The original movie “Escape From New York” wasn’t brilliant but it was enjoyable, however “Escape From L.A.” is a shameless rip-off of the first that basically amounts to a pointless sequel and more importantly a pointless film that should most likely be skipped.

In “Escape From L.A.”, the President’s daughter Utopia (A.J. Langer) has been brainwashed making her take a doomsday device to L.A., which after an earthquake has drifted away from the mainland of America and has become a place to send undesirables (exactly ike how New York is a prison in the first one). The government send in Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell “The Thing”) to retrieve the box and kill the President’s daughter before a war starts so as you can see it’s virtually identical to the original.

Kurt Russell is once again alright as Snake Plissken. I disagree with the statement that Plissken is one of the greatest film characters ever devised (something I’ve strangely heard quite a few times). Steve Buscemi (“Reservoir Dogs”), Cliff Robertson (“Spider-Man”) and Bruce Campbell (“Evil Dead”) all make appearances but fail to be anything special. The worst character is a hideous man/woman named Hershe that serves no real purpose whatsoever. Just like the original the film fails to succeed in the acting department.

“Escape From L.A.” may change details but it is the same film as “Escape From New York”, which is very surprising seen as it was done by the same director (John Carpenter “Halloween”). It’s not just bad because it is the same as the original but it’s because it just does everything weaker than “Escape From New York”. The movie lacks the clever craftsmanship of the first movie that depicts several forms of culture in the society of criminals but everything in this is a cheesy and as stupid as it comes but without actually being funny. Sure there are plenty of explosions and a hysterically idiotic ending but aside from that the film is a bomb.