‘I’m a reasonable guy. But, I’ve just experienced some very unreasonable things...’
I have now published over 2500 posts on this website, most of them film reviews, and so it is inevitable that I will occasionally (or often) repeat myself. That being said, I can safely say that this overused phrase I am about to wheel out once again for this review has never been more accurate… they really do not make them like Big Trouble in Little China anymore. And what a dreadful shame that is. A mid-budget movie, filmed on location. A unique story with a talented ensemble cast. Some occasional casual racism. By god, it must be the ’80s…
Jack Burton (Kurt Russell), a wise-cracking truck driver, becomes embroiled in a kidnapping attempt (with some ancient Chinese mysticism thrown in) while accompanying his friend, Wang Chi (Dennis Dun), to pick up Wang’s green-eyed fiancée Miao Yin (Suzee Pai) from San Francisco Airport. Kim Cattrall’s wide-eyed lawyer, Gracie Law, is also there pretending not to be fully in love with Kurt Russell. She fails, of course. We all fail in the face of Russell.
Master director John Carpenter described W. D. Richter’s adaptation of Gary Goldman and
David Z. Weinstein’s original script as “an action/adventure/comedy/mystery/ghost story/monster movie”, and that gives you some idea of the amount of ingenuity and just plain fun that is packed into this 99 minute movie. Carpenter combines his love of Hong Kong action cinema with his natural ability to create propulsive, entertaining action movies to create one of the most ambitious and unique films of the decade. Jack Burton is perhaps Russell’s most likeable protagonist. And I don’t say that lightly. Carpenter described the character as a sidekick who thinks he is a leading man and this juxtaposition fits Russell perfectly. It also results in what is undoubtedly Carpenter’s funniest film. The moment in which Burton knocks himself out at the start of the climactic battle sequence is utterly sensational.
Despite being overlooked at the time (the critical and commercial reception for the film was so poor that Carpenter never worked with a big studio again), Big Trouble in Little China is now rightly seen as a cult classic and one of Carpenter’s best films – an utter joy from start to finish.
