Todd’s Serial Blog

Since I highlighted a film about an overly competent hero, I thought I would follow up with a film about a totally incompetent hero, Jack Burton (an hilarious Kurt Russell channeling John Wayne and Don Adams).  Like Bucharoo Banzai, Big Trouble in Little China was an odd mixture of martial arts action, slapstick comedy and supernatural horror that failed to find an audience during it’s original run, but has developed a thriving cult following on video.

The plot involves trucker Jack Burton helping his friend Wang when the man’s financee is kidnapped and taken into the catacombs below Chinatown where she will be used in a ritual to make a ten thousand year old translucent wizard Lo Pan solid flesh again.  With Wang and an interfering reporter tagging along, the overly confidant but totally inept Jack Burton braves demons and martial arts warriors as he goes to rescue the girl and destroy Lo Pan.

A clever twist to the film is that the side kick is really the hero, doing most of the fighting while the tough talking hero spends most of his time either knocked out, tied up or busy retrieving his dropped weapon during most of the action.  This makes his final confrontation  with the villain really scary since he has shown almost no ability to handle himself in any tense situation, yet he is the one who has to step up to the plate at the end. Of course it’s hard to be truly scared for him when you’re too busy laughing at the sight of his blustering heroic attitude while having bright red lipstick smeared all over his mouth.

If you have a liking for Indiana Jones style adventure, quick witted quips between a bickering hero and heroine, comedy out of the Three Stooges playbook, and dark caverns full of lightning throwing demons then this is the movie for you.

Tags: Reviews //