Review of Big Trouble in Little China (1986) by Ahmedaiman9999 — 29 Sep 2018

-"Ol' Jack Always Says... What The Hell?".

Filled with cheesy one-liners, next-level campy spirit, bizarre and silly fighting sequences, oddball humor, and zany special effects. All these things made Big Trouble in Little China nothing but a funny guilty-pleasure, but I don't totally agree with that opinion.

Actually, I think this movie is a strong proof that John Carpenter was one of the best, and most versatile filmmakers who worked in the eighties. With all the mentioned-above delightful ingredients, Carpenter didn't neglect making a good movie in the first place.

It's really impressive to see Carpenter among all this sheer fun utilizing many cinema tropes, such as; Chekhov's Gun, and MacGuffin. Or to see him really care about the main character improvement. Just try to remember how Jack Burton became totally different at the end from what he was when we introduced to him for the first time. Needless to say, that Kurt Russell gave an incredibly charismatic performance.

The movie is not without its flaws nonetheless, for there are some issues I couldn't help but notice. First and foremost, the first act represented a lot of characters, and potential sub-plots that didn't pay off neither as the story progresses, nor at the end of the movie.

Secondly, I think Margo, a journalist played by Kate Burton, was completely useless, and seemed to exist only to fill up some places. Finally, there was a lot of exposition that we didn't even need. I mean what's the benefit of telling us the same information two or three times. If some characters don't know some information that doesn't mean that we need to witness all the main characters, one by one, get the same information over and over again! I found the romantic relationship between Jack Burton and Gracie Law a bit cringe-worthy at first, but then it turned out that this was intentional, and this very relationship even became very satisfying for me by the end of the movie.

This is the movie that invented the expression "A blast from start to finish.".

(7.