User Reviews

One of the Best Maverick, B-Movie Directors Ever, John Carpenter has Gained Legions of Fans and has Attained an Almost Deity Status that, say, Roger Corman Never Could, Mostly because of Home Video and the Internet.

He has Directed a lot of Entertaining Movies, mostly Outside the Hollywood System and has Always been Comfortable Making Low to Mid Budget Movies with that Carpenter Vision. He has made Sure Enough Classics, a Few Mediocre (although His Cult would never admit it) Movies, and a Handful of Bad Ones (Blasphemy).

This is One that when First Released was Unfairly Maligned, Dismissed, and Outright Blasted by the Critics. It was Ignored at the Box Office and was a Big Flop. But the Director Never thought He was in Big Trouble. He just Continued Making Movies as if Nothing Ever Happened. This Film is Part of the Carpenter Canon and has become a Cult Favorite.

It is a High Energy Hoot of a Movie. The Director's Homage to those Mystical Asian Movies Full of Sorcery, Fun and Fantasy, Combined with an Over the Top Take on Marital Arts and Monsters. This was a Colorful, Costumed Creation Done with Wire Works and Real Life Make Up with a Minimal Use of the Primitive CGI Available. It is Entertaining as All Get Out.

Out of 20th Century Fox, Big Trouble in Little China is directed by John Carpenter and stars Kurt Russell, Kim Catrall, Dennis Dun, James Hong & Victor Wong. The adaptation is by W.D. Richter with the screenplay from Gary Goldman & David Z. Weinstein. Dean Cundey photographs and Alan Howarth doubles up with Carpenter for the musical score.

Truck driver Jack Burton (Russell) agrees to take his friend Wang Chi (Dun) to pick up his fiancée at the airport. Little does he know that he is about to get involved in a supernatural battle between good and evil beneath San Francisco's Chinatown district.

A box office failure upon its release, and known to be the moment when John Carpenter gave up on Hollywood, Big Trouble in Little China has gathered "cult" momentum over the years and shows up rather well these days. Blending Chinese mysticism with chop-schlocky adventure, Carpenter's movie is at once daft but also a ball of energetic fun - propelled by a handsome, but inept action hero. Carpenter had always wanted to tackle a martial arts movie, and here he gets to do it whilst laying on the comedy and playing with effects work as his movie mostly comes alive in a magical underworld of monsters, magicians and sexy green eyed women.

It's evident now that the film was ahead of its time, not from a technical viewpoint, but from the point it tried to Americanise chopsocky. This is some time before Chinese style wire-work and mythology became common to Hollywood, one has to believe that Tarantino was nodding approvingly around about this time. It's also worth noting that although this "American" movie has an American beefcake as its main protagonist, it's the Asian Americans who actually are the heroes of the piece, with Dun's sidekick the stand out hero as Russell's Burton bumbles his way from one sequence to the next. It was a bold move by Carpenter to structure the narrative this way, something that annoyed the executives at Fox and kept the paying public bemused. It's easy to see why the film failed, contrast it with the similarly themed Eddie Murphy movie, The Golden Child, from the same year, which was a box office success. There the public got what they wanted (or what they were used too), the standard American hero fluff where Murphy saves the day and gets the girl.

Carpenter dared to be different and clearly had a lot of fun along the way, as evidently did his cast. It may have taken a decade of VHS and DVD releases to prove he was right, but right he was, Big Trouble in Little China is a damn fine popcorn movie. Russell plays it meat head style, with swagger in tow and tongue stuck in cheek, nicely toned physique for the girls to enjoy, and making vest wearing cool two years before Willis did in Die Hard. Cattrall is wonderfully alluring, red lips and green eyes shimmering bright in a world of colour; and boys do look out for her wet scene, it's wolf whistle time! Dun is likable and athletic, while Hong as Lo Pan gives the action/adventure genre a truly memorable villain. The film is briskly paced and not found wanting in the set piece department either. Not all the effects are high grade stuff, but in a film with such zestful comic book traditions at heart, it hardly matters one jot. With a great home format package doing it justice, Carpenter's movie is now, at long last, getting the appreciative audience it fully deserves. Amen to that. 8/10

This movie occupied most my junior high years. Action, suspense, cheesy diaologue, and martial arts galore. What more could you ask for from a b-movie that is clearly a b-movie? Carpenter and the cast and crew must have had a blast on this film because I can't think of a single movie that combines some of my favorite things about movies: Action, comedy, violence, martial arts, and a small tour bus driver named Egg who also knows a little magic. Magic indeed. This is movie magic. Agree or disagree, you can't deny that Carpenter succeeded on all levels when he made this movie. Saturday matineeish? Yes. B-movie cheese? Yes. Pure movie-going fun? Absolutely. Watch and enjoy.

