Siegel™’s review published on Letterboxd:
I watched this last night and I forgot to log it but I was going to say, "ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S SATURDAY NIIIIIIGHT!!!" but alas it is now Sunday and it would make no sense
I always say, a film is not built on a premise but on how much the filmmakers believe in it. The premise is great: what if New York City reached its full potential as the greatest jungle gym in human history? Spend some time in the city that never sleeps, and it becomes readily apparent that it would not be a major leap to invent a world in which all its inhabitants are convicted delinquents. Carpenter takes this and poses a future in which the government turned New York City itself into a walled and guarded prison, essentially creating a lower class society comprised of criminals that runs itself in a skyscraper ghost town. When Air Force 1 is hijacked and the United States president is kidnapped and forced to land in this prison/city, convicted felon Kurt Russell is employed by the government to get him out alive. He is told he will be given a pardon if he succeeds - and then injected with a sciency thing that will kill him if he doesn't accomplish his mission within 24 hours. THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE MOVIES PEOPLE! The tension filling every moment, the nonstop crazy energy, the gritty fantasticism, FUCK THE MAAAAN!!!! I LOVE MOVIES!!