Big Trouble in Little China - Almost too much fun to handle

‘Big Trouble in Little China’ was not a box office success.  So says both its star (Kurt Russell) and its director (horror legend John Carpenter).  They blame its poor performance in cinemas on the fact that the studio behind it (20th Century Fox) ‘didn’t know how to market it.’ And, to be fair, they may have a point.

If you look at the promotional posters advertising the film, they read (something like), ‘A mystical, action, adventure, kung-fu, comedy horror film.’ That, by its own admission, is ‘splitting genres’ to the extreme.  Therefore, it was kind of hard to know who to market the film at.

My opinion: guys (mainly!) and generally anyone who likes a good old fashioned adventure movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously.  It’s one of those typical adventure movies that the eighties churned out.  I would almost be tempted to say that it was a ‘family’ movie for all to enjoy.  However, there is one use of the ‘f-word’ so I guess you have to be a bit careful showing it to the little ones!  I always put Big Trouble in Little China in roughly the same bracket as Indiana Jones (although the Indy die-hard fans will probably hate me for comparing the two so favourably!). 

Big Trouble is pretty cheesy.  If you like your adventure dark and straight-laced then you may not appreciate the humour and general tongue in cheek moments.  Plus it does like to break the odd cinema convention here and there.  It’s ‘hero’ (Kurt Russell), despite being obviously the leading man, is often little more than a sidekick when compared to those around him – who the film-makers take delight in pointing out at every turn!

There are too many hilariously-cool moments to list, but my favourite is always going to be monster who’s made up solely of eyes (he gets what’s coming to him), but a close second would be a man getting so emotional and upset that he explodes.

If those sorts of things sound appealing to you, then you will definitely enjoy Big Trouble in Little China and see that it’s a forgotten gem of a B-movie that can be watched and re-watched and enjoyed every time.

9/10 almost as perfect as The Godfather (in terms of B-movies!)