What can one say. The movie plays like one of those great old comic books you read as a kid. The dialogue is so cartoonish that you expect to see balloons appear above the characters heads. The acting is excellent, with everyone taking a tongue in cheek approach and obviously having a good time making the film. Some of the best fight scenes in recent memory, with everyone "kung-fu fighting" at the drop of a hat. Kurt Russel is a hoot as the more than slightly dumb macho hero. Cartoon violence minus the gore, humourous special effects, evil magicians, green eyed damsels in distress, even a monster or two.

A great film for a night of light movies! See it if you get a chance!

Kurt Russell stars as Jack Burton, a long haul truck driver who ends up getting caught up in this bizarre fight in San Francisco's Chinatown district. As an aside, never once does he have a trailer hooked up to his rig. What exactly is he hauling? I guess I can assume he picked up a trailer from his origin point, dropped the trailer off at his destination, and now is driving through San Francisco enroute to pick up another trailer to bring somewhere else? Who knows.

Russell gets caught up in this crazy conflict in Chinatown involving a Chinese prince/crime lord. It seems that the prince/crime lord have kidnapped Russell's friend's fiancee--a beautiful green-eyed Chinese woman. It seems that the a green-eyed woman is the key to removing an ancient curse that keeps the prince/crimelord immortal and flesh-less. Kim Cattrall appears as a green-eyed American woman who I guess just lives in Chinatown and knows all about the conflict. Cattrall's green eyes end up attracting the interest of the Chinese prince/crime lord who decides to kidnap her as well, thinking that he can offer her up as tribute to the god who placed the ancient curse on him, then the green-eyed Chinese woman will live out her life as his unwilling wife.

This movie was ridiculous and absurd in all the best ways-- lots of extended gymnastics tumbling scenes, overly long airborne sword fights, people jumping much higher than they should be able to, a monster with an eyeball on the end of his tongue, Russell getting his boot knife stuck in a guy's body, blinding lasers coming out of people's mouths, lightning strikes emanating from people's bodies... this movie has everything.

This is one of the wildest stories ever: a cartoon come to life and a mixture of an old-time serial with modern special-effects with bold colors all the way through.

This movie is pure tongue-in-cheek. One just has to take nothing seriously in here and just go along on the wild ride. From the nonsense mystical Chinese sorcery that is taken so reverently, to the American hero "Jack Burton" (Kurt Russell) who displays the fearless macho man, to combatants flying through the air (this was 15 years before Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was filmed), to one exotic character and situation after another - it's all absurd fun.

Russell plays his role to the hilt, playing his favorite kind of role when he was younger: brash, bold and an ignoramus who fears absolutely nothing. His lines are deliberately corny and one can bet he had a lot of fun making this movie. He even gets in a few good comedic lines. His partner, Dennis Dunn, is a likable guy with a devilish grin on his face and Kim Cattrell plays the more modern damsel-in-distress role to the hilt, too.

They could have lightened this up a bit on the action - it gets to be too much at times - but the movie is just slightly over an hour-and-half. It still wore me out the first few times I saw it.

All in all: ludicrous fun, a kind of Indiana Jones in Chinatown adventure flick.

