Escape From New York (1981)

4 / 5 Apr '10
Tagline: The world's greatest leader is a hostage in the most dangerous place on Earth. Now only the deadliest man alive can save him.
Directed by: John Carpenter
Written by: John Carpenter, Nick Castle
Actors include: Kurt Russell, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Van Cleef
Genre: Action, Science Fiction
Length: 99 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
This was a rather entertaining dystopic flick that takes place in the future: 1997. Well luckily for us 1997 looked nothing like this film, here they have New York City as a maximum security prison full of thugs. When Airforce One is taken over, the current president (the very British Donald Pleasance) escapes in his pod (just like the Simpsons of course) lands in New York City. One of the biggest thugs The Duke (Isaac Hayes) takes the President hostage and offers them a finger of his in order to get attention and have their demands met. Kurt Russell plays the eye patched hero Snake who is also kind of a bad guy but they make an offer for him to safely return the President. It has some exciting chase sequences and some really impressive shots of New York and some colorful characters and a cast of impressive actors too. This isn't my favorite from John Carpenter and I actually expected it to be a little more thrilling than it was. Still it was quite enjoyable and a fair bit of fun, definitely has classic moments and is quite iconic.

Availability:  On DVD & Blu-Ray

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953) aka Monster From Beneath The Sea

4 / 5 Dec '09
Tagline: It's alive!
Directed by: Eugene Lourie
Written by: Ray Bradbury, Fred Freiberger
Actors include: Lee Van Cleef, Paul Hubschmid, Paula Raymond
Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror
Length: 80 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
After an atomic test bomb thingy goes off a gigantic Rhedosaurus wakes up from his frozen sleep and starts terrorizing the cities and buildings of New York. It's actually rather similar to ゴジラ [Godzilla] but actually since this was 1953 it came first! I believe super stop-motion genius Ray Harryhausen even claimed that ゴジラ [Godzilla] ripped this one off! The effects are most impressive, the dinosaur is big and menacing and has some decent munches, snatches and destruction behind him. We are even treated to a fight between an octopus and a whale of sorts! It's a bit wooden on start-up but hold on to your had because it has a thrilling finale, rollercoaster action and some definitely amusing moments. This was based around a short story from Ray Bradbury so it's pretty darned interesting as one might imagine. I think this is a public domain flick or at least it's available for next to nothing just about anywhere I go. Grab it up, it's definitely one of the better early sci-fi flicks!

Availability:  On DVD