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ORIGINAL: stuartbannerman

Rhubarb. Glad you enjoyed The Thing. I recommend Halloween, Escape From New York, In The Mouth Of Madness, Big Trouble In Little China  for starters....

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ORIGINAL: FritzlFan

You organisational skills sicken me, Rhubarb.

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ORIGINAL: stuartbannerman

John Carpenter: King of the DVD commenteries................he is better when teamed with a co-talker, but even alone he still makes us like him even more with his laid back, normal banter.

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ORIGINAL: Companero

Carpenter is among my favourite DVD commentators - his chat-tracks with Kurt Russell are like being at a family barbeque!

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ORIGINAL: jolly_ramon

Carpenter seems to tread a fine line between Genius and Trash, with no in-between.

It's too bad that for nearly 20 years now, (since Big Trouble in Little China, The Thing, They Live) fun , inventivennes and originality have been severely lacking.

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ORIGINAL: Ant_1971

Part of the problem is that though he's very much an "auteur," his frequent collaborators in his early days helped elevate the visual and aural qualities of his films.

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ORIGINAL: Gazz

The Thing was the first and most terrifying horror film I saw. Back then I was four years old and I still remember the look on Palmers face as he uttered that infamous line "You've got to be fucking kidding me". Though I also remember the look on Norris' face as it scurried away on six newly formed legs. This was John Carpenter at his very best. Sixteen years on and The Thing is still able to give me the same chills, shudders and jumps without falter.

Rob Bottin locked himself in the studio for little over a year in order to create the special effects and during the final stages of production, was diagnosed with extreme exhaustion. The result is that the film hasn't aged a singular year. We live in a time when directors have it much easier thanks to the aid of CGI, though back in 1982 Rob Bottin, John Carpenter and a little of Stan Winston carved their names into film history by creating the impossible through practical effects. This is film dedication at it's peak.

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ORIGINAL: stuartbannerman

2006 / 2007 sees two new John Carpenter films being unleashed.
Psychopath (Written and Directed by John)
&
The 13th Apostle.

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ORIGINAL: Jeremy Phillips

Something that I'm surprised people rarely pick up is the clever undermining of the action movie going on under the surface of Big Trouble in Little China. Jack Burton is not the leading character in the story - Wang is. Jack is the comic relief.
 
Every time a fight breaks out, Jack bungles his side, and blusters to cover up for his incompetence. The fight in the warehouse, where they are looking for Wang's girlfriend, sees him finish off half a dozen bad guys while Jack scrabbles around on the floor, looking for his knife. In the big rumble at the end, the first thing Jack does in knock himself unconscious and spend several minutes out cold while Wang engages Lo Pan in combat. He doesn't even get the girl.
 
Escape From LA I think is a very misunderstood film. Like BTILC, it's a parody of action films, mixed in with satire, and takes a familiar character from Carpenter's own back catalogue to explore and subvert the fictional world.
 
Consider the set-up: a Christian fundamentalist wins the 2000 presidential election, and consolidates his power through a massive cataclysm. His moral crusade results in the deportation to an off-shore prison those deemed undesirable, while the law becomes increasingly strict regarding what is "allowable" in the USA. "The United States is a non-smoking nation." Surely a terrifying prospect to a life-long smoker like Carpenter.
 
Ultimately, Plissken is forced to make a decision over whether to allow the US to crush the opposition, or allow an invading force, which is probably worse, to take over (It's clearly more than just a surface resemblance between Cuervo Jones and Che Guevara). Plissken decides that neither should win, and shuts down the Earth, wiping out 500 years of progress, but letting the world stay as free as possible.
 
Carpenter has a very strong anti-establishment record in his films, twice portraying the President of the USA as a snivelling coward, depicting the Church as deceitful and corrupt, governments as motivated by power, fear and self-interest, and capitalists as sub-human. It may not be surprising that he can't get films funded by studios, not with an attitude like that.

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ORIGINAL: Jeremy Phillips

Something that I'm surprised people rarely pick up is the clever undermining of the action movie going on under the surface of Big Trouble in Little China. Jack Burton is not the leading character in the story - Wang is. Jack is the comic relief.
 
Every time a fight breaks out, Jack bungles his side, and blusters to cover up for his incompetence. The fight in the warehouse, where they are looking for Wang's girlfriend, sees him finish off half a dozen bad guys while Jack scrabbles around on the floor, looking for his knife. In the big rumble at the end, the first thing Jack does in knock himself unconscious and spend several minutes out cold while Wang engages Lo Pan in combat. He doesn't even get the girl.

