Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

If there is anything to remember John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China for, it is that this film caused Carpenter to finally return to doing independent films after his disappointing run in Hollywood. Escape from New York (1981) was his first big-budget project that also was one of his high points. I was disappointed by Escape from New York. While having Carpenter at his atmospheric best where he creates a fascinating,  and stunningly visionary, setting , as well as being successful and acquiring a dedicated following, it is plagued with a weak plot and sacrificing style well over any sort of substance. Then he moved on to his creature-feature,The Thing (1982), which is well directed, but gross-out visuals and his usual characterization problems caused problems. After The Thing, Carpenters originality disappeared and he resorted to glossy 80s-styled action flicks that have lost almost all of their appeal over the past two decades. With his obvious talents it is shocking to look back at how disappointing his time in Hollywood was. Now we have arrived at the film at hand that finally helped Carpenter come to his senses and return him to his ideal form.

Set in San Francisco's Chinatown. Loud-mouthed truck driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) and his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) must save Chi's girlfriend, Miao Lin (Suzee Pai), who has been captured by the powerful sorcerer Lo Pan (James Hong). Lo Pan is the leader of the Wing Wong gang, and his sorcerer henchmen -- called "The Three Storms" -- slaughter a rival gang with their powers and steal Miao Lin so Lo Pan can marry her and earn eternal youth. That is the type of plot that you would expect to be in the head of a 10-year-old boy who can't decide whether he wants to be a wizard, a cowboy, or a ninja, so he just chooses them all. Ironically this film would probably strain the attention span of the 10-year-old who thought of the idea. Remembering the film has every fun moment being continuously interrupted by some idiotic back-and-forth between hero and villain or just abrupt moments of running around -- oddly there is a lot of running around and searching in the campy setting.

There is too much acting in a film that doesn't have any acting to use. Kurt Russell is satisfying when he is fighting something, but his "what's going on" character never becomes that macho badass that he has every reason to be. Young Kim Kattrall shows off her limited acting skills as a dedicated lawyer (horribly named Gracie Law). Dennis Dun plays more of a serious, and at times even more important, role than Russell just without the screen time. James Wong is solid as the evil sorcerer, Lo Pan, desperately wanting eternal youth.

Of course it is the action and visuals that are the entire appeal of Big Trouble in Little China. Carpenter's direction, as always, works well with action sequences. All of the colorful (in appearance and fascination) sets are used well which can distract some attention from the various dull scenes. It is true that Carpenter was not pleased with Boss Film Studios visual effects work, but even though the visuals attack viewers with colors, lights, and even brief, subtle moments of Carpenter's gross-out tactics, they still are a strong point.

It is not surprising that Hollywood actually thought this idea could work, they are always full outrageous ideas, especially in the 80s. Learning of all the trouble that went into the making of the script for this film is unbelievable. Gary Goldman and David Weinstein wrote the original script, but producers rejected it because they didn't feel the genre mixing work together. So, next they brought in respected veteran W.D. Richter (like The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai had a good script!) to make some major changes. Well, whatever changes were done, the script is still lousy and the dialogue is full of pauses and even more over-emphasizing. To think that Kurt Russell's awful southern accent and terrible one-liners were actually intended to be a satiric representation of John Wayne is horrendous.

Big Trouble in Little China is one of the weakest films Carpenter has ever made. I already wasn't a fan of his work from the 80s and this film finalizes my opinions. It is always a shame to see a director who always shows signs of extreme talent to suffer because he/she doesn't stick to their guns and stay true to what brought them popularity, and mass acclaim on Carpenter's part. This 80s flick suffers from all the usuals: bad acting, incoherent plot, and horrendous dialogue. Redeeming the flaws suffered here required something to take viewer's minds off of all the dribble being thrown at us, and unfortunately nothing came to the rescue. All in all, this film fails at being dumb-fun and will be forgotten quickly after being viewed.