Escape From New York

I've always respected Kurt Russell. I think what's most remarkable about him is his ability to don the eyepatch in so many movies, he turned "Kurt Russell eyepatch movies" into its own genre (Escape From New York, Escape From L.A., Captain Ron).

He's also a hilarious badass (see Big Trouble in Little China)

Escape From New York stars Kurt Russell as Solid Snake-- I'm sorry, inmate and veteran "Snake" Plissken, as he tries to escape from Manhattan island, which is now a giant state penitentiary because the U.S. government isn't smart enough to put all those prisoners ANYWHERE ELSE in America. Seriously, they just gave Manhattan to a bunch of prisoners and put a giant wall around them.

Needless to say, the movie is ridiculous, but I really liked it. It wasn't even a particularly smart movie. It could have done with better acting, more intricate sets, a more fleshed out world, but it did have a fun tone, the always terrifying Ernest Borgnine, and the awesome Lee Van Cleef (the "bad" from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly). It's post-apocalyptic/dystopian, which I loved since I'm always looking for more movies like The Road Warrior.

This is Snake Plissken, the main character in this video game-ish movie.

I recently had a conversation with my good friend, and we were debating which was the better medium: T.V. or movies. I fought for movies, while he argued that shows are better because they allow for more character development (which, in my opinion, is usually for the worse since most shows just drag on for way too long for ratings, not caring so much about character development, but overly-convoluted and/or uninteresting plots).

Then I thought about what this movie would have been as an hour long show. The first episode would be all about the American president getting his plane hijacked (this happens in the way beginning, I'm not spoiling anything). The second episode would be all about Snake Plissken having flashbacks about in his war days as he's being transported to Manhattan penitentiary. The third episode would be about Snake deciding whether or not to work with the United States Police Force (that's what they're called in this universe) as he remembers the bank heist that got him into prison. To give you an idea of how long this would drag on, this all happens in the first fifteen minutes in the movie, but would have taken three hours if it was a show. Do you really need that in your life?

You tell me.

The point is this: Escape From New York is a fun adventure movie, and although it's not a comedy in the traditional sense, there were moments in the film where I found myself laughing and cheering for certain characters when they did certain things. That's always good.