The Reel Rejects - ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) MOVIE REVIEW!! First Time Watching

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Starting point is 00:01:16 Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts, and savings, and eligibility vary by state. I assume this one's intense, so we're engaged in the resting watching pieces naturally. Like, who knows what may occur? Why do we have to escape? But we're about to find out. So thank you to prep, thank you to the patrons, the sexiest of all the rejects.

Starting point is 00:01:37 And without further ado, oh, yeah. Let's get into this in three, two, one. Oh, man. Oh, man. No. Oh, my God. He doesn't want anyone to find. Wow.

Starting point is 00:01:57 Jesus. I love the nihilism of not trying to barter with it, not asking for anything, just done. And that we're just right into the credits. Oh, my God, dude. Snake Liskin. Everybody. All right. Oh, season, hopefully was the girl in chalk full of nuts.

Starting point is 00:02:15 All right. Man. Frank Doubleday was Romero, which I have to imagine was a Romero nod. Oh, Cronerberg. Wait, Ronum, Rubber. Yeah, there's a Croner, so there you go. Man. Oh.

Starting point is 00:02:27 Oh. That was intense. My goodness, gracious me. What a movie. If you guys are listening on Spotify and iTunes, we have just wrapped our first ever viewing of escape. We did it. From New York.

Starting point is 00:02:39 We got the tape. We got the tape. We destroyed it because we don't want nothing from nobody. What you're seeing here. It's totally just something else. We don't even know what it is. We ripped it up. That was, you know, it was a really different movie

Starting point is 00:02:53 than everything I expected from the tiny, but I knew about it. I knew the Metal Gear solid elements of, like, what it informed. I knew action movie. Okay. And I knew, or thought action movie, I guess that's wrong. And I knew that it was a movie. Oh, shit, John Moyo.

Starting point is 00:03:09 Sorry. That's okay. His kids, Ashton and Monette. We did an improv comedy with them, Greg and I, Fray. Oh, that's awesome. John used to hang out outside the theater. It's a stuntman that crushed in this. And the third thing I knew was that it was like a ticking clock

Starting point is 00:03:26 element only because, like, I heard this is one of the best ticking clocks in movies. That's kind of the context I had. All of those things made me think, like, equalizer action, or like, I thought it'd be like an action thriller, but more than modern sense of like, you know, a lot of explosions

Starting point is 00:03:42 really well lit. Like, New York would be like, diehard New York. Sure. Like, especially like Die Hard 2 uses New York as a setting. I thought that would be this movie. I love that this was a horror movie that had action elements. Yeah, right? Like, it was horror movie without gratuitous murdered there were murders but it was shot like a horror movie it was

Starting point is 00:04:01 it was paced like a video game it was super inventive and it's dystopian stiff uh it was so much more versatile and that's not an insult to those fun action movies but this wasn't an action movie that felt like the era was kind of playing around with doing that it did however do some of my favorite 90s and 80s action movie things like the injury of the lead um the very stoic doesn't speak a lot like this did feel like a McLean Riggs like all those this era of like man stuff

Starting point is 00:04:32 what a blast absolutely yeah I feel we probably had a similar experience because like I've have you seen a lot of carpenter can you name some they live you know obviously like Halloween not that's much like this I've seen Halloween when I was a kid

Starting point is 00:04:48 okay so I haven't seen I don't think I've seen a lot of carpenter I thought I'd seen a lot of Kronomberg because people use Kronenberg as a verb. And then I watched the fly and I was like, I only know that people make gory body horror, but I don't know if I'm actually seen any because I was like, what a brilliant Blabobon. He was like, yeah, it's Kronenberg. And I was like, maybe I don't know. So I feel like I got the same with Carpenter. Like I'm like, I know him because he's a legend, but I don't think I actually know his work. Yeah. No, like this definitely took me by surprise. And, and I guess

Starting point is 00:05:16 the more Carpenter flicks I see, the more I'm like, okay, I'm starting to kind of understand that this a lot of them have a really great sort of imaginative high concept you know seed at the root but like his just his pacing and eye for direction is one that is very deliberate and that always takes its time and i'm sure that like you know depending on your investment in the movie that will translate to like whether or not it'll be slow music and lyrics by nick castle really everyone's going to new york that's fun i was wondering if they maybe yeah just did that as an original um yeah so it's like I've come to notice that yeah he's certainly a deliberately

