Summary
Overview
The podcast hosts discuss 'Escape from L.A.' (1996) at a live show in Los Angeles, analyzing the film's many absurdities, questionable special effects, and its status as an almost shot-for-shot remake of 'Escape from New York.' The conversation covers everything from Kurt Russell's unchanged appearance across 15 years, the inexplicable basketball scene, terrible CGI that came out the same year as Jurassic Park, and the film's surprisingly prescient political themes. The hosts debate Russell's fuckability throughout, mock the villain Cuervo Jones, and marvel at how everyone in post-apocalyptic L.A. somehow knows Snake Plissken by name.
Introduction and Initial Reactions
The hosts welcome the live Largo audience and immediately establish their conflicted feelings about the film. Paul mispronounces Snake Plissken's name multiple times, Jason defends the original Escape from New York as a classic while Dan admits he watched both films back-to-back and found the first one mediocre but the sequel terrible. The conversation quickly devolves into jokes about fucking the VHS box and socket lockets.
- Dan Levy watched both Escape from New York and Escape from L.A. back-to-back and found them essentially identical
- Paul struggles repeatedly with pronouncing 'Plissken' correctly
- The hosts debate whether Escape from New York holds up as a classic film today
" I watched them back to back, and I had never seen Escape from New York. So I watched Escape from New York being like, this is not good. And then I watched Escape from L.A., and I was like, oh, no, no, no. That was great. This is terrible. "
The Cleveland Mystery and Character Background
The hosts explore the bizarre recurring references to Cleveland throughout the film and reveal that Snake Plissken was actually named after a real person from Cleveland that John Carpenter knew. They discuss how between the two films, Snake apparently just went to Cleveland, and everyone in L.A. knows about it. The revelation that there's a real Snake Plissken from Cleveland leads to jokes about that person giving tours.
- Snake Plissken is named after a real person from Cleveland that John Carpenter's friend knew
- The movie repeatedly references Snake's time in Cleveland between the two films
- The hosts pitch 'Escape from Cleveland' as the necessary third film
" I will straight up personally finance Escape from Cleveland. It needs to happen. "
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