Big Trouble in Little China (1986) is one of the best movies ever! A true classic action film from the 80'! After 20.years watching again this movie it is still a classic sci-fi action film. Kurt Russell rocks also there is theme music from Escape From New York (1981) my favorite classic film that Kurt Russell and John Carpenter worked on it together.Clever one liners that will keep you rolling. This movie has it all, high kicks, low kicks, laughs, ghouls, demons, girls, and much more. Oh and did I mention Chinese black Magic? This movie will definitely engulf your living room in green flame and keep you asking for more. Big Trouble in Little China is amazing. Action, adventure and comedy are all here, and the result is one of the best cult classic films of all time. I must have seen this movie 50+ times, and it never gets old. Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) is the character that everyone would like to be just for a day (maybe more). Driving around in The Pork Chop Express, beating up the bad guys, scoring with the ladies.....it's all in the reflexes for OI' Jack Burton! This is one of the most entertaining movies of the 80's, possibly ever!

I grew up watching this film, seen now after 20.years of watching this film later, It is still my favorite awesome action film! Mainly because of Kurt Russell the man can kick ass! He has humor, charm and can do a good things. He was so funny and hilarious in this film. Gosh the film is wonderful and I just love it so much. Is actually my fourth best John Carpenter/Kurt Russell film and I just love those four movies so much! I Love Big Trouble in Little China to death and It was hard to get this film on Blu-ray. It is one of John Carpenter's awesome adventures. Kurt Russell plays the egotistical Jack Burton extremely well, delivering the cheesy macho lines in the way they were intended. Beautifully filmed (the fight scene in the alley), this has been one of my favorites from Carpenter for a long time with Escape from New York, Escape from L.A. , The Thing, Prince of Darkness, The Fog and Vampires.

Special effects are great, wonderful and outstanding! It is favorite Kurt Russell's performance, underrated gem of a movie, and one of the most quotable too. I love how this all started because Wang lost a drinking game to Jack. To this day I haven't seen anything like it.That's movie magic right there. Jack Burton should be in the top 10 movie characters ever!. San Francisco, CA-Jack Burton is possibly the greatest hero to ever walk the Earth at least in his own mind!!! The chemistry between Jack and Wang is so believable you want to see more adventure between the duo. This movie has a lot of fun, it is enjoyable flick it has imagination, great acting from all the actors, they all lightning us up with great performances. The action and adventures are super amazing, it is like you want to be in this movie! It has super fun characters in here and a cool awesome monster!

Big Trouble in Little China is 80's classic! I love everything that it is in this film. I love the score, especially in the underworld. The battle in the alley when the 3 storms turn up is awesome. Don't see many films that transcend this many genres as well. I heard they are also planning to remake this film Big Trouble in Little China (2016) with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in it! Why? Only to get more money? Why remaking or rebooting this film?, when we already have a classic action film here! This film does not need any reboot or remake, leave it alone the way it is! "Gosh"

Big Trouble in Little China is a 1986 American action comedy film directed by John Carpenter. It stars Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun and James Hong.

The basic plot about this film is about Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) a simple man who doesn't believe in ghosts or magic until he's swept into a mind-boggling adventure deep within Chinatown's mysterious underworld. Burton's pal, Wang Chi (Dennis Dun), is trying to rescue his kidnapped fiancée. Egg Shen (Victor Wong), an enigmatic tour-bus driver seems to know a lot about ancient Chinese magic for a simple tour-bus driver.

They do battle with an outlandish array of human and inhuman adversaries under the command of Lo Pan (James Hong), a 2000-year-old evil magician who has the power to transform himself from a wheelchair-bound old man into a seven-foot-tall mystical menace. It does involves black magic and mystical forces of darkness.

An adventurer trucker takes on 2000-year-old magician who must marry a green-eyed young girl who formerly was kidnapped in front of his eyes . The trucker (Kurt Russell) along with a varied group (Kim Cattrall , Dennis Dun , Victor Wong , Kate Burton) set out in pursuit sinister Le Pan (James Hong) who wants to restore his youth . Later , it happens mayhem and wreak havoc beneath the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown and encountering every Chinese cliché known . They contend three nifty warlords who are equipped with their own static electricity and large hats.

