Does Escape From New York hold up?

Agreed, concept/atmosphere was cool. Pacing etc was awful.

It's my favorite John Carpenter movie, so yes.

I would say it might be hard to watch if you didn’t see it when you were younger or around the time it came out. It’s cheesy and b-movieish, but I like that stuff.

The only two options in this should be "yes" and "fuck yes, John Carpenter."

Also, go watch the everloving hell out of the original Assault on Precinct 13. Or just listen to the remastered theme. It's still one of the all-time underrated themes from a movie. Fuck, John Carpenter can make music.

Actually, kids, here's your homework. Get yourself a monster bag of popcorn, some Coke, and some Sno-Caps, then plant your ass on the couch and watch Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog (his version), and Escape from New York, in about that order. And when you're done, the next day watch Starman with your mom. Trust me. It'll be the best gift you've given her up until now, and yes, your cute little bullshit coupons for hugs are included in that. All right, off you go.

I still think it holds up; the kickass atmosphere and awesome music certainly help.

It's okay. As said, it has a decent atmosphere, but the story can get a little boring in my opinion.

It's alright. L.A. works better in my opinion, but Carpenter's done better than both.

Worth it just to hear Donald Pleasence shout "You're the duke of New York, you're A number 1!"

@sparky_buzzsaw: Ha! Spot on, dude. I was surprised how depressing Starman ended up being (the main music theme probably contributed to that a great deal).

But yeah, I would highly recommend those unfamiliar with Carpenter's work to start with Assault on Precinct 13 and go all the way through to They Live. But man, once the nineties hit... things get a little dicey, unfortunately.

It's his fourth best movie imo. Take the sage advice of @sparky_buzzsaw:

No, I watched it for the first time like 3 months ago and it is slow and meandering, the fight choreography is poor, and the effects are the same.

It's one of those movies where if you don't have nostalgia for it, it'll seem like everyone is crazy for liking it.

@patchcoat: Arguments can be said for some of the better moments of Escape from LA and Vampires (which I'm not sure he directed but was just attached to? Maybe?) but yeah, you could probably stop after his films in the eighties and call it good, with one small caveat. I recommend everyone listen to his music from the last five or six years. It's remarkably good, moody synth stuff.

It's good, but... I don't think it's held up too great. I don't know; it depends on you, really. I can watch old movies, even ones I haven't seen or that have a lot of cheesy parts, and still get something out of it, but some people can't. Either way, I think it's worth seeing.

Man, it's been years since I've seen it, so I can't say for sure. I feel like I remember it fondly, particularly for its music, but I've never been tempted to re-watch it despite owning the DVD. "Snake Plissken" is one of the all time great character names.

Action movies from the 80s really were a mixed bag of content, and that's never more clear than when you look at how they're paced.

I think Escape from New York has a lot more in common with something like The Warriors than something like Commando, even though it's much, much more marketed and remembered as the latter.

Absolutely. Kurt Russell, Ernest Borgnine, Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton all done on a tiny budget by John Carpenter. It's a masterpiece.

Yes, but don't watch Escape From LA

I just watched it for the first time last month and it's still a cool-ass movie. Cheesy as hell now and the tech is obviously outdated but damn if it isn't a great watch. Also The Duke's Cadillac is baller as fuck. Watch it.

I saw it for the first time just recently actually. It was cool in ways but I honestly came out of it not wanting to see the sequel or anything more from the franchise [having no idea if the sequel was good or bad keep in mind] other than thinking "maybe the next one will be better?

That one doesn't hold up as well as most other classic action movies I think.

The surfing scene in L.A. automatically puts it below New York

Think i saw it on netflix but I really want to know if Escape from LA holds up, i remember liking that alot. I didn't see New York until kinda recently and it was alright.

I saw it for the first time recently and I thought it held up pretty well. Are there some very 80s era action movie cliches in it? Sure, but overall I thought it was a fun movie.

To me the movie is a classic, but like anything, it's okay to not like things that other people like.

Side note: Why does everyone need to know if things "hold up" all the time? It is one of my pet peeves that this has become such an overused phrase. Things don't change, we change, it's okay to like things that may seem cheesy to others and even to you now.

Not at all trying to attack anyone or be a jerk, but I just don't understand why it seems like so many people feel the need to constantly reevaluate how they feel about entertainment that they have enjoyed before when discussing it with other people.

Anyway, Kurt Russell is a national treasure, and no matter what he's in we are lucky to have him.

