Review of Big Trouble in Little China (1986) by Alonso A — 06 Nov 2015

This just might be the most 80s movie I've ever seen, and I'm willing to bet if I had seen it back then I would have some heavy nostalgia for it. The action is nuts, and the acting is all over-the-top.

I love Kurt Russell's matter-of-fact delivery as the guy who just assumes he's better than everyone else and doesn't care if he's not. I also had a big crush on Kim Cattrall back in those days, so I can overlook her sub-par acting ability.

But the real magic comes from James Hong, a superb actor that seems to perfectly understand the level of camp to add to his performance. The difficulty I have with this movie is that I'm older now and I can't turn off the critical part of my brain.

The story just doesn't make any sense, and it is not set up well either. I know what was happening by the end, but how the movie got you there was just terrible. I also hate how they constantly introduce new characters with virtually no explanation and just keep rolling along as if it suddenly makes sense that this person wants to jump into a life-or-death fight against magical beings.

Also, because of this abundance of new people it was almost impossible to really develop any of the characters, and make us care about them. Finally, I think the last problem I had with the movie was the lack of rules for the magic.

I didn't understand who could do what, why they could do it, or how powerful they were. Still the movie is goofy, and I think most of that is intentional. I got some laughs out of Big Trouble in Little China, and I can see why it is a big fan favorite.