This exciting picture contains noisy action , thrills, a load of Kung-Fuey and lots of humor with tongue in cheek attitude . The movie is full of Chinese tortures , water tortures , dark underground streams, black magic creatures and surprising catacombs . Kurt Russell as the T-shirt trucker is good and likable , he unwittingly becomes involved into a mystical world underneath . The pig trucker is a swagger , a John Wayne-lookalike, who when he fires his gun into the ceiling the plaster to fall on his head. Nice electronic musical rightly fitting the action by the same director John Carpenter . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Dean Cundey . Overwhelming especial effects showcase by the expert Richard Edlund , with no computer generator . Director John Carpenter is in familiar ground with this well-done tale on the style of comic books , Saturday morning cartoon , Indiana Jones wake and old serials . The film was realized during his best period in the 70s and 8os when he directed classics as ¨Halloween¨, ¨The fog ¨, ¨Christine¨, ¨They live¨, ¨1997 escape from N.Y .¨and ¨The thing¨ . The movie will appeal to adventure fans but packs a roller-coaster thriller and wholesome amusement . Rating : Above average. The film will appeal to Kurt Russell fans and John Carpenter enthusiasts.

John Carpenter really steps away from his usual fare in this easy going `fortune-cookie theater' parody that was originally the manuscript for the second Buckaroo Banzai movie. It features a cast of pithy characters, bizarre and memorable dialogue, entertaining special effects and fight scenes that are well choreographed by western standards.

For those of you who already love John Carpenter, prepare for one of his finest moments. In 1987 Carpenter's sentimental sci-fi-side made `Starman' an instant classic and in 1984 his tense, brooding gothism made `Prince of Darkness' truly frightening. Sandwiched in-between these movie greats is the 1986 production of `Big Trouble on Little China', where eastern martial arts mysticism meets John Wayne bravado with zany and often absurdly hilarious results. How can you not love a movie unwilling to take itself too seriously while at the same time still managing to keep a straight face?

Carpenter's skills as a director, producer and songwriter come together in this film to produce what many consider to be his finest work. Big Trouble' s theme and content naturally compliments Carpenter's style of cynical humor, flashy cinematic expression and loose, caricature-esque development of memorable story line figures. If this isn't his opus magnum then it is at least one of his greatest moments as a director.

I have to admit that I'm no big fan of John Carpenter. His movies always have the B-movie taste to them that somehow most of the time rubs me the wrong way, like he's not even trying. But sometimes, once in a great while, he manages to make that B-movie thing work. The result is highly entertaining, not least because you can tell he's having a lot of fun.

I would probably rate this movie and "Escape from New York" as Carpenters best work. Not only are they solid fun, they are also well made for their time and budget constraints. "Big Trouble in Little China" has some pretty good special effects all things considered. And having watched the movie something like fifteen times when i was younger, it stands the test of time surprisingly well when i watch it today. Other than the effects the main attractions are Kurt Russels overblown hero, the quite massive amount of surprisingly good martial arts action and all the freaky characters. Mainly though what saves the experience is the constant tongue-in-cheek feeling.

I'm sure that younger people may not find this movie that exciting. But for me having watched it for the first time when i was maybe 11-12 years old, this is pure nostalgia. And like i said above, it's nostalgia that unlike so many other things hasn't lost all of it's shine. Saying "i wished they would make movies like this nowadays" makes me feel too old though so i won't say it. But movies that don't take themselves too seriously have always attracted me, and this is a bullseye in that department. Recommended!

John Carpenter's career peaked with Big Trouble in Little China -- and what a peak it is. No other director/writer has attempted to create what Carpenter did in the 80's. Why this took so long to come to DVD is beyond me. This movie makes the best mix of cavalier anti-heroes, humorous villains, dark magic overtones, and good old fashioned fight scenes (done up as a mix of kung fu with old west shoot-em-up).

Those who don't like this movie don't get it's inherent self-deprecatory theme. This movie is all about fun. If you don't get it, see a doctor about your broken funny bone!

I just don't get it. I enjoy campy movies a lot of the time but this one... I just don't get it. Maybe if I saw it back in the 80's it would have been different but I saw this for the first time last night--my friend loves it--and I can't see how anyone (the Times reporter quoted on the box seemed to think this was the greatest action movie ever)can think it's more than... more than... I don't even know. The comedy, what little I noticed, was delivered and directed poorly--the time was off so often. The plot development and character development was pathetic. I've never heard so many characters suddenly stop and spend a minute to rant to the ignorant hero about what was going on. (On second, I have to go downstairs and fight the evil demon who was just released from hell by my next door neighbor who says evil chants every night from a black book he found while walking along a dark alley many years ago that was being guarded by 2 ninjas who were trained by an ancient master who happens to be coming after my head.) Now, sometimes that can be funny or at least amusing. And, obviously a lot of people must think that, in this case, it is... but it seemed so accidental. So much like they didn't notice they were making a bad movie. So.... I just don't get what everyone sees in this!!!!!