Starting point is 00:05:55 paced filmmaker and a lot of his stuff but yeah this absolutely kind of had I didn't know quite what to expect in terms of like how knowing or big trouble and little China is another one with Kurt Russell where like that's like I react to that one yeah it'll go up someday

Starting point is 00:06:11 we've been sort of finally getting to a place where we can shoot a little bit more in advance right so yeah we have a few things in the can but that's another movie where like that movie is a little bit more much more campy going for cheese. That helps inform what I thought of this one after seeing it because I now I'm putting together expectations.

Starting point is 00:06:27 Yeah. Because that's more action pace. And that movie has a bit more of that like cool action guy thing whereas this is like Snake Pliskin is like your quintessential badass in so many ways. He's trapped in a horror movie. He's laconic. Yeah but he is trapped in this yeah suspense thriller horror scenario where like you're using like we were pointing out a lot of that imagery of a zombie movie or of some kind of just creeping suspense thriller and yet it's all just people and it's all just

Starting point is 00:06:55 you know a race to a destination and then you realize that yeah so many of the cinematic elements of so many different like vastly different genre scenarios come down to a lot of the same nuts and bolts and I love that kind of thing that you have where I love movies that are like secret horror movies or like this isn't like selling you a horror movie but it is absolutely using that language and that tonality and I think there's something about like John Carpenter movies have a timbre

Starting point is 00:07:26 of score especially that is very much akin to this that is very much that sort of like pulsing building you know it's not always in your face and it's not always like moving real fast and it's not always even like using a bunch of sound even sometimes it's just a warble or a drone but it's

Starting point is 00:07:42 always kind of adding to the sense that like things are creeping in and it's consistent The score is from, like, minute one. Like, it's a full part of the experience. I really love that. And I totally agree. Like, I know very little about him.

Starting point is 00:07:54 I know Halloween, he did the score as well. And I know he writes comics, because I've met about comic stores. Sure, yeah. I literally have, I think I've met John Carpenter twice and talked about comics. And now I'm realizing that that was probably a relief for him because everybody knows his work. Yeah, if you meet John Carpenter and you talk to him about comics, video games are the Lakers, I'm sure he'll be totally jazz. Because we have, like, great conversations. And now I'm realizing, like, I couldn't have.

Starting point is 00:08:17 talked about his movies because I would have just been like Halloween was nice because I saw it as a kid and I hadn't seen his other stuff yet but what I loved about this was it was it was based like almost like a 70s film sure and it was set and it was set in 97 and yeah and the frame which is locked but I'm seeing now it's filmed

Starting point is 00:08:33 in 81 which means it was filmed in 80 it came out in 81 between those filmed in 80 and so you're still it's effectively a 70s movie yeah you're still carrying over so much of that language because your inspiration is from the 70s that's that's the tone of the world at the time and this is like right after Halloween because Halloween was like 79.

Starting point is 00:08:48 And then what? Big Troubles, like 84? Something like that. And then you have, I think, if they live is also like a mid to late 80s again, which is a great, great movie worth seeing at some point. Yeah,

Starting point is 00:08:59 that's one of my favorite on-screen fist fights of all time, which is so, like, it's so grimy and kind of hilarious. And I don't want to say too much about it. Yeah, I will end up watching it. That's a fun movie, too. Also interesting commentary, timing-wise,

Starting point is 00:09:16 like 81, like we were in kind of a heading into the not peak rah-rah America but certainly approaching it and so like to have the commentary with the president I know people hate when I get political on these and I'm not going to be political I'm just going to be acknowledging of well I'll be a little political

Starting point is 00:09:30 you're going to be acknowledging art shouldn't be political according to people that don't understand everything is political well if you're making something about feelings you should have no feelings when you make it listen though that's the trick here's the thing you shouldn't care I don't want to burst anybody's bubble but I think John Carpenter will be the first person to

Starting point is 00:09:47 you that he'll be the first person to be out here like oh yeah this is what we were trying to say like you know yeah like he is definitely and and they live certainly has a lot of that too it's about like this working class guy who is you know just like working job to job rolls into town and then uncovers you know this sort of horrific sci-fi classist scenario that got mad at me for talking about the politics and alien were so funny because like i mentioned trickle-dine economics which is very much reganomics but regan was president after the first alien, but the first alien

