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Big Trouble In Little China
1986
A cult favorite (and one of director John Carpenter's personal favourites), BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA is a fantasy-action film that is brilliantly imaginative, funny, and absorbing. Kurt Russell plays hard-boiled truck driver Jack Burton, who gets caught in a bizarre conflict within, and underneath, San Francisco's Chinatown. .. Read more
| Starring | Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun |
|---|---|
| Director | John Carpenter |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
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Big Trouble In Little China
A cult favorite (and one of director John Carpenter's personal favourites), BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA is a fantasy-action film that is brilliantly imaginative, funny, and absorbing. Kurt Russell plays hard-boiled truck driver Jack Burton, who gets caught in a bizarre conflict within, and underneath, San Francisco's Chinatown. An ancient Chinese prince and Chinatown crimelord has kidnapped a beautiful green-eyed woman, who is the fiancee to Jack's best friend. Jack must help his friend rescue the girl before the evil Lo Pan uses her to break the ancient curse that keeps him a fleshless and immortal spirit. Carpenter uses all the best elements of martial arts films, 1940s old action serials, Chinese mythology and straight-forward American adventure to make up a tale wild with imagination. Russell is wonderful as the brash, brave, and reluctant hero Jack Burton, who is hysterically out of place in this world of magic potions, goblins and curses. A visually stunning work that ranks as one of Carpenter's best films.
| Starring | Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun |
|---|---|
| Director | John Carpenter |
| Studio | 20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 36 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
| Language | English |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish |
| Released | DVD: 06 May 2002 Production year: 1986 |
| Format | DVD |
Big Trouble In Little China (1986)
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Critics' reviews (5)
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Horror maestro John Carpenter (Halloween) is clearly in awe of Hong Kong movies, but this brave attempt to fuse martial arts action with a westernised adventure story sadly doesn't quite jell. Kurt Russell makes an amiably inept hero as the dense lorry driver who gets mixed up with ancient Chinese cults and magic when he ventures beneath the streets of San Francisco. But the fight scenes are surprisingly stodgy, and, in the end, the special effects take over.
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Misfiring attempt to equal the nonsense of the Indiana Jones sagas; occasional effective action moments don't stop the whole from being tiresome.
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Most helpful member's review
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6 out of 6 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
80s Action Spoof
Funny 80s action spoof with a star turn from Kurt Russell as a John Wayne-esque trucker hero who doesn't actually do anything. Could have hyped up the ludicrousness a bit more to save us from those 80s vibes that were still coming through, but it was funny. Don't let the fact that it's parodying the genre detract from the fact that it's still for all intents and purposes an 80s actioner.
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Most recent members' review
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3 out of 4 people found this review helpful
You probably didn't see this when it came out
What this film attempted was to recreate a Hong Kong magical action film for a US audience. Its mistake was to try this in the mid-80s rather than the late-90s - it was way ahead of its intended audience.
It didn't help that the nominal US hero - Kurt Russell as a trucker one wheel short of an artic - is in reality the comedy sidekick, out of his depth, and it's his Chinese-American friend who's the real hero.
Stick Jackie Chan in it and do it now, and it'd have been much more successful.
So you probably didn't see this when it came out. But you should have done.
Funny, silly, thrilling and an early part for Kim Cattral (Samantha in 'Sex & The City') - what more do you want? What about one of the best movie scores ever? OK, it has that too. -
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Big Trouble In Little China
A cult favorite (and one of director John Carpenter's personal favourites), BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA is a fantasy-action film that is brilliantly imaginative, funny, and absorbing. Kurt Russell plays hard-boiled truck driver Jack Burton, who gets caught in a bizarre conflict within, and ...
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