Despite his recent slide into mediocrity, John Carpenter is responsible for what could be termed some of the biggest cult movies of the 1980's. Following his resounding success with Halloween he went on to direct a number of quirky yet excellent movies that began to tail of toward the end of the 80's with the release of such dross as Prince of Darkness. Carpenters movies are probably some of the most under appreciated pictures of recent cinema history on a commercial level, and none more so than perhaps one of his finest, the delightfully absurd action movie Big Trouble in Little China.

The plot is as daft as they come. Loud mouthed truck driver Jack Burton (played by Carpenter's long time collaborator Kurt Russell) arrives in San Francisco's Chinatown where he agrees to help out old friend Wang (played by Denis Dun) by driving him to the airport to pick up his green eyed fiancé. Things quickly go south however when a band of street punks kidnap the girl and the motley duo set off in pursuit. The pair soon find themselves caught in the middle of gang war that takes on a decidedly mythical bent and are forced to flee while Jack's truck is stolen. All this occurs within the first fifteen to twenty minutes.

If there's one thing you can say about Big Trouble, it's that it's action packed. The plot (such as it is) moves at an incredible pace and the film rarely slows to take breath as it rolls from one action set piece to the next. In such movies, normally the dialogue, and subsequently the acting suffer from a lack of any real attention. Not so here. Carpenter balances everything so perfectly that it's a wonder his career took such a slide. Although the actual story may be incredibly absurd and at times suffers from some rather obvious gaps of logic, the dialogue never fails to sparkle. Russell gives his very best wise ass shtick as Burton, the confused have a go hero who's so out of his depth he should really be fish bait, while Dun excels with a character who is consistently more heroic and capable than the lead. Another wonderful turn comes from an appearance by a young Kim Cattrall (of Sex and the City fame) as Gracie Law, a downmarket lawyer with an ability to talk at incredible speed. Some of the scenes between these three are pure comic genius, as Dun and Cattrall rattle out plot information at a rapid staccato pace while an increasingly bewildered Russell tries desperately to keep up.

Despite such positive remarks, Big Trouble was perhaps one of Carpenter's biggest commercial flops. While many of the movie's fans find this difficult to understand I do not. The reason for its failure is really incredibly simple. In terms of its style and the underlying comedy behind the piece, Carpenter's loving part tribute, part send up of all things Kung Fu was way ahead of the curve in every important respect. Take the relationship between our 'hero' Jack and his 'sidekick' Wang. The true dynamic of this relationship is a wonderfully post modern slant on the cliché buddy dynamic that existed in the 80's and it was done long before post modernist humour became truly fashionable in films (the most obvious example of post modern piece of cinema being Scream). Despite receiving star billing, Russell's Jack is actually a sidekick to Wang. While Wang has the knowledge, the skill and the courage to make him a true classic hero figure, Jack lags behind, being brash, ignorant and of little actual use in a fight. Similarly the action, although remarkably quaint by today's standards in both its look and execution, is a surprisingly accurate foreshadow of the current Hollywood move toward the more graceful, balletic chaos exhibited by movies like The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Ultimately Big Trouble in Little China is a movie that survived thanks to the home video market and for that we can only be grateful. While its looks may have aged, its sense of humour and style is as fresh today as the day it first rolled out in cinemas. In short, it's pure escapist magic.

