ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK

Escape from New York is a 1981 film which is set far into the future - 1997. Go figure. Most movies that have some kind of future time-line to them think forward enough to have the time be a lot further into the future than that. Say, 100 years or so. But I suppose the writer thought that in less than 20 years, these kinds of social changes could be in place.

Kurt Russell (looking for all the world like Cap'n Ron, complete with long hair and eye patch) is an ex-military, self-centered mercenary warrior who has committed crimes that get him sent to the ultimate penitentiary - Manhattan Island. In a world apparently gone lawless and berserk, a huge containment wall is erected around Manhattan Island and it's made into a prison where the prisoners rule themselves.

When Air Force 1 crashes into the city (little damage is done other than some scattered debris), the President is taken captive and Snake (Russell) is enlisted to bring him and what he's carrying safely back out of this hell-hole, with the promise that all charges against him and all punishments will be wiped clean from his record. Oh, and he's been injected with nano-bombs you can only see with magnifiers that will kill him if he's not out of there within 22 hours or so.

This just wasn't the best futuristic movie I've ever seen. For one thing, it wasn't far enough in the future. Even with actors such as Kurt Russell, Adrienne Barbeau, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, and even Isaac Hayes (no throaty singing from him, though), the movie lacks a lot in plot and character development.