John Carpenter’s Escape From L.A. massively polarised both critics and fans alike when it was released in 1996. Any sequel to a much-loved cult classic such as Escape From New York will be anticipated with nervousness, as it had such a high bar to live up to. The film met with praise but also disdain (as was expected) from some. But which side of the divide do I reside on?

From IMDB- ‘Snake Plissken is once again called in by the United States government to do a dirty job. This time to recover a potential doomsday device from Los Angeles, now an autonomous island where undesirables are exiled.’

When I first watched Escape From LA, I found the CGI and visual effects cheap-looking and somewhat cringeworthy. In fact, these seemed to overshadow the rest of the film for me. I’m pleased to report that whilst they still look amateurish still, this second viewing made me examine other elements of the film with fresh eyes.

The main takeaway from watching the film again was that it basically just retreads the plot of the previous and much superior film. But there are tweaks here and there so that if critics or fans should comment on this, the filmmakers can fire back, ‘No! This is how it’s different…’ But even with these minor tweaks, it’s hard to not see the similarities with the original film or that you could be watching it instead. This is retread territory with Snake being coerced into doing a dirty job for a government he despises, the virus that is subtly injected into his body, him meeting a cab driver when he gets there…the list is endless.

But, even though this is an anaemic rehash of the first film, it’s still an engaging hour and a half of entertainment. The look and feel of the film is great, Carpenter’s direction is as good as ever, and Kurt Russell effortlessly slips back into Snake mode like a hand sliding into a well-worn glove. The one-liners also return and are as badass as ever. The action sequences are, on the whole, very well staged and translate well to the screen. I have to say, though, the paragliding scene isn’t one of them and brought to mind the uber-camp Wild Boys video by Duran Duran.

There’s also a cast that cult film fans can salivate over with Bruce Campbell, Pam Grier, Steve Buscemi and Peter Fonda starring. This helps redeem this sequel even more.

Verdict- Whilst Escape From LA may be a rehash of the previous film, with the necessary adjustments made to deny such claims, this sequel is still good fun. But I’m left thinking how much better a completely new concept for this sequel would have been. The iconic Snake character is frankly wasted here.