Kurt Russell revives his Snake Plissken character from Escape To New York where several years later Los Angeles is now also a place for all the exiles to go. Except now there is a much wider definition of just what is an outlaw.

If you thought things were bad then, a certain rightwing preacher played by Cliff Robertson who managed to get himself a certain amount of credibility by predicting the big one finally hitting the west coast and Los Angeles becoming an island. He rode that to the White House where a constitutional amendment has made him president for life. And to further drive home the point of who we're talking about, the capital of the nation is moved from Washington, DC to Lynchburg, Virginia.

So under our new president we've got all kinds of biblically based laws and those who deviate from them can accept exile in La with all kinds of real criminals as well. And there is no Escape From LA.

But even the best preachers have some troublesome kids and he's got a beauty in daughter A.J. Langer. She's stolen the black box which contains the codes to some advanced satellite weaponry and she's defected to Los Angeles where Che Guevara type leader Georges Corraface is now reported who will turn the weaponry on the USA and lead all these third world countries on an invasion. After all you can't imagine with this kind of country we've got too many allies left in the world. You can't even imagine Laura or Jenna Bush doing this to dear old dad.

Based on his track record of rescuing one president from New York, of course Cliff Robertson sends for Kurt Russell for this job. He's even got another Lee Van Cleef type soldier as Russell's handler in the person of Stacy Keach who has the equally ruthless Michelle Forbes working for him as well.

That by the way is the biggest problem of Escape From LA. Escape From New York was imaginative for its time in 1981, but I think director John Carpenter should have put Kurt Russell in some new situations. He took so much from the first film and just reworked it for Escape From LA.

He did give Kurt Russell a new outfit, one I think more to fit in with what would be considered a socially deviant crowd in Los Angeles. Russell looks like a leatherman's dream in what he's wearing.

For what it's worth Escape From LA is kind of fun, but it does suffer horribly from a lack of imagination. On the other hand you've got some fine players really hamming up there parts like Steve Buscemi as the talent agent gone bad, Bruce Campbell as the surgeon to the stars, and Peter Fonda as an old surfer dude. They're the best reason to see Escape From LA.

This is a misfiring sequel on all accounts to John Carpenter's 1981 sci-fi classic, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. I call it a sequel, but it's more like a remake: a few things are changed, like the city and the characters, but for the most part this plays out exactly like the first film. The reason for this is that Carpenter and Russell just wanted to have some fun by returning to a film they both loved making. Fair play to them, but this is a film that never needed to be made: it's utterly cheesy, full of pathetic special effects, and completely predictable. Fans might enjoy it, but you'll need a lot of goodwill to get through this one unscathed.

I'll admit now that I like Russell, and I liked his reprise of the character Snake Plissken. Sure, there are some cheesy one-liners and dumb moments, but he's okay. Another plus is that Carpenter has assembled a fantastic supporting cast. Steve Buscemi is around, acting weird as usual (but more over the top and not as funny); good old Stacy Keach is on hand as an officious bad guy and very good he is too, the best in the film; Pam Grier is cast as a transsexual; Peter Fonda is an aged hippy surfer taking part in the film's cheesiest effect, where he and Russell 'ride' a tsunami; Bruce Campbell is unrecognisable (apart from his voice) as a mad plastic surgeon. The only weak link is George Corraface as the bad guy. Okay, he's dressed up as Che Guevara, but that doesn't make him a good bad guy: he's actually incredibly wishy-washy and no threat at all. His fight scene with Russell is laughable.

The plot is a string of action scenes, some okay, some poor. The motorbike/car chase was the highlight for me. After that it becomes too involved in parading a string of odd characters while throwing in all the movie clichés imaginable. It is fun, in a kind of low rent way I suppose, and there's a twist ending which isn't bad, but it's not enough to make this a good film by any stretch of the imagination.

In 2000, an earthquake measuring 9.6 strikes Los Angeles separating it from the mainland. The moral President for life (Cliff Robertson) declares Los Angeles is no longer part of the United States, and all undesirables are deported to the island. Once deported there, no one ever comes back. It's 2013 and Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is getting deported to L.A. The President's daughter Utopia (A.J. Langer) hijacked Air Force 3 taking a secret package to L.A. She's suspected of running to gang leader Cuervo Jones, and Snake is offered a deal. He has less than 10 hours to live and must retrieve the black box. The girl on the other hand is expendable.

John Carpenter returns with long time contributor Debra Hill and Kurt Russell. This time the L.A. culture is being dissected with surfers and plastic surgery. They are fully embracing the camp. They're having a little bit of fun with Snake. This would be too stupid to take seriously. However if you join them and embrace the camp, this could be an enjoyable film.