Big Trouble in Little China.

Review #1479: Big Trouble in Little China.

Cast:
Kurt Russell (Jack Burton), Kim Cattrall (Gracie Law), Dennis Dun (Wang Chi), James Hong (David Lo Pan), Victor Wong (Egg Shen), Kate Burton (Margo Litzenberger), Donald Li (Eddie Lee), Carter Wong (Thunder), Peter Kwong (Rain), James Pax (Lightning), Suzee Pai (Miao Yin), and Chao-Li Chi (Uncle Chu) Directed by John Carpenter (#068 - Halloween (1978), #634 - Escape from New York, #712 - The Thing (1982), #732 - Escape from L.A., #1221 - Dark Star, and #1298 - They Live)

Review: 
"I'm pretty happy with who I am. I like myself and what I'm doing. I don't need to be the world's greatest director or the most famous - or the richest. I don't need to make a whole lot of great films. I can do my job and I can do it pretty well. This is the realization I've come to, later in life. It's called growing up."
"I seem to have a knack for picking movies that go on to be cult favorites."

John Carpenter is a director that deserves further inspection, one that is far more than just his horror films. The 1980s are ertainly an interesting indicator of this diverting director, with eight of his eighteen directorial efforts being in that era (ranging from The Fog to They Live), comprised of success and flops that eventually alienated him away from Hollywood, but most of the features are generally well appreciated for their efforts in horror, science fiction and action, with some of those features also being composed or written by him as well. At the helm as star for some of those successes is Kurt Russell, who first rose to prominence as a child star in television and for Disney films before growing into further lines of work in the 1980s as an action hero (along with sentimental favorite in my view). The film had three different writers credited: Gary Goldman and David Z. Weinstein originally wrote it as a western that would combine Chinese fantasy elements one might find in a martial arts film within a western; subsequent attempts to turn it into something more filmable led to their firing and W. D. Richter (writer of films such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)) brought in to rehaul the screenplay into a contemporary tale that kept just basic elements like Lo Pan and Jack Burton, using Rosemary's Baby (yes, that one) as his template.

Ultimately, what we have here is a film that screams cult classic - it was a flop at the box office in the midst of a busy summer (to put it in perspective, the top films of that summer were Top Gun, The Karate Kid Part II and Aliens) and marketing that even Russell found not to his liking, with the studio not really understanding Burton's character (to the point where they had them do the opening scene about his heroism). It influenced Carpenter back to independent filmmaking as yet another painfully misspreciated film of his catalogue in the 1980s (with only his film The Thing (1982) being more unappreciated in its time, which also found a deserved following). For all of its obviousness, one can't help but enjoy its b-movie style - cheesy but with wonderful effects and a zippy charm to its cast that make a strange and stark delight to the action film. Russell proves quite enjoyable with brash brightness for a part that is part-hero and part-sidekick, lumbering through lines of screwball bravado, whether in engaging in some trucker lines on a truck, or showing confidence right before knocking himself out of a fight. Cattrall follows along the screwball aspects of the film at times with sharpness, making for a quirky time when paired with Russell. Dun proves well in keeping with the quick pace and timing required of our true hero with confidence that springs well with the action sequences. Hong (a prolific Chinese American actor of various mediums for six decades) proves a fair villain, inviting one with some creeping mystery (we are talking about a long-living sorcerer who wants a green-eyed bride/sacrifice, after all) that makes a satisfactory threat. Wong, Burton, and Li prove a decent supporting cast to a film that moves along for 99 minutes with an aim to make a snappy martial arts effects film and succeeding fairly well at it. With floating eyeballs, lightning effects, a underworld beneath Chinatown, and a big ugly monster, how could one resist such a film? To call it contrived or bumbling is missing out on the fun, particularly one with an interesting approach to the hero-sidekick dynamic. On the whole, it is a likable film with enough well-done staging in action and design to go with an amiable cast for a deserved cult classic and a fair piece in John Carpenter's line of work that is worth a watch.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.