Big Trouble in Little China

Big Trouble in Little China; fantasy action comedy, USA, 1986; D: John Carpenter, S: Kurt Russell, Dennis Dun, Kim Cattrall, James Hong, Victor Wong, Kate Burton

San Francisco. Truck driver Jack Burton gives his friend Wang a lift to the airport, where he awaits his girlfriend Miao Yin, but she gets kidnapped by some thugs. Jack and Wang follow them in the truck to Chinatown, where they witness a confrontation between two gangs and appearance of a ghost sorcerer, Lo Pan. They loose the truck but meet the blond Gracie. Wang gradually reveals Jack that Lo Pan is an evil sorcerer who was defeated by Qin Shi Huang, but wants to marry and sacrifice Miao, a green eyed girl, to break the curse, gain a physical body and rule the world. The three of them and a street gang enter Lo Pan's hideout and kill him, saving the girl. Jack leaves without getting Gracie, but back in his truck there is still one monster left.

"Big Trouble in Little China" is a big budget film with little to no spirit. Even though it is directed by the legendary John Carpenter and subsequently gained cult status, this fantasy action comedy is forced, rushed, unconvincing, silly, contrived and not particularly funny—the first good joke doesn't appear all until 45 minutes (!) into the film, when the protagonist, Jack Burton (very good Kurt Russell), says: "I don't get this at all", so the villain Lo Pan replies: "Shut up, Mr. Burton! You are not brought upon this world to get it!". But that's really late for the punchlines to start appearing, especially if they remain rare even after that mark. Just take the weird scene somewhere near the beginning where Jack wins a bet from his friend Wang who double dares him and bets he can splice a bottle with his machete in half. Jack agrees, but takes Wang's prepared bottle away and instead places his own one, from which he just drank. Wang strikes and hits the bottle, making it bounce right into Jack's face, who is luckily fast enough to catch it. What's so funny about that? Well, that's just it—nothing much. Sure, there is a justification in the finale when Jack is shown using the knife, but a glass bottle would rather break into a thousand pieces than break in half. 

The whole film has only some 5-6 good jokes spread over 100 minutes of running time, and some 50 more that just backfire. Kim Cattrall is wasted and underused in the role as Gracie, when clearly more bantering and chemistry was needed between her and Jack. The action unravels neatly on the screen, but just a few of them cause any reaction from the audience, since the choreography is lacking, while spectacle and great special effects can't hide the lack of inspiration. There's all kind of unbelievable moments, from a floating monster head that sees everything that the bad guy Lo Pan sees up to evil magicians that rip the roof of a brothel, but only a hand full of good moments prevail. The last 20 minutes are the only ones that deserve to be seen, and the one with the most successful jokes—there's this amusing moment where Jack enters the bad guy's hideouts with his gang and spontaneously raises his machine gun up and fires above him, randomly hitting the ceiling which collapses and falls on his head, knocking him unconscious. In another amusing moment, the evil Lo Pan fires a green beam of light from his hands, and the good Shan fires a purple beam of light, and as the two beams collide, they form a bubble with two silhuettes fighting each other. If at least the whole film was as fun as that finale, it could have really been great. Sadly, this way, it's just a fast-paced confusion of disparate episodes and gags that fail to ignite.

Grade:+