Escape From New York (2018 Restoration)
In Escape From New York, the President of America’s plane has crash-landed in New York, which is now a walled-off maximum-security prison. With the clock running on nuclear armageddon if he isn’t rescued, they need to send somebody in to get him out. Enter Snake Plisskin.
…With its deliciously, don’t-give-a-damn-ending, this is a film that should be enjoyed in the remastered version on the Bluray.
From the dynamite casting of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly‘s Lee Van Cleef against a career-best Kurt Russell who sells a hairstyle that only he could still make cool, this is a movie brimming with distrust and pent-up aggression. Add the dependable presence of You Only Live Twice‘s Donald Pleasance as the president, Harry Dean Stanton as ‘Brain’ and Isaac Hayes as the Duke of New York and the post-apocalyptic colours are already numbered for you.
Whilst Australia had Mad Max, John Carpenter gave the US an anti-hero that was never a sell-out in Snake Plisskin (yes, I’m overlooking Escape From LA here). With its deliciously, don’t give a damn ending, this is a film that should be enjoyed in the remastered version on the Bluray.
Yep, given the same treatment of the Jaws re-issue, the 2018 remastered and digitally polished negative positively burns its way out of the screen with a beautifully lustrous quality. Add to this the chiming synth score by John Carpenter himself and the typography to match and you arguably have (outside of The Goonies) have the only movie that the Duffer Brothers needed to look at for their Stranger Things.
You can check it out on Amazon Prime, hunt down the basic Bluray or dig deep for the 2018 brand new restoration – I know which I’d favour.