Big Trouble in Little China
Rent & Buy
Truck driver Jack Burton gets embroiled in a supernatural battle when his best friend Wang Chi's green-eyed fiancée is kidnapped by henchmen of the sorcerer Lo Pan, who must marry a girl with green eyes in order to return to the human realm.
What critics thought
Critics in 1986 were genuinely split: admirers loved Kurt Russell's self-aware swagger and Carpenter's manic energy, while skeptics felt the film was a visually dazzling but ultimately hollow exercise — more a catalog of genre references than a story with characters worth caring about. The film flopped on release but found a devoted audience over time, and that gap between its lukewarm critical reception and its lasting cult popularity is really the central fact about it.
“He does a great John Wayne imitation. But he's not just mimicking these heroes, he is using them to give his own character a broad, satiric edge.”
Ron Base·Toronto Star
“Little China offers dollops of entertainment, but it is so stocked with canny references to other pictures that it suggests a master's thesis that moves.”
Richard Corliss·Time
“special effects don't mean much unless we care about the characters who are surrounded by them, and in this movie the characters often seem to exist only to fill up the foregrounds”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“though it is action packed, spectacularly edited and often quite funny, one can't help feeling that Carpenter is squeezing the last drops out of a fatigued genre.”
David Ansen·Newsweek
Parents guide
- Violence
- moderate
- Sex
- mild
- Profanity
- moderate
- Substances
- mild
- Intensity
- moderate
Genres
Action, Adventure, Comedy
Cast & Crew
John CarpenterDirector
Kurt RussellJack Burton
Kim CattrallGracie Law
Dennis DunWang Chi
James HongDavid Lo Pan
Victor WongEgg Shen
Kate BurtonMargo
Donald LiEddie Lee
Carter Huang Chia-TaThunder
Peter KwongRain
James PaxLightning
Suzee PaiMiao Yin
Chao Li ChiUncle ChuJohn CarpenterComposer
Alan HowarthComposer
Dean CundeyCinematographyBig Trouble in Little China
Truck driver Jack Burton gets embroiled in a supernatural battle when his best friend Wang Chi's green-eyed fiancée is kidnapped by henchmen of the sorcerer Lo Pan, who must marry a girl with green eyes in order to return to the human realm.
What critics thought
Critics in 1986 were genuinely split: admirers loved Kurt Russell's self-aware swagger and Carpenter's manic energy, while skeptics felt the film was a visually dazzling but ultimately hollow exercise — more a catalog of genre references than a story with characters worth caring about. The film flopped on release but found a devoted audience over time, and that gap between its lukewarm critical reception and its lasting cult popularity is really the central fact about it.
“He does a great John Wayne imitation. But he's not just mimicking these heroes, he is using them to give his own character a broad, satiric edge.”
Ron Base·Toronto Star
“Little China offers dollops of entertainment, but it is so stocked with canny references to other pictures that it suggests a master's thesis that moves.”
Richard Corliss·Time
“special effects don't mean much unless we care about the characters who are surrounded by them, and in this movie the characters often seem to exist only to fill up the foregrounds”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“though it is action packed, spectacularly edited and often quite funny, one can't help feeling that Carpenter is squeezing the last drops out of a fatigued genre.”
David Ansen·Newsweek
Parents guide
- Violence
- moderate
- Sex
- mild
- Profanity
- moderate
- Substances
- mild
- Intensity
- moderate
Genres
Action, Adventure, Comedy
Cast & Crew
John CarpenterDirectorKurt RussellJack BurtonKim CattrallGracie LawDennis DunWang ChiJames HongDavid Lo PanVictor WongEgg ShenKate BurtonMargoDonald LiEddie LeeCarter Huang Chia-TaThunderPeter KwongRainJames PaxLightningSuzee PaiMiao YinChao Li ChiUncle ChuJohn CarpenterComposerAlan HowarthComposerDean CundeyCinematographyRent & Buy