Title: Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Director: John Carpenter
Cast: Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun, James Wong,
Victor Wong
Review:
You guys ever seen The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984)? That’s
the one in which Peter Weller discovers a way to go to other dimensions by
traveling through solid matter? Well, anyways, at the ending of that film, a
sequel entitled: Buckaroo Banzai vs. The World Crime League was promised.
Unfortunately, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai didn’t make much money at the
box office, so that sequel never came to be. But there’s this myth amongst hard
core Buckaroo fans that says that Big Trouble in Little China is actually the
unofficial sequel to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. How did this rumor come
about? Well, I didn’t know this until the other day when I reviewed The
Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai and one of my readers pointed this fact out to me,
but W.D. Richter, the guy who wrote The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai also
wrote Big Trouble in Little China. That’s right my friends, these two nutty,
misunderstood films come from the same brilliant mind. Kind of makes sense don’t
it?
All he wants is his truck back
I started my review for Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai by
comparing both of these films, and I didn’t even know they were related in this
way! My brain somehow connected both of these films in the same review, which I
think is really weird. So anyhow, in my review for Buckaroo I compared the two
because both of these films are so offbeat and bizarre that the studios that
produced them just didn’t know how to market them to the masses. These movies
are what are known in the film industry as a “tough sell” something that
Hollywood doesn’t like at all, they like their films to be easily marketable,
with an easily identifiable target audience. Who do you sell a movie like Big
Trouble in Little China to? If you ask me I would’ve just sold it as a modern
day Kung Fu flick, which it essentially is, but apparently the marketing
department at 20th Century Fox didn’t know what the hell to do with
this movie, so they invested very little into promoting it. Another film lost
millions because studios couldn’t make heads or tails of the film. Strange how
easily a studio can get cold feet with a production because they think it’s too
weird and it won’t make any money. But time always proves all these silly
producers wrong, and so Big Trouble in Little China has become a solid cult
favorite. The people who love this movie, really love this movie. This proves
once again that studio heads know jack, they’ll market the hell out of
Transformers 2, a terrible film in my opinion, but won’t market Big Trouble in
Little China, which was very obviously a good movie.
Truth is, Big Trouble in Little China is an easy movie to
love. I’m a huge fan so excuse me if I gush about it for the next few paragraphs.
It has so many fun characters, they can’t
seem to ever stop yapping, and the stuff they talk about is just hilarious. I
mean, seriously, how many of you folks out there agree that Big Trouble in
Little China is one of the most quotable films ever? I know right? In the dvd
commentary for this film Carpenter and Russell call Jack Burton’s dialog ‘Burtonisms’
which are basically little golden nuggets of wisdom that the character of Jack
Burton spews throughout the whole movie. I’m talking about thought provoking
stuff like: “It’s all in the reflexes”
and “You’d have to be some kind of a fool to think we’re all alone in this
universe!” Trust me, there’s more where those came from, and if I’m not back in
ten minutes “call the president!” So
yeah folks, what we have here is one of those extremely quotable films. I haven’t
been quoting this movie all my life for nothing!
Going back to the whole thing about Big Trouble in Little
China being an unofficial sequel to Buckaroo Banzai, the real dirt on the story
is this: the film had originally been
written as a western by two guys: Gary Goldman (this is one of the guys who
wrote the script for Total Recall (1989)) and David Z. Weinstein. Apparently this version of the film was going
to prove to be too expensive! In that script they didn’t steal Jacks truck,
they stole his horse! So anyhow, thing is the studio thought it was going to be
a tough movie to produce so they brought in W. D. Richter to rewrite the thing,
they wanted him to set the story in a contemporary setting, so that audiences could
identify better with it; funny how they still managed to produce a film that
didn’t connect with audiences! But anyways, W. D. Richter took the opportunity
to inject elements into the Big Trouble in Little China script that were meant
for the unproduced Buckaroo Banzai sequel! Knowing this takes my enjoyment of the film to a
whole different level! Now I’m always going to see Burton as the truck driving version
of Buckaroo Banzai!
Aside from all these Buckaroo Banzai connections, Big
Trouble in Little China is an extremely entertaining movie on its own. What I personally
enjoy about it is how crazy it gets. We’re talking about a Chinese ghost that
wants to be flesh again so he can rule the universe from beyond the grave, or
check into a psycho ward, whichever comes first! We’re talking about a movie
where characters can have sword battles in mid air and ancient sorcerers have huge
magic battles! This is a film in which we can see flying eye monsters that have
telepathic abilities! A film with characters that can manipulate lightning and
air! I mean, here’s a film with a ten foot tall ghost who shoots light out his eyes
for crying out loud! This my friends, was John Carpenter’s version of a Shaw
Bros. Fantasy/ Kung Fu movie and I loved every second of it. There’s no denying
it’s an offbeat film, but that’s what I love about it. Even Russell himself was
afraid of making it because he was afraid it’d be too weird. You see, Kurt Russell
had done a series of box office bombs before Big Trouble in Little China (for
example Carpenter’s own The Thing (1982)) and he didn’t want to make another
one. Yet, he committed to the film anyways because Carpenter and Russell are
not just co-workers, these guys are friends, they’ve been making films since
Escape from New York (1981)! Russell and Carpenter understand each other, it’s
something that’s quite obvious when you hear the dvd commentary for Big Trouble
In Little China. According to both Russell and Carpenter’s commentary, the film
was getting great results with tests audiences, so much so that they both thought
it was going to be a hit! Unfortunately, thanks to 20th Century Fox’s
botched marketing techniques, no one knew about the film when it was released
and so kaput, it died.