Starting point is 00:10:18 was a commentary on a institution that Reagan became popularized for. So everyone was like, well, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about because it's 1976, and we're trying and I was like,

Starting point is 00:10:26 but the concepts guy, it's like what I'm trying to tell you, I'm using the parlance of the times. And I feel like this was an interesting thing because it wasn't of the time. Like, I feel like this was ahead of its time. Sure. I feel like a lot of the commentary in this

Starting point is 00:10:38 isn't someone reflecting what people feel in the popular culture then. It was what Carpenter felt. Carps is always, to my eye anyway, to my novice eye has always been a bit ahead of the curve because certainly they live to keep

Starting point is 00:10:54 bringing it up is another of his movies that people often point to and go, this just keeps accumulating relevance as time goes on and he's I think even been vocal about like, it's not that it's gotten more relevant, it's just people are more aware now and it's easier to see that these things are happening and so yeah, I thought it was really fascinating

Starting point is 00:11:12 that you come into this situation with again, it's not two in your face about how it's portraying us a couple moments of like that is a statement yeah and everything feels very deliberate and yeah it's like you've got this guy you've got your quintessential badass which

Starting point is 00:11:28 you know is a trope that flirts with fascist ideology anyway but he's being leveraged into this position by the powers that be and he's sent to go into this prison state to rescue the president and they're like using him manipulating him and sort of strong arming him the whole time

Starting point is 00:11:44 and then you have the president who is like portrayed as not a very heroic he's not like a cartoon but he's not portrayed as being particularly heroic or noble no problem with everyone else dying he put him out in a literal edge like he hung him like bait like there's enough moments of him being entirely selfish yeah yeah and just not somebody who's who is the best of us or who exemplifies you know like the spirit of what we think american exceptionalism is supposed to be and then you have a bunch of, you know, there are obviously a lot of white folks in New York here,

Starting point is 00:12:19 but it's like Isaac Hayes is the leader, is the Duke, is the guy who is trying to, you know, stage this big... I was wondering how the finale was going to go down because he's like, he's the guy trying to stage a liberation for all the prisoners to some extent, which seems like very pointed casting, which seems like a pointed

Starting point is 00:12:35 thing to do, and then to have him at odds with Snake, and you get it, because Snake is just trying not to have his head blowed up, and then for them to come back around and freeze Snake right in the middle. He doesn't even kill him. He's just trying to get out. And then the president comes in when he's back to a position where he has maximum power and is at the least amount of risk. He's above him. And he's the one who stops, who puts snakes life in jeopardy by

Starting point is 00:13:00 stopping the weed. Killing the guy and takes his power away. And repeats, you know, this line that was used to, again, like, it's not good that they tortured and demoralized him. And it's like, in those moments, you do feel sympathy because you're like, goddam's poor guy. Like, you know, Anybody in that situation outnumbered by, you know, these feral, you know, prison colony people, you know, you would be a shell of yourself. But at the same time, yeah, it seems very pointed. And then after all that to come back and be like, hey, I just want to know, you know, like, how do you feel about all this? And Snake, I feel like it was giving him the same chance we wanted to give him. Like, I at that moment with the tape, and that's the only reason I think I piece together the tape thing is because I was wondering what he wanted out of the present that he didn't get.

Starting point is 00:13:42 And then I realized, like, he would only do that if he had some leverage. And he really did that was, like, a reward. Yeah. And that was genius. And I love the two cassette decks in a car so we could have that moment of maybe. Like, that established something so genius. It's a great moral twist. Deliberate is a great way to describe Carpenter from the little I've seen.

Starting point is 00:13:56 Because I love that he just sets up shots, lets things walk into friends. Like, everything is a choice. So I don't feel like that ending could be anything but deliberate. 100%. And it's like, he gives him the chance. And it's like, you have that early moment with the president where he says, I can't remember what the line. is they're putting him in the escape pot and he says

Starting point is 00:14:14 some kind of address about like you know He says like God bless me or something. God bless God be with all of you and you know I, to the effect I am going to escape now God be with all of you. It was me and then good luck. That's crazy. That's sort of scared like oh I'm important so I'm going to get saved and get out of here and all with you are going to

Starting point is 00:14:32 and later. And that's one of those things where you're like okay this feels like a little bit of a less than heroic moment but who knows and then you get to the end and that's paid off and that's yeah. And I can be wrong. I wasn't alive in 81, and maybe there were populist ideas that were anti-government and anti-presidential.

