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Released on Fourth Of July weekend in 1986, this martial arts action fantasy film was
a commercial disappointment, earning back only half of its $20-million dollar budget.
Directed by the inconsistently successful, but nonetheless influential John Carpenter
- this is a unique and ambitious bit of filmmaking. Originally envisioned as a western, the story
follows an American trucker who gets dragged into a centuries-old mystical and magical
battle in the underworld of San Francisco's China Town, in search of a kidnapped girl,
and of course, his semi truck. In the lead role, Russell is perfectly charming, but given
the circumstances of his surroundings, his incredulity is often too subtle for the over-the-top
script, even remarking, "I'm a reasonable guy. But, I've just experienced some very
unreasonable things." As a result, there's no one to really relate to in this picture,
no one for the audience to truly sympathize with or even understand. The 99 minute story
starts off normal enough... but when three Asian dudes wearing lampshades fly down on
lightning bolts and start murdering people, things take a turn for the completely bizarre.
Indeed, this now cult-classic plays out almost like a live action cartoon, and remains difficult
to take seriously. The R-rated narrative also moves faster than its own exposition, which
is delivered in nearly every other line of dialogue... leaving the audience left to figure
out what's going on after it happened. One 60-second sequence has our heroes escaping
a mysterious flooding elevator, only to find themselves in a room of dead bodies where
one of the lampshade guys is beating up Russell with his magic, all before the impossibly
old wheelchair bound villain lectures him on the truth. To say this movie is strange
and unpredictable would be an understatement. A young and beautiful Kim Catrall is feisty
and fun to watch... but there's nothing behind her performance, she just rattles off ridiculous
plot points without any emotional connection to them. The rest of the lesser known, but
still talented cast includes character actors like Dennis Dun, James Hong, and Victor Wong.
As with all his films, Carpenter provides the score himself, a sort of ominous drone
that pulses throughout the quickly paced picture. The wide anamorphic shots are filmed with
vibrant colors, dark shadows, and plenty of cool VFX work - all aided by wonderfully ostentatious
costumes and art design. Although this is a well-made adventure with lots of neat ideas
and concepts... it just isn't for me. The stranger things got, the less I understood,
or cared about the story. I certainly can understand its tongue-in-cheek appeal with
others though - but seeing it twice was enough for me. "Big Trouble In Little China", "So
completely weird, it's unappealing." Now, here are your thoughts from the YouTube comments.
Well, I was definitely out-voted on this one, a NINE and a FOUR for "Big Trouble In Little
China"... you praised this film's inventiveness, and cite it as an 80's classic, scoring it
an AWESOME. While the movie delivers on its name, there's really no way else to say it,
I just don't really get this movie... I'm scoring it a MEH.