Big Trouble in Little China, 1986

A fantastic group of writers came through on this project. For Gary Goldman, this was his first produced story/script. He went on to write the scripts for Total Recall, the upcoming Total Recall 2 and the new Spielberg flick Minority Report. It's obvious this guy has a handle on Philip K. Dick stories, which both Recall and Report are from.

David Z. Weinstein wrote only this one script... and, I guess, disappeared off the face of the Hollywood Earth.

Now, this last guy is a fantastic writer, who directed one of the great cult sci-fi flicks of all time... Buckaroo Banzai. W.D. Richter has been in the industry (as a writer) since 1972 with Slither, starring James Caan and Peter Boyle. He's written some other flicks... nothing too mainstream, except for the re-make of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Dracula. In the 90's he wrote the script for Needful Things and Home for the Holidays. Other than that, his most recent adventures have been to try and get Banzai on the small screen, as a weekly television series.

This film stars Kurt Russell, who's starred in five of Carpenter's films, including the television movie Elvis (Russell plays Elvis), in 1979. From there, the two were almost inseparable. Escape from New York. The Thing. Big Trouble in Little China. Escape from L.A. The two work with an incredible dynamic (especially in this film)... Russell plays (almost anti-) hero Jack Burton... one of his best characters, to a T. Funny, brave, pompous... all around wonderful.

Two actors, Victor Wong and Dennis Dun, would soon work again, together, in Carpenter's 1987 flick Prince of Darkness. Both of them were hysterical in their roles. With Wong, I'm sure Carpenter saw his work in the 1986 Eddie Murphy vehicle The Golden Child... where he plays a similar character, an old wise man who believes in magic, etc. Egg Shen is one of the great chinese magicians... and Wong plays him wonderfully. Dennis Dun played side by side, again, with Wong in Year of the Dragon, before signing on to Big Trouble. It's unfortunate... but these two men have been typecast as the kung-fu guy and the old wise guy. They're both versatile actors who were swallowed up by Hollywoods quick eye for judgement.

Kim Cattrall plays Jack Burton's love interest, Gracie Law... and snooping lawyer. She's ok. She's annoying at times, but I think that's the character, plain and simple. Cattrall was 'that chick' in a number of 80's movies, including Police Academy, Turk 182!, and Mannequin. She was in some other flicks in the 90's that were so-so: Bonfire of the Vanities, Split Second (a great Rutger Hauer flick), the TV show Wild Palms, Unforgettable, Baby Geniuses, 15 Minutes... (a film called Live Nude Girls, if you can believe that)... and, what I think is the worst show on television, Sex and the City. She's a terrible character in this show... and it hurts to see Gracie Law an older, hornier chick with no fashion taste. Some nights I have to suffer through it because of my wife... and the pain is excrutiating.

James Hong, Kate Burton, and Donald Li round off the cast and they all do a fantastic job. I have to say that Suzee Pai is, without a doubt, the most beautiful asian woman I've ever seen. She was the Penthouse Pet of the Month for January, 81 (and, no, I don't have that issue, that info came from IMDB), and she has like two lines in the whole film. Too bad.

The Three Storms, Carter Wong, Peter Kwong and James Pax... all of them were complete bad-asses. Fantastic. It should be mentioned that, even though I don't know much about Chinese culture... and the Lightning character (James Pax) too closely resembles one of the characters in the Mortal Kombat video games... Raiden (I think). A little too close to call... the lightning, the dress... you have to wonder if the creators watched this film and the lightbulb popped over their heads.

Larry J. Franco was the producer on this flick (along with many other Carpenter films) and, as usual, did a fantastic job.

Dean Cundey did a phenomenal job with the cinematography. I just read some very interesting stuff on Cundey, and if you follow the link, you'll see the incredible resume this man has built up over the years, including two of the biggest money-making films in history.

As always, I love Carpenter's music. I think he has a real gift for scoring his films... his music is fun, energetic, and very scene selective. He has an ear for music. He worked, this time, with Alan Howarth... another veteral of scoring films. He started his work on Halloween II and worked his way up, with Carpenter, on Christine, Prince of Darkness and They Live. He finished out the Halloween series, worked on he Dentist (one and two) with Brian Yuzna, and scored the upcoming Halloween: The Homecoming and Children of the Living Dead. Hey, didn't Michael Meyers have his head chopped off in H2O?

April Ferry (costume design) and Les Gobruegge (art direction) did bang-up jobs on this film... George R. Nelson helped created an entire Chinatown from scratch for the making of this film (90% of the sets on this film were created by hand).

It's funny, but IMDB does not have Richard Edlund as the Special Effects producer on this film. His name isn't listed, not even under his own monicker. Very strange. Edlund was personally involved in the special effects of the film... which are fantastic, fun to watch... all with some seriousness and humor combined. His most famous work was on the Star Wars films, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Poltergeist, Ghostbusters, Fright Night, Die Hard, Ghost, Alien3 and the recent Bedazzled. Personally, his work is incredible... especially his work pre-90's. He was a genius in the industry, and was a driving force on how special visual and make-up effects are done today.

The DVD has an incredible print on it. The widescreen is beautiful to watch... all of us having suffered the pan-and-scan version for too long. The quality is amazing. I have yet to listen to the audio commentary... but I'm sure that with the dynamic between Carpenter and Russell, it will be a great listen. There are some neat special features, too... including an extended ending, deleted scenes and (oh boy) a music Video of Carpenter and some other guys singing a song... in the 1980's. Be warned.

Buy it. If you haven't seen this film, but dig any of Carpenter's work, still buy it. It's a fantastic film.

J.P.

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