Starting point is 00:14:50 And anti-prison states. There certainly were anti-prison states. I know there was conversations about the prison industrial complex then. Yeah, and policing and racism. And I don't feel like there were movies in 81 that had this statement that I can remember. So, like, I'm sure the chat is already correcting me, but it definitely felt like a swing for 81 to me.

Starting point is 00:15:07 Yeah. Because I do, I expected the anti-prison commentary. I didn't expect the anti-prison. authority in the presidential sense. The whole like the system is all skewed and out of balance and what is the humanity of any and all of this. Because Rambo really impressed me because it was like making some swings and

Starting point is 00:15:24 commentary and I felt like I had heard that though. Like when I thought Rambo was like some people didn't like that Stallone made it and they were like oh it's anti-American I'd never hurt like so I think of it's pro-veteran it's anti-the-American system that neglects you know the people it asked but a lot of people saw that as anti-American

Starting point is 00:15:42 in there. So that's why I'm surprised because I thought I would have heard like people mad at Kurt Russell or John Carpenter or like any of those things I had heard about Stallone. Yeah. So I was really impressed at some of the swings and like some of the, I like when art has something to say and it also is cool. This movie was cool. Well, that's, that's, that's, that's, he had a snake

Starting point is 00:15:58 trouser. That's what's truly beautiful about this and and again, something like they live or various other Carpenter flicks is, yeah, A, it's made in such a way where you're like, this has a great sense of pace and tone. It's, yeah, it's moving. not too fast, not too slow, and partly I can tell,

Starting point is 00:16:16 that's probably economical, and they're probably doing their best to put everything on screen, which is smart, but at the same time there's a high concept, it's cool, it's thrilling, it's a little tense, and there's obviously Kurt Russell is such a badass, and yet you have just enough of

Starting point is 00:16:32 what the actual theme of the story is and the theme of the world and why we're in this dystopian future, and yeah, it's like the full package, and I get the more Carbiner I see, the more I understand, why people revere him as a master because at the outset you see one, maybe two and you're like, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:48 good, good, great movie maybe but not the flashiest, not the most in your face in terms of like, oh, we're whipping around, we're doing crazy effects like, except for the thing, obviously. But even that is like pretty stable and steady and gradual.

Starting point is 00:17:04 So I've seen Three Carpenter now. Sure, yeah. The thing, all on the show. And the thing, I mean, is another, is less I think overtly political, but even that has a lot of, you know, paranoid, you know, sort of like, you know, you're at this outpost full of just kind of, again, working guys, you know, for just researching, even though you are at some kind of science facility. It just feel very blue collar and stuff like that. And so, yeah, like, it's, I do, you watch stuff like this, and I think it's probably easy for

Starting point is 00:17:31 people to get mad because it's easy maybe to miss some of the more fun. Or if they had Kurt Russell kill Isaac Hayes at the end, I feel like the message would be that much muddier, you know? Like, I feel like that would have been a choice. different movie might have made or her or yeah if she had killed if she yeah which i felt like was the revenge for brain and i thought that was what was coming and that would have been the regular movie choice yeah them making it the president was the choice oh there's so much yeah there's so much you can say about these and at the same time it is like a simple straightforward got to go in fetch quest video game you know ticking clock movie yeah oh there's so many great things well we're going

Starting point is 00:18:04 to tear up the tape on this one we're out of here for now if you want us to watch escape from LA let us know in the comments below and share this video far and why because if this gets numbers we will escape from LA together I would love it I would love it and that's our city oh this is such a joy this is my favorites this is one of my favorite reactions we've done this is a real good time and I really want to see some LA landmarks in like mid 80s so please watch this video if you're at the end you probably have but please share this video please comment please like all those things much love reject nation we'll see you soon hopefully for escape from LA Bye, guys.

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The Reel Rejects - ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) MOVIE REVIEW!! First Time Watching

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