Part of Midnight Movies
Kurt Russell stars as Jack Burton, a big-talking, wisecracking truck driver who’s suddenly hurled into a wild adventure even he could never invent. At the root of it all is Lo Pan (James Hong), a 2,000 year old evil magician who rules an empire of spirits beneath San Francisco’s Chinatown. Doomed to a fleshless existence, he can only be saved by a green-eyed Asian beauty.
When the fiancé (Suzee Pai) of Jack’s friend (Dennis Dun) is kidnapped by Lo Pan’s minions, Jack goes to the rescue. He finds himself dodging demons, grappling with goblins and facing baffling terrors like the Room of the Upside-Down Hell as he battles his way through the labyrinth of Lo Pan’s dark domain.
Director John Carpenter is in peak pop form in this delightful action/comedy/horror/kung fu comic strip come to life.
“A far more enjoyable mash-up of classic Westerns, Saturday-morning serials, and Chinese wu xia than any of the Indiana Jones movies, with Kurt Russell in full bloom as Carpenter’s de rigueur hard-drinkin’, hard-gamblin’, wise-crackin’ loner hero — a bowling-alley John Wayne.” —Scott Foundas, Village Voice “There are two kinds of people: the ones who have seen — and love — BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, a John Carpenter kung fu Western buddy Chinese ghost love story, and those poor saps who aren’t burdened with having to try and describe it to the uninitiated.” —Marc Bernardin, Entertainment Weekly
