John Carpenter’s “Escape From L.A.” isn’t a great movie, mainly because on the surface it’s essentially “Escape From New York,” with a change of locale.  It’s currently on Netflix, though as I watch I have come to the conclusion that it’s much better – and a tad deeper – than I remember it being (Sure, the surfing scene was odd, and probably a bit beyond Pliskin’s skill set, if the original film was any indication).

‘New York’ dealt with an America where things are so far gone that someone gets the idea that it would be easier to just corral all the deviants, criminals and anyone else unable to fit easily into the New World Order, in New York (which some may perhaps consider to be redundant), which would be walled off.

The first film is very much self-contained, in that you don’t get much information about the rest of the country (though the force that keeps the inmates within the city walls –the United States Police Force – hints at the rise of military-styled fascism).

This idea is expanded upon in “Escape From L.A, which uses the entire country as a canvas, though the prison that is L.A. is emphasized.

What’s interesting is that the filmmakers have turned Hollywood – literally – into a cesspool of depravity and debauchery which many people, like in the case of New York, also seems to believe.

This tendency is leavened somewhat by the obvious leftward slant of the politics that animate and motivate the film, which was written by John Carpenter, Debra Hill and Kurt Russell.

“Escape From L.A.” was a box office failure, earning slightly more than half of its $50 million dollar production cost.

There’s talk of a reboot of the franchise – though considering that Luc Besson’s “Lockout” is less a homage or a tribute to “Escape From New York (the lead, played by Guy Pearce, is even called ’Snow’) than outright piracy, so I am not too sure how necessary a reboot is.

Though I am not sure whether or not the necessity of a reboot every stopped anyone.

Though if they do remake it, I hope that John Carpenter (at least) gets an Executive Producer credit, though from what I hear about his feelings about Hollywood – and vice versa – I wouldn’t put money on it.