Paramount, out now

Sixteen years after surviving New York, Snake Plissken is forced into another mission…

Kurt Russell seems to have been the driving force behind this return for Snake Plissken, some 15 years after his debut in Escape from New York. That 1981 movie was lean and mean and while it had its absurdities, it held together well – and still does forty years on. This sequel, on the other hand, felt bloated at the time. taking everything that had worked in New York and, appropriately, given it a West Coast exaggeration. Snake is even more of a cypher than before, but this time around, we’re absolutely certain that he’s going to make it through.

That’s not to say the film doesn’t have a certain appeal – it’s a hymn to excess, and there’s no subtlety to its satire of the Hollywood film industry, and indeed its narcissistic hinterland. The 4K edition – which has sorted out the audio issues that plagued its initial release, as far as I can tell – emphasises some of the absurdity (let us draw a veil over the surfing section and just rejoice that there’s a surfing sequence that makes the one in Die Another Day look good), and brings out a lot of the detail in the darkness that characterises much of the film.

Is it going to trouble my list of John Carpenter’s Top 10 movies? Not likely. Equally, this edition is the best it’s likely to ever look or sound so for Carpenter completists, it’s an important addition. NB though, there’s none of the extras from the Shout! collector’s edition – this just has a trailer.

Verdict: A bare bones release of an over the top 90s sequel. 7/10

Paul Simpson

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