in development for almost a decade but was sped up by the 1992 LA riots, the 1994 LA earthquake as well as Russell's wish to play Plissken again. The budget was more than 8 times that of the original film. Shooting took place in California, including at Universal Studios, Texas and Miami, Florida from December 1995 - March 1996. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release Jack and hold-over hit A Time to Kill, to an 8.9 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell out of the top 5 in its second week, only played 4 weeks and grossed just 25.4 mil. $ (53.8 mil. % of the total gross.) Roger Ebert gave the film 3½/4 stars, equal to two notches better than this review. Escape from L.A. is rotten at 53 % with a 5.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Escape from L.A.?

American History X (1998) - Strong neo-Nazi repentance drama

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+ Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Crime-Drama of the Year + Best Los Angeles Movie of the Year + Career-Killer of the Year: Tony Kaye

 

Provocative and troubling, Edward Norton stares straight at us from this dulled B/W poster for Tony Kaye's American History X with his hand on his swastika tattoo

In the Venice area of Los Angeles, Derek Vinyard is released from prison after serving 3 years for killing two black robbers. His mission: To save his younger brother from repeating his own violent, hate-buoyed, neo-Nazi déroute.

American History X is a great film due to career-defining performances from Edward Norton (The Invention of Lying (2009)) and Edward Furlong (American Heart (1992)) in the central brother roles. Norton is dazzling at times and scary at others as the charismatic agitator and unfortunate rolemodel, and Furlong is perfect as the run-along, apathetic smaller brother.
American History X is a violent, shocking film, and it is loaded with scenes that are played to their maximum effect. It is also a strong and good drama, which has grown in reputation since its relatively small release to become a generational cornerstone film, and its high quality is only impeded by a few minor poor decisions in it.
The film is written by David McKenna (E-Ring (2005-06)) and directed by feature-debuting great English filmmaker Tony Kaye (Detachment (2011)).

 
Related posts:

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Top 10: Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Edward Norton painted as his character from a frightening moment in the film in the prime of his racial fanaticism

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 23.8 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.19 times its cost)
[American History X premiered 30 October (USA) and runs 119 minutes. Norton turned down a role in Saving Private Ryan (1998), gained 30 pounds of muscles and shaved his head, as Furlong also did, for the film. Shooting took place Los Angeles, California from March - May 1997. The production was beleaguered, as Kaye became so upset with script changes instigated by Norton and Furlong that he took out a Variety ad about it and then unsuccessfully tried to have his name removed from the film. - The Alan Smithee anonymous name reserved by the DGA for such instances was not granted, because Kaye had breached the rule that a director using the name cannot have spread stories of why he wanted the ghost name. His edit of the film was 96 minutes, but the studio and Norton were unsatisfied and took over. Kaye's rage then targeted the studio (New Line Cinema) and their edit, and he reportedly sued them and the DGA for misuse of his name to the tune of 275 mil. $, a suit which was rejected in court in 2000. Kaye disowned the film and was marked in Hollywood for his behavior, which strongly limited his future opportunities. The release was delayed due to all of this but eventually opened to a 156k $ first weekend in 17 theaters, peaked at #13 and in 512 theaters, grossing 6.7 mil. $ (28.2 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. The film was nominated for 1 Oscar: Best Actor (Norton), lost to Roberto Benigni for Life Is Beautiful. IMDb's users have voted into the site's Top 250 list at #33, sitting between Interstellar (2014) and Psycho (1960). Kaye returned with 4 video and documentary projects before B/W war movie Lobby Lobster (2007), which nearly no-one has seen. Norton returned in Fight Club (1999); Furlong in Detroit Rock City (1999). American History X is certified fresh at 83 % with a 7.33/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of American History X?