Escape From L.A. [LV33249-WS] NTSC/LBX/AC3/THX (1996)

[flcl4evr]

Escape from L.A. (1996) [LV33249-WS]

The Movie:
After watching a poor pan and scan transfer of John Carpenter's Escape From New York and rather enjoying it even though what I saw was butchered and had Japanese subtitles, I was rather looking forward to the much more recent sequel, Escape From L.A. Unfortunately, what I got what well below my already low expectations, as I had seen the Rotten Tomatoes rating prior to this viewing. Boy. What a mess this film was - don't take that as a definite stay away though, I found the film to have a sort of....90's cheese appeal to it, similar to that of Judge Dredd or some of the disasters films ala Armageddon and Dante's Peak.
Don't expect a masterpiece going into this one, is I guess what I'm saying.
Did you see the first movie? Good. I'll keep this review rather short and simple, as it's late and I have a glass of water waiting for me to finish my review.
Simply put, John Carpenter took the first film and applied the Mad Libs formula to it in order to produce this movie. In the first movie he was sent to retrieve the President of the United States - in the sequel he's retrieving a weapon of mass destruction for the President. In the first movie they planted an explosive near a vital artery, in the sequel they injected him with a degenerative virus - both create a time limit story telling device. In both movies he switches the devices that had proved so vital to his cause in order to cause mayhem, in both movies there's a crazy leader of the scum attempting to rally the masses against the United States, and in both movies there's a short lived female counterpart. Watch them back to back, and the only thing you'll notice is different is how incredibly stupid the context surrounding this plot is.
In this distorted future version of history, the United States is now a theocracy being run by a life term president with the authority of a dictator. Wow.
Perhaps this movie would have been more interesting had it explained how these things came to be, but instead they just serve as shallow context for a hollow remake of the original Escape From New York.
Stay away if you didn't like the original, and don't expect it to be a fraction as good if you did.

Video:
With a 2.35:1 aspect ratio letterboxed transfer, Escape From L.A. limps onto Laserdisc with a respectable transfer. Colors are excellent and help bring the self contained apocalypse of L.A. to life with great strides. Explosions are abundant, and provide a visual flare that is consistently vibrant. I saw no aliasing or significant defects in the print used to make the source. It's just too bad that the special effects were so awful that even in 1996 I'm sure this looked implausible and stupid.

Audio:
Crashing onto Laserdisc with both a Dolby Surround stereo encoded track and an explosive AC-3 5.1 audio mix(reviewed here) Escape from L.A. generally sounds excellent on Laserdisc. Explosions have an excellent kick to them, and the soundfield, while generally slanted towards the front is immersive and keeps you locked into the action with great success. Just remember to crank your subwoofer for the earthquake scene that opens the film, as it deserves that much.

Overall:
While I found myself laughing at the surf scene and a few of the out of place explosions, once I got past how incredible stupid this movie was, I rather enjoyed it. I wouldn't pop it in everyday of the week, but I might be convinced to watch it again sometime. Should you watch it though? Well, did you enjoy the first film? Enough to watch it a 2nd time with awful CGI effects and terrible writing? If so, then check this one out. All others stay away.

[substance]

snake plissken is back....nufff said

[Guest]

always looking forward to see new reviews from you sir!

keep em coming

[smitken]

nice review,

i recently bought a copy of this off ebay, and then realised i had allready got it
another one for the dupes box!

[laserbite34]

Nice fair review of the Laserdisc.

What about the scene were Snake sees some gangs drive by along road just after he arrives on L.A. in that mini-sub. Its been while since I played the region 2 DVD the cars pan across the LCR and onto the surrounds with while two gangs fire machine-guns I thought that was effective use of mixing by sound team.

Sound designer
John Pospisil of Robocop.
Mixers
Ron Bartlett
Michael C. Casper
Steve Maslow (I often have chat with if once in while on facebook, friendly chap)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116225/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116225/fullcredits#cast
Sound Department
Willy Allen .... dialogue editor
Ron Bartlett .... sound re-recording mixer
Ted Caplan .... foley editor
Michael C. Casper .... sound re-recording mixer
Thomas Causey .... sound
Matt Colleran .... foley recordist
Zack Davis .... adr editor
Joe Dorn .... adr editor
Ken Dufva .... foley artist
John Dunn .... supervising sound editor
Christopher Flick .... supervising foley editor
Donald Flick .... sound effects editor
Catherine Harper .... foley artist
John Hulsman .... sound effects editor
Scott A. Jennings .... foley editor
Courtenay Marvin .... assistant sound editor
Steve Maslow .... sound re-recording mixer
John Pospisil .... sound designer
Randy Singer .... foley mixer
Robert Ulrich .... supervising adr editor
David A. Whittaker .... sound effects editor
David Williams .... supervising dialogue editor
Kerry Dean Williams .... adr editor

I'll have to look out for the Dolby AC-3 THX laserdisc I'd like to re-visit the film, on laserdisc. I also have Escape From New York special edition and the DVD R2 is lousy its had some dialouge panning re-positioned from stage right to centre. "He's dangerous, sir". "I know it be alight".
"I'm not fool, Plissken"
"Call me, Snake". (I think that did it for me when I first watched this now cult classic on VHS rental in the early 80's).

