Big Trouble in Little China requires a director who can walk the line between the campy dialog, fantasy scenes and explaining all the oriental mysticism that make up the film. Carpenter also had to contend with the fact that at the time the film came out, these over the top fantasy films from Hong Kong were pretty tough for an American audience to understand.
At the time I saw the film, I thought Kurt Russell was sending up a typical John Wayne performance with all of his macho posturing. Russell now seems a little more on the hammy side than he probably needs to be. He also doesn't seem to be entirely buying into the premise of the film.
Still, the film does have a lot to recommend it. It's a one of a kind film, with lots of crazy optical and practical effects, plenty of martial arts action and John Carpenter's very smooth film technique.
I saw this film at a 25th anniversary revival. The studio struck a new 35 mm print for it and the print looked very good. The trouble was that the projectionist had such little skill running the film, that he tended to miss the film cues and started the reel changes with the white film leader being shown.
Digital projection is taking its toll on the old fashioned way of showing films, apparently projectionists don't know how to run a film with actual celluloid in in.
99 minutes, written by Gary Goldman, David Z. Weinstein and W. D. Richter.
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