Big Trouble in Little China

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA: The last collaboration between director John Carpenter, director of photography Dean Cundey and actor Kurt Russell - a combo that produced Escape from New York and The Thing – this tongue-in-cheek, supernatural, kung-fu action-comedy couldn’t be more different from their previous films if it tried. In fact, it was so different the theatrical reaction at large in 1986 was a collective “What the F___?” But like most of Carpenter’s early work, cable and video cemented the film as a bonafide cult classic with more quotable lines that a Will Ferrell movie. Russell plays Jack Burton, a beefcake blow-hard truck driver who gets conned into rescuing a kidnapped Chinese girl from a 2000-year-old sorcerer. Along the way he must face the seven Chinese hells, three elemental warriors and a parade of supernatural creatures. Over-the-top in almost every respect, Big Trouble is unlike anything else in Carpenter’s oeuvre, which up until then included mostly horror films. It bears more than a passing resemblance to the outlandishly overplotted Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, which was also written by W.D. Richter. But that film didn’t have Russell as its testosterone-heavy anchor. Essentially doing a John Wayne impression through the entire movie, Russell gives the audience an outlet to laugh with the film rather than at it…an important distinction when you’re running over a 7-foot tall Chinese demon with light coming out of its eyes. Fox’s Blu-ray is a welcome treat, even if it doesn’t add anything to the previous special edition as far as extras are concerned. At least everything is accounted for and there’s a substantial visual upgrade.