I saw Escape From L.A. at the cinema only in Dolby Stereo A type as the cinema at the time didn't have Dolby DA20 installed, the analouge mix doesn't suffer much it still has the clear positioning of LCR only makes it sound confusing with mono matrix surrounds as you can't tell what direction its been stirred to? Minis LFE.1 that adds in the extra special depth or slam and kick to some sound effects.

Oh yeah, the centre opening titles carries sound effects music and effects also on left and right surrounds carry music and some sound effects.

The Movie:
Audio:
Crashing onto Laserdisc with both a Dolby Surround stereo encoded track and an explosive AC-3 5.1 audio mix(reviewed here) Escape from L.A. generally sounds excellent on Laserdisc. Explosions have an excellent kick to them, and the soundfield, while generally slanted towards the front is immersive and keeps you locked into the action with great success. Just remember to crank your subwoofer for the earthquake scene that opens the film, as it deserves that much.

I did a quick spectrum lab off the region 2 DVD first pressing release tested on Dolby CP65 TP test points left channel centre channel and LFE.1 I didn't bother doing right channel or the stereo surrounds but this gives an idea of the level. Fader was set at "7" bloody loud!

Chapter 2, time 00:03:00 to 00:03:51 so it lasts about 31seconds a bit shy from EARTHQUAKE (1974) lasting a whopping near 9mins! I don't think no Dolby or dts SDDS film has topped EARTHQUAKE yet! The warmer redish colour is where the peak signal is play at. Pink is near to the top so be careful how you play it.


Left channel


Centre channel


LFE.1



(For this chapter I'm only monitoring LCR) I like chapter 6, 00:17:08 suiting up in the clothing with music on left and right and Foley effects and milder level of music mixed on centre but I can still easily hear the effects even when he snaps the belt buckle. I set the level on the MDX4600 for left and right front a bit lower so the music mix is about the same level as left or right often straight from an AVR left and right would be drowning out centre channel and also making some effects in the centre hard to hear and dialouge for those who have or may not have hearing loss at 4KHz as that is where speech is at peaks at often 6KHz or 8KHz with whispery soft scenes (in some films).

Thunder lighting effects are cool.

"Your pretty far out, Snake...I mean cool".

I wonder if Peter Fonda managed to finish that surf wave? Never saw what happened as it must have ended near a wall or something?

When Snake plugs the guy down the alley way in Dolby pro*logic on the surrounds only mild crosstalk of the machine-gun is heard in digital it only carries music only no echo reveb effects.

Chapter 17, the arena "But this is insane". "It is. That's the point".
The Earthquake at the arena doesn't have an LFE.1 content its handled over LCR mild on the surrounds.

The colour balance looks good with the blue fares near to the bright floodlights normally crappy transfers would have boasted gamma contrast where it would cast green around the whites.


DVD screen shot chapter 17 taken off directly off pc then placed back in the Phillips bluray player.

I'm looking at some Escape From L.A. THX laserdisc letterbox ones now but I'm a little shy to buy one now maybe next week I have two items I have to pay for next week and I don't want to push my luck, reasonable priced the discs are but only USA none in the UK as of yet for sale.

I like the line "So what are you gonna do"? "Disappear". With that line once he presses the button the holograma would shut down along with everything.

"For god's sakes, don't do it, Snake"!
"The name's Plissken".

And the funky cowboy music plays.
Good thing he had the box matches at the end...
"Welcome to the human race".

The bluray looks okay and Dolby TrueHD nice. I might put this on a wish list.

Playback
Region free http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Escape-fr ... -ray/5945/

Even this screen capture shows near to the end just before the helicopter crashes, its not a bad transfer otherwise the white flood light beam would have green all around it.

[remington]

Believe it or not I've never seen the film so your review is especially helpful. The NY version was tolerable 80s entertainment with a few interesting moments. No offense but "escaping" from LA never grabbed me.

[andrewlawson]

I sliced my still sealed copy open the other week to view it and there was disc rot. Most of the visual and audio issues were minimal and on the first side but its still a bummer knowing its been sealed for over 20 years and had issues right out of the sleeve.

[skyjedi2020]

I hope you didn't pay a lot. Factory sealed is meaningless I opened a factory sealed Last Crusade first issue from Japan that was deadstock rotted and doa. At least I didn't pay a whole lot. If its sealed and a seller sells it to you its buyer beware, they don't have to honor a rotten sealed disc because it comes untested and as is.