Escape from the Bronx/Review

From The Grindhouse Cinema Database

< Escape from the Bronx

At this point, I'm pretty sure you know what Mystery Science Theater 3000 is. For those who have no idea about it, MST3K is a TV show in which the host (either Joel Hodgson or Mike Nelson) and two robots named Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot watch bad movies from the 40's to the 90's and provide a hilarious commentary at the same time. Although I really love the show since it's absolutely funny and makes me want to watch these films without the commentary, it also creates unintentional humor. If you look at almost every film that's appeared on the show on the IMDb website, you'll see that some of these get lower scores than what they should have. Sure, MST3K shows unwatchable stuff like Red Zone Cuba and Monster a Go Go, but some people may instantly think that movies like Laserblast, The Pumaman, and Santa Claus Conquers The Martians are bad movies since they appear. I disagree with that since, besides those three movies, there are films on MST3K that aren't as bad as what many people remember. I know that these films aren't Citizen Kane or Ben Hur, but they have enjoyable moments and cinematic value. This leads me to another film that falls into that category: Escape from the Bronx.

Escape from the Bronx (a.k.a."Escape 2000" or "Leave the Bronx"...as they repeatedly say at the beginning of this film) is a sequel to 1990: Bronx Warriors. Several years after the events in the original film, General Construction Corporation wants to destroy The Bronx in order to create a new glorious city. They send a private army in order to capture or kill those who have decided to stay in The Bronx. Of course, the company president blatantly lies saying "We never kill anyone living there. We pay money to those people so they can leave the Bronx and live in our planned community in New Mexico". What actually happens is those people are captured and/or killed in one way or another. This pisses off Trash (our hero) and his gang so they decide to kidnap the president of GCC in order to stop the madness.

Although the film has a really interesting theme about corporate corruption going on, a decent soundtrack and amazing action sequences, it's somehow weaker than the original film. There's a chase sequence between the private army and our heroes which just goes on and on and on. It slowly becomes a boring scene and at that point, I didn't care how the film was going to end.

Is this film as bad as many people say it is? No! There are interesting moments here and there. For instance, there's a subplot about an annoying journalist who tries to expose how evil GCC is. Although she drives me mad (don't worry, she gets killed in the middle of this film), she's the one who actually comes up with the plan about kidnapping the president of GCC and she's a character that knows what's happening inside and outside The Bronx. Sometimes, if you want to win a "war" you need to know what you and your rival have in common and what their weakness is. What about the corrupt corporation? Well, they hire a prison warden named Floyd Wangler (played by Henry Silva) to be a commander in the operation. What they probably don't know is that Floyd is infamous for his sadistic ways, which means that he won't obey an order from any company. Although we have no idea why Floyd becomes an insane person, we learn that the idealistic "corporation that always has a good intention when it comes to people" doesn't work due to many factors like this.

I may be over analyzing this film, but hey...at least it's not that bad. It's worse than its prequel for sure, but 3.7 on IMDb? Come on! This is another MST3K film that you don't have to take too seriously and you can enjoy it, even without Mike/Joel and the bots. Check it out.

Posters

Escapebronx2.jpg BRONX WARRIORS II.JPG


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Nuttawut Permpithak hails from Thailand. He spends his free time watching exploitation films (or any films from the past) writing articles, taking photos and reviewing films for GCDb.

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