Happy 30th Anniversary, Big Trouble In Little China!

This movie is one of my all-time favorites.

How can you not like a movie starring Kurt Russell directed by John Carpenter? Kurt Russell is also wonderful in The Thing and Escape from New York, but Big Trouble In Little China is a masterpiece--a genre mash-up before that was considered a thing. 

What is this movie? It's a comedy, martial arts, fantasy, drama, action movie with some romance. Kurt Russell stars as Jack Burton, a truck driver drawn into the search for a missing Chinese girl. Doesn't sound all that interesting when put like that, but the missing girl is the fiancee of Jack's friend, Wang Chi, and she's in the clutches of an ancient and powerful Chinese sorcerer, Lo Pan. Their adventures take them beneath San Francisco Chinatown and into a world of Chinese myth and superstition with the fate of the universe at stake.

What makes Jack Burton great is that he can take his lumps physically and verbally, and  keep coming back for more. He's a mixture of John Wayne and Indiana Jones (in his mind perhaps), but in many situations he's on his butt or out of the action. Kurt Russell is great in this film, and has a great supporting cast to include Kim Cattrall. The exchanges between Russell and Cattrall are reminiscent of the classic movies I adore. I could drop a bunch of quotes here, but there are so many great jokes and one-liners that you really need to experience the movie for yourself.

There are some over the top fight scenes, and even during the most serious of moments there are wisecracks and jokes to lighten it up. When I saw this movie back in the mid-eighties when it was released, I couldn't believe one movie could contain so much and make such a crazy idea work. And even now, 30 years later, I think it holds up well. You even forget Kurt Russell's mullet once the movie gets going--but if anyone can pull off a mullet, it's him.  ;)

The Blu-ray version is nicely done and contains all the special features found on the 2 disc DVD version. There are deleted scenes, an extended ending, trailers, a 1986 featurette, and a Kurt Russell and John Carpenter commentary.

So, if you've seen the movie before, you know what I'm talking about. But if you haven't watched it in a long time, or have not seen it at all, check it out. I'm pretty sure if you give it a chance, you won't be disappointed. And do me a favor: don't multitask while watching this, the film deserves your full attention.