| Embassy Pictures | Release Date: July 10, 1981 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
9
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
|
Watch Now
| Buy on |
|
| Stream On |
|
| Stream On |
|
| Stream On |
|
Critic Reviews
The pleasures are right in your face, beginning with the million-dollar idea of turning NYC into a walled-off prison where criminals run free. Even born-and-raised New Yorkers (of which Carpenter was decidedly not) could smile at that histrionic setup; it’s an outsider’s joke made funny by our willingness to be entertained.
Read full review
Carpenter's grittily convincing New York-in-decay remains the film's best element. Never particularly suspenseful and hampered by a finale that almost literally steers the plot toward a dead end, Escape only intermittently finds Carpenter flexing his directorial muscles. But it may be his most visionary film: Escape allowed him to build a future out of scraps from the past.
Read full review
Director John Carpenter and producer Debra Hill, the team responsible for "Halloween" and "The Fog," have come up with another B-movie thriller whose ambitions get exceeded by respectable results. [10 July 1981, p.17]
Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
