Here we have a very '80s action adventure staring Kurt Russell's hair. The film has achieved cult status over the years and remains a popular entry in John Carpenter's filmography. Coming a couple years after his more conventional, character driven "Starman, it's an over-the-top, campy extravaganza with supernatural elements, action sequences, and deliberate humor.
Jack Burton, a brash and cocky truck driver played to perfection by Kurt Russell. Russell delivers a charismatic performance, embodying the spirit of a classic Western hero who gets tangled up in an adventure in San Francisco's Chinatown. His performance is the film's highlight.
In "Big Trouble in Little China" Chinatown, or specifically secret catacombs under Chinatown, there lurks an ancient and powerful sorcerer, Lo Pan. Jack Burton finds himself caught up in the middle of a battle to defeat Lo Pan and get his truck back... er, I mean free two green-eyed women Lo Pan has kidnapped. The film is a big budgeted take on the tropes of Chinese centered exploration film, full of martial arts, magic, stereotypes and cliches.
The practical visual effects are fun, the soundtrack is of course on point, the action is good and the script is loaded with laughs. The whole is a call back to B-action movies, Westerns and creature features shifted into an '80s thriller. Whether the tongue in cheek tone of "Big Tro6in Little China" works is a matter of taste.
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