I love Escape From New York!

Escape From LA is also quite awesome.

For me, John Carpenter at his peak is They Live and Big Trouble... but Escape from New York is quite good. It's a little more cramped and cheap than you might expect, but the atmosphere and music are on point. Years ago I was looking into obscure rap sub-genres and came across this mixtape that mashes up Carpenter's score with Lil Wayne. Here's one of the sickest tracks:

Besides the hilarious surfing scene I can't endorse Escape from L.A. Really bad writing and bad, early CG on that one...

One of the best action movies ever. End of story.

I don't like it as an action movie so much as a vehicle for Kurt Russell to act tough as nails in a light sci-fi setting.

Holds up in what regard? It's like asking if The Cat and the Canary holds up? Compared to what? By what metric? As an ultra-low budget genre film of the 80s, Escape From New York does just fine. If you wanted to compare it to something modern with a bigger budget, modern effects and sensibilities leading to the pacing that comes with those influences then you might not enjoy it.

I saw LA first and New York years later. I think I enjoyed LA more for what it's worth (although this could be the dumb teenage me talking).

So....not really? <shrugs>

I watched it for the first time about 7 years ago and, despite loving John Carpenter and Kurt Russel, didn't think it was a very good movie. It's slow as hell with no real action to speak of for it being considered an action movie. Not that there's nothing to like about it, but it is pretty boring by any standard. Escape from L.A. may not be as highly looked upon, but it's certainly a better paced and more entertaining film. Plus Bruce Campbell has an awesome cameo in it.

I remember having a great time watching L.A. It has that stupid basketball scene, surfing, and Bruce Campbell. Also, Pam Grier on a hanglider if I remember correctly. That happened, right?

Most of Carpenter's stuff holds up, except maybe Starman and that Invisible Man movie (I haven't seen either of them) and the Elvis tv movie. It's the remakes and reboots that don't hold up. Sorry Rock, you're no Jack Burton.

Escape from New York isn't exactly fun to watch as much as it is entertaining and interesting to watch. It's a great film from a film lover's perspective just because of how great it nails some nice technical aspects, like the great matte paintings, the lighting (that kind of lighting at night at the time was really hard to nail), long takes, and music. The story is pretty basic and simple but the performances give it a lot of weight. Plisskenn is such an asshole character that he's almost a parody of the popular action hero characters of the time. The guy sucks, but you can't help but like him because of how base his motivation is.

The entire movie is really great at setting a dark, dystopian tone and mood. I'd actually argue that it feels more like a noir film than an action film. A smarter person than me could probably make an argument that the film was an allegory on the state of society at the time, like The Warriors.

Escape from LA was amazing to watch after New York. It takes everything that was played straight and flips it. Plissken doesn't give a shit still, but the world also turned into not giving a shit. Everything is ridiculously ramped up to Metal Gear Solid levels of campiness. It's gone to "so bad it's amazing" levels. I hate it but I also love it.

Escape from New York is a movie you watch critically and enjoy because it's technically well done. Escape from LA is a movie you watch to laugh and just let your mind relax and take in the dumb (and I mean dumb) action.

Not really. I watched it for the first time within the past month. Some of the technical stuff is impressive for the time and pretty novel looking back on it, but otherwise it felt like a great premise in search of better execution or a bigger budget...as others have mentioned the pacing is weird, a lot of the action is underwhelming and uninteresting and none of the characters are all that compelling beyond some fun Mad Max-style aesthetic designs.

Big Trouble in Little China, which I also saw for the first time quite recently, holds up far better and is a much better modern watch. The more ridiculous tone and Jack's constant bemusement are really entertaining.

It's weird, slow, poorly acted and choreographed and the effects are terribly dated, but it's so campy and atmospheric, it's hard to put it down too much. Holds up? No. Worth watching. Definitely yes!

Escape from New York holds up.

Escape from LA does not hold up. I'm not sure it held up when it was first released even, but now it really doesn't hold up. It does have a couple really great single moments though.

Watched it for the first time last week. Yeah...I'm a big fan of Carpenter, and Kurt Russell, but without the aid of nostalgia goggles it's not a great movie. The pacing is awful.

Escape from LA is so campy that it's a lot more fun than the original. You just have to go in expecting that. If you're expecting it to be badass then you're going to be disappointed.

Hell yes

Depends on how you remember it. If you remember it as an action packed action film then...no, it does not. If you correctly remember it as an "of its age" thriller then yes it does.