But a movie flopping in theaters does not equal a bad film,
in rare occasions it’s quite the opposite, the film simply slipped by the public’s
consciousness. It’s not our fault that the studio didn’t sell it to us
properly, something that’s supposed to be their forte. So anyways, even though
Big Trouble in Little China was a huge money looser for the studio, I The Film
Connoisseur, guarantee you’ll have a good time with it. Think about this: in
what other film are you going to see a underground Chinese temple with glowing
neon nights? Or people who become Kung Fu Masters by drinking out of a seven
demon bag? Nowhere but in Big Trouble in Little China that’s where! This is a
film that openly embraces its fantasy roots and asks no questions about it. We
have monsters, magic, and Kung Fu in this movie, what’s not to like? James Wong
is great as Lo Pan; a brilliant performance in what in my opinion is the best role of his
life. Russell, Cattrall, both of the Wongs and Dunn, they all make for a Motley
Crue of crazy, funny, people who all act like they are high on coke, they
reminded me of Buckaroo’s group of sidekicks, “ The Hong Kong Cavaliers”, aha!
If you ask me, this is one of Carpenter’s best films;
production values, visual effects and script wise, this movie is top notch
every step of the way. At the very least it’s on my list of top five John
Carpenter films. It shouldn’t have
bombed the way it did. But it’s all cool; we now have it on dvd and Blue Ray
and it’s legions of fans grow every day. Oh and there’s a possible remake on
the horizon! If it doesn’t work, just remember what Jack Burton always says at
a time like this. Old Jack always says: “What the hell!”
Rating: 5 out of 5
12 comments:
Like yourself I am a huge fan of this movie and long for a sequel, which lets face it isn't going to happen anytime soon.
I think it was only when I reviewed it that I realized that the whole film is shot from the sidekicks view point. For as much as we see Jack as the lead, he is essentially the bumbling sidekick to Wang Chi's hero, especially highlighted by the fact that he knocks himself out during the big showdown.
There are just so many moments that I love in this movie and one that I frequently refer to when justifying the genius of Carpenter, along with The Thing which for my money is along with "Psycho" and "Halloween" one of the scariest movies ever made.
@Elwood: True, I don't think we'll ever see a sequel, but there's been talks of a remake if you can believe it. I wonder how that would turn out, but so much of this movie worked because of Carpenter, Russell and W.D. Richter that I doubt it would have the same flavor.
Agree about Wang being the hero of the film, Jack is always making mistakes, like that scene where he shoots the gun at the ceiling, or when the guard falls on him. It would have been a cool idea if Jack Burton would have become a Kung Fu master by drinking from that magic potion, but nope. He still manages to save the day though. By using his reflexes!
Yeah, its a high point in his career I agree. For a moment there, mostly during the 80's, Carpenter made a solid string of films, I mean really solid. Escape from New York, Starman, Christine, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China. It was during the 90's that quality began to slow down with films like Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Ghost of Mars...and a couple of others that while watchable never reached the level of coolness that his films from the 80's reached.
Agree on The Thing, I saw that movie when I was about ten years old...and it scared the shit out of me! I mean it was one of the few films that really scared the living daylights out of me! Along with The Amytiville Horror, the original one.
I always respected this Carpenter film as one of his works that deserved all the laughs that it's coming for it.
All them strangeness is definitely this movie's winning point!
Agree Kaijinu, the funny and the weird make this one special!
I want to bugger Kim Cattrall (as the bird was in 1974 when the bird was 18, not as the bird is now obviously).
Big Trouble In Little China is still the single most entertaining film i`ve ever seen.
Love this film with a passion. So entertaining on so many levels and Kurt Russell just nails the part! John Carpenter at his finest.
@Jervaise: Agree, Kim Cattrall is a beauty on this film. I've always had a crush no her since Mannequin!
@Jay: Yeah, another BTLC fan!
Many people agree, this is John Carpenter at his best. For me I think it goes like this: The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from New York, Halloween and Starman. Those are my top five Carpenter films.
Such a great film. Tempted to call it Carpenter's masterpiece. Moves at a terrific pace and Russell's performance is laugh out loud funny. A complete 180 from Snake Plissken.
One of the many reasons I love the film is Carpenter's catchy song that he produced with his band The Coupe De Villes. Can you imagine any director in this day and age recording a theme song for their own movie! Madness.
Yeah, the theme song is awesome, it was made by three movie producer/directors which makes it even freaking cooler, and the song actually kicks ass, the dvd includes this really cheap ass 80's music video that stars Carpenter, Nick Castle (The director of The Wraith) and Tommy Lee Wallace (the director Fright Night 2!).
Awesome! I found this website, because I was looking to see if there ever was a sequel made to this movie. I saw this movie when it came out, and to this day, as a way to state to people, " oh boy, looks like we are about to have a situation", you will here me simply exclaim, oh no, looks like we got Big Trouble in Little China!" LOVE LOVE LOVE!
Yeah! Another raging Big Trouble in LIttle China fan, I quote this one all the time...sometimes Ill say "what the hell" or "theres my truck...MY TRUCK!"
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