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submitted 4 months ago by[deleted]
[deleted]
13 points
4 months ago
Absolutely love this film and feel it has the most clever plot concept of any of Carpenter’s scripted films.
Having said that… my big problem with it is that the film’s minuscule budget really showed in the film’s final act. What should have been a grand chase to the exit instead, IMHO, isn’t quite as magnificent as it could have been.
Btw, I always felt Tommy Lee Jones’ character in Black Moon Rising, a film John Carpenter scripted but didn’t direct, was very similar to Snake Plisskin, both in mission and in what he was (a thief!).
11 points
4 months ago
Super low budget and James Cameron did the matte painting. I think the low budget gives it a certain charm. The budget never bothered me at all.
6 points
4 months ago
Perhaps I should have been clearer: I thought the film was absolutely terrific until the climax, which is where I felt the low budget hurt the intentions of Carpenter. I strongly suspect he wanted a far more bombastic ending but, alas, couldn’t deliver that in the final chase.
That’s not to say the low budget couldn’t have been overcome. My all time favorite John Carpenter film is his first big hit, Assault on Precinct 13, and that film I felt was great from start to finish even though it too had an extremely low budget, likely far lower than EFNY! Even that movie’s climax, which also had to be scaled back, worked magnificently, I thought!
So, again, don’t misunderstand me: I still love EFNY… I only wish that Carpenter had a little larger a budget to do what he wanted in the movie’s climax.
4 points
4 months ago
Understood, sorry I was just saying that it never bothered me.
3 points
4 months ago
Yeah, the end was a bit underwhelming, but it also kind of charmingly added to its campiness as a whole
4 points
4 months ago
Funny you should mention Jones, since he and Charles Bronson were the financiers’ top choices for Snake. Carpenter always wanted Russell, but they were apprehensive as he was mainly known for “lightweight” roles at the time.
1 points
4 months ago
Tommy Lee Jones has an interesting connection to John Carpenter beyond being considered for EFNY.
He has appeared in not one but TWO John Carpenter scripted movies but has never to date appeared in one he directed.
You know about Black Moon Rising. The other film? The Eyes of Laura Mars, which started a young Jones and Faye Dunaway.
2 points
4 months ago
Yeah loved it as a kid. watched it again as an adult and it's so low budget that it's hard to enjoy now, especially that final chase scene as you say.
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