Film review: Big Trouble in Little China
Posted: June 14th, 2010 | Author: Tara | Filed under: Film | 3 Comments »Saturday night Neil and I watched Big Trouble in Little China and I walked away from it with glee, wondering where this movie has been all my life. It’s the best kind of bad movie–hilarious, schlocky with fun fighting scenes and cringe-worthy dialogue.
Directed by John Carpenter, Big Trouble in Little China stars Kurt Russell as Jack Burton, a truck driver who wins $1,500 while gambling in Chinatown, only to have to follow the guy who lost to the airport so he can collect his winnings. Of course, he doesn’t collect his winnings right away because many things happen first, starting with the kidnapping of the loser’s fiance and his truck being taken by a Chinese gang.
I didn’t know anything about the movie going into it so I was surprised to see that Jack Burton isn’t the typical ass-kicking, always winning hero. He’s ineffectual, just this side of bumbling his way through Chinatown, but more than charming enough to pull it off.
Many stereotypes about Chinese culture come up in this movie as Burton and the other main characters traverse through the (somewhat literally) mystical underbelly of Chinatown. Neil and I wondered if we should have been offended like we were when watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but we weren’t. I’ve been thinking for a couple of days about why that could be and the best I can figure is that Big Trouble in Little China stuck with one culture and Temple of Doom created a weird cultural/religious mashup of Hinduism and a creepy, Hollywood version of voodoo.
Did I learn anything from this film? No, except that Kurt Russell is fantastic, although I already knew that. But it’s a damn fun film and one that I’ll be returning to again and again.
One final thing about Kurt Russell: he was up for the part of Han Solo (check out his audition tape below). Is there any role of Harrison Ford’s that he couldn’t have done as well if not better? Seriously, take a moment. Consider Han Solo, Indiana Jones, The Fugitive. They all would still be gold. Now think about it in reverse and try not to cry.
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[...] Film: Big Trouble in Little China [...]
Big Trouble in Little China is as fun as it is because Jack Burton isn’t a typical ass-kicking hero. He’s trying to be a typical American action hero but is in the wrong genre and is hopelessly lost. It’s a Chinese kung fu B-movie seen from the perspective of a guy who has no place being a character in this story, let alone the protagonist, and that just makes it endlessly fun.
And that’s exactly the paragraph I should have written. So well said.