You can't actually go wrong when you've got John working with Kurt, Victor and myths. The plot is great, develops swiftly, and the pacing is fast and non-stop without this ever being overwhelming. It doesn't overstay its welcome, either. Russell delivers one-liners, and a spot-on performance, heck, everyone who needs to, acts well in this. They also found the coolest, meanest looking Asians who could fight and put 'em in this. The martial arts are seriously kick-ass. The supernatural aspects are a perfect mix of silly and incredible, with fantastic and interesting material, done in a tone that is relatively respectful but also poking fun, so regardless of how you feel about spiritual type stuff, if you like adventure flicks(and, honestly, in almost all cases, I don't, and I enjoyed myself immensely), you will probably love this. This has highly imaginative, and quite weird, creatures and occurrences. The humor is excellent, much of it coming from the well-written dialog, the music is well-composed and fitting, and this is a smoothly blended mix of fun-filled action, horror and mystical events in a film that you can barely take your eyes off, all of this adding up to a real tour de force by Carpenter. Whoever says movies can't be creative and hold surprises... you're watching the wrong ones. There is language in this, reasonably infrequent and mostly mild, no sex and the violence is PG, whilst rather exciting and engaging. I recommend this to any fan of the director, actors and/or anyone else who helped make this happen. 7/10

The truck driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russel) arrives in Chinatown, San Francisco, and goes to the airport with his Chinese friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) to welcome his green-eyed fiancée Miao Yin (Suzee Pai) that is arriving from China. However she is kidnapped on the arrival by a Chinese street gang and Jack and Wang chase the group. Soon they learn that the powerful evil sorcerer called David Lo Pan (James Hong), who has been cursed more than two thousand years ago to exist without physical body, needs to marry a woman with green eyes to retrieve his physical body and Miao is the chosen one. Jack and Wang team-up with the lawyer Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall), the bus driver and sorcerer apprentice Egg Shen (Victor Wong) and their friends and embark in a great adventure in the underground of Chinatown, where they face a world of magicians and magic, monsters and martial arts fighters.

"Big Trouble in Little China" is one of the best action movies of the 80's. The director John Carpenter deserves an Oscar for his filmography. It is amazing how many great movies John Carpenter has offered for us, lovers of action / sci-fi / horror movies. "Big Trouble in Little China" combines action, comedy and magic and in Brazil has been presented many times in the afternoon / popcorn session of TV. Kurt Russel is great in this type of movie, and Kim Cattral (the ex-Lieutenant Klingon of Star Trek and the nymphomaniac Samantha in "Sex and the City" ) is gorgeous as Gracie Law. "Big Trouble in Little China" is a great entertainment for the whole family. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Os Aventureiros do Bairro Proibido" ("The Adventurers of the Forbidden Zone")

Note: On 14 November 2014, I saw this movie again.

Note: On 03 October 2020, I saw this movie again.

Note: On 18 March 2024, I saw this movie again.

Now let me just speak my peace before some of you either laugh at me or totally agree with me but i feel Big Trouble in Little China is one of the greatest movies of all time!! Actually it is my favorite movie of all time!! Yes i know such movies as Saving Private Ryan, Shawshank Redemption, or even Willy Wonka might be looked upon as better movies but i say "Who Cares!!!" Big trouble in Little China is a fun movie that you can sit back on a lonely night and just enjoy. The plot is pretty basic and that is why it is easy to follow. Yet the acting of Kurt Russell alone makes the movie. Im not saying this just because i am a BIG KR fan but he just does a wonderful job in this movie as a Truck drive who has no clue on whats going on but just goes with the flow! The witty lines of Kurt Russell in this movie are some of the funniest lines i have ever heard come from an actors mouth.. I mean the whole part of Lo-pan and Jack in the wheelchair is one of the funniest peices of material i have ever seen on the big screen... Well gtg and just remember if some wild 8ft tall monster grabs the back of your favorite head and slams it aganist the bar room wall and ask if you paid your dues!!??! well just tell him what ole jack always says.. " Yes sir the check is in the mail"

"Big Trouble in Little China" is a perfect film is you want an action picture where you don't need to think too much. This is NOT meant as an insult...sometimes you really want a movie like this. The plot to the film is a bit like "Pee Wee's Big Adventure"...combined with a martial arts movie...an odd combination to say the least!

When the story begins, Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) is driving with a Chinese-American friend in Chinatown. Suddenly, they find themselves in the middle of a Tong war...with hatchets, guns and mayhem. The 'good guys' appear to be winning when suddenly, several demigod-like characters arrive....with mystical powers and like the worst of the baddies in Shaw Brothers martial arts films. Jack and his friend manage to escape...but Jack loses his truck and the bulk of the film consists of the good guys infiltrating the baddies' hideout to extricate kidnapped women...and Jack's truck.

If you are looking for realism, do not watch this picture. It's all very tongue-in-cheek and silly...and Russell plays a tough guy who really is in way over his head. Very enjoyable...not especially deep.

Another one of the Carpenter classics (perception wise that is) and another one added to the list. I had not seen this until the other day and have to admit it was quite the fun ride. The two main characters really elevate the movie experience and really do the best to make this as fun as possible.

That doesn't mean this is without flaws. Quite the opposite is the case, the pacing may be too much for some, the coherent level may vary and you may get confused more than a few times. But the movie has enough charme to get you over any of that. It has enough crazy ideas and enough of buddy comedy and enough of mythology to get your juices going.

For some so much, that they might be angered I only gave this 8 - but for others this may feel as too high a rating. If you haven't seen it yet, give it a try. The effects especially (because pre CGI) have aged very well, this can be as camp as you want it to be. Entertainment all around

John Carpenter's 'Big Trouble In Little China' is one of the most amusing movies I have seen to date. This 1980's cult classic, is weird, lively, entertaining & amusing.

Kurt Russell stars as Truck Driver, Jack Burton, who helps his friend Wang Chi, played by Dennis Dun, rescue his green-eyed fiancée from bandits in San Francisco's Chinatown. What follows later on, is a series of unexpected moments, that are executed with humor!

'Big Trouble In Little China' is not at all meant for the pseudo critics. It's for those, who enjoy cinema, even when it insults your intelligence. It's for those, who don't mind watching a villain who's 2000 years old, to begin with! This cult classic packs in several interesting moments, especially in the first hour, which is quite funny. The Second Hour goes wilder, and the culmination is well-shot. Carpenter's direction is good. Cinematography, Editing & Art Design are note-worthy. Special Effects & Make-Up are good.

Performance-Wise: Russell is absolutely superb as the main hero, who hardly does anything heroic. He gets his comic timing right and entertains from start to end. Dennis Dun is lovable. Kim Catrall & James Hong are first-rate. Others lend able support.

On the whole, If your willing to forgive it's escapism, then I would say do check it out. It's one cinematic experience!

Let me just say this about BTLC, I have never changed the chanel if I find it on TV. Its like a blessing. Continuously impressive since it came out when I was five years old, I have enjoyed it on new levels over the years. Its blend of Chinese black magic with American style and humour that only Kurt Russel and Dennis Dun could pull off makes it an unforgettable adventure comedy.

The big problem with Big Trouble in Little China is that no one went to see it in theaters. Poor box office reciepts makes for a small fan base and its sad how few people have seen this film. Though not soaring art with grand ideals, Illalways remember BTLC as one of the best films of my lifetime.

One hopes that Kurt Russell was having fun in the making this film, because his Jack Burton character comes across as farcical. "Big Trouble in Little China" is a far-fetched story about dark magic and sorcery in an underground of China Town. The setting for the film is San Francisco's famous China Town. But most of the filming of that locale is clearly done on sound stages. The only real scenery of the Bay area is in the opening with Burton driving his 18-wheeler across the Golden Gate Bridge.

The film is supposed to be an action, magic and comedy plot. It comes across mostly as a hokey disjointed product with lots of visual effects and martial arts, but very little substance for a plot.

The screenplay is as disjointed as the plot. The film is loaded with special effects for the various magic and witchcraft scenes. The fantasy aspects lean more toward voodoo or satanic powers than magic. Russell's character almost seems out of place with the cast of Asian actors.

Besides the fantasy scenarios, the film is loaded with fighting, chases, and other action scenes. The script is lame for most of the dialog - so that many of the characters sound forced or unrehearsed. The whole film could have been made without Russell's character. And that's what gives one the impression is was intended more as a comedy and farce than as a magic or fantasy and action flick. Or, his addition was thought to be the golden carrot to sell the film.

But, the movie audience of 1986 weren't buying this one. It was a box office flop and barely covered half its budget in the U.S. A better effort to make this a clear cut farce of all the martial arts films might have done more to put this film over. As it is, there's not much to recommend.