The Pitch: A decade-and-a-half after John Carptneter's rambunctious Escape from New York became a cult hit, Carpenter brought starring man Kurt Russell back for another go-around, with 1996's Escape from L.A., relocating a very similar premise to the West Coast. The Result: Though the urban troubles of L.A. in the early-to-mid 1990s were what reportedly allowed the movie to be made (given the thematic similarity), it had been initially given the green light in 1985, yet sat stagnant for around a decade, by which point there evidently wasn't much of an audience for the continued adventures of Snake Plissken. The film was produced on a budget almost ten-fold that of the original, yet only made half its budget back at the box office, while reviews were incredibly mixed. Though the original movie endured over the years as a cult classic, that didn't necessarily mean that waiting would still guarantee box office dynamite, and the wildly over-inflated budget certainly did it no favours either. Still, had Escape from L.A. come out within a few years of New York (and therefore featured a considerably younger Russell) and been budgeted a little more conservatively, it definitely could have been much more successful. Much like the Sin City sequel, it's likely that most audiences had just stopped caring 15 years later.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