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The eighties, for me at least, was a golden age of cinema! Family and kids films were produced without being sickly sweet or condescending in tone and produced decent plots that did not require the needless extravaganza of modern day CGI blockbusters that now supliment and cover-up the lack of any decent or intelligent story. Compared with today's family orientated cinema eighties films provided audiences with enjoyable, refreshing and original tales that played out in a mostly camp, witty, smart and hip way. The Princess Bride, The Goonies, Tron, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Time Bandits, The Last Star Fighter, Willow, Flash Gordon, Short Circuit and Ghostbusters, among others, are all testament to this filmmaking virtue of the eighties. From this era of fantastic films and delightful gems comes Big Trouble in Little China - probably the best of the lot!

Kurt Russell (The Thing, Escape from New York) stars as Jack Burton, a wisecracking loud-mouthed truck driver, high on listening to his own voice, low on brain cells, who thinks he knows quite a bit, but in fact knows very little. After his friend Wang Chi's (David Dunn) fiancee is kidnapped by the Lords of Death, so she can fufill the requirements of removing a 2,000 year curse from undead sorcerer Lo Pan (James Hong), and his truck is stolen, Jack finds himself embroiled in an adventure that takes him to the dark underworld of San Francisco's Chinatown. A supernatural battle of good and evil follows featuring sorcery, magic, monsters, martial arts, immortal enemies, stunning swordfights and Jack's own brand of bravado and idiocy, as he and Wang shake the pillars of heaven in order to save Wang's fiancee, put a stop to Lo Pan's tyranny and, at any cost, find Jack's truck.

The plot is appropriately silly, but what lifts this film above others is the way it plays out. The characterisations are realistic, especially by Russell who plays Jack Burton incredibly well. In fact this film is all about Kurt Russell. He is a tough guy, but thrown into a situation he knows little about makes some of his actions funny in the extreme. Tough talking one of the Three Storms (Lo Pans immortal henchmen) isn't exactly the best thing to do, but Jack does so none the less - the audiences enjoyment of the film is no doubt down to the amount of punishment and humility that Jack suffers at the hands of others. It is the opposites of his machismo and idiocy, (facing off against Lo Pan wearing lipstick) combined with a cracking script of wonderful "I fear nothing" one-liners that makes Jack Burton entirely memorable! "It's all in the reflexes" and "You know what Jack Burton always says... what the hell?" being two of the most quotable.

Furthermore, Kurt pulls off the great trick of being the named actor of the film, but not the real hero. David Dunn's Wang Chi, starting off as Jack's quiet, nonchalant, asian-american best friend, reverts against sidekick sterotype to be the real saviour of the day - as shown by his beating of seven goons deftly with fantastic martial arts skills while Jack fumbles for a combat knife in his boot. Not only is it a deliciously funny sequence, it also illustrates a unique role-reversal little seen in other American action films.

The rest of the cast are equally assured in backing up Russell's centrepiece. James Hong as Lo Pan is meanacing in his intent and Victor Wong plays a perfect foil as Egg Chen, Lo Pan's long time magic rival. The love interest played by Kim Catterall (Samantha in Sex in the City) is quirky and energetic, again supplying a unique reversal on an oft used characterisation by the end of the film. Indeed, it would seem Jack has more love for his truck than he does for the leading lady.

Add to the acting performances some fine direction by John Carpenter with deftly crafted yet viscious combat scenes, pulling off at least two genuine jumps and excellent editing giving the film a cracking pace (there is no lull in the action or frentic dialogue) and what you have is a movie they quite simply don't make anymore.

Big Trouble in Little China is a unique little movie, possibly misunderstood in its own time (resulting in it being a box office flop) but something well worth investigating amongst the current myriad of pointless sequel making and overblown CGI fests. In the manliness and stupidity of Jack Burton, the quirky characterisations throughout (in particular the three storms and Egg Chen) and a genuinly interesting, albeit slightly absurd, story, Big Trouble in Little China delivers in more ways than you could ever think possible. And if that doesn't convince you where else are you going to hear dialogue of this quality: -

"When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, looks you crooked in the eye and asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail." " Utter genius!

Overall - What at first seems like overblown, heavy-handed kung-fu nonsense is in fact a fast-paced, undeniably entertaining piece of old-fashioned adventure with tongue firmly in cheek. Both Kurt Russell and director Carpenