Big Trouble In Little China (1986) review

Movie Poster

Big Trouble in Little China is an American film directed by John Carpenter (Halloween). It follows Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) who is a truck driver and delivers pigs to Chinese restaurants in the urban area of  Little China. He bets and gambles all night with his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) until dawn, Wang Chi owns a restaurant and after a lot of rounds he owes Jack about a thousand bucks. He needs to go to the airport though to pick up his girlfriend Miao Yin (Suzee Pai). Jack doesn't trust Wang Chi and makes him drive with him in his truck. They get to the airport and there Jack sees a girl named Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall)  who is also waiting for a girl. Meanwhile the Lords of Death gang appears in the airport worries Wang Chi. And he was right to worry because they steal Miao Yin and take her back to Chinatown. While following the Lords of Death with their truck Jack and Wang Chi run into a gang warfare between the Chang Sing who were performing a funeral and Wing Kong who interrupted that funeral. Chaos ensues and The Three Storms (Thunder, Rain and Lightning) join the fray and Jack tries to escape through the crowd but he runs over David Lo Pan (James Hong) who is the bearer of the darkest magic in the world.

Kurt Russell as Jack Burton

Man where do I start with this movie? It is everything you could ask for in an action movie added to Kurt Russell's amazing acting and macho. It has the gang warfare, the damsels in distress, the shooting, the cursing and humor. It is a brilliant and fresh film (even now in 2014) which surprisingly didn't do well in the box office (it did coincide with James Cameron's Aliens) and caused John Carpenter to refrain from making Hollywood movies ever again (due to the ridiculous mockery the critics gave him as reviews) but to be fair he did give us They Live after that so the legend of John Carpenter just went on. I give this movie a 9/10 minus 1 point because I felt the presenting weapons scene by thunder was a little too dragged out, but the rest of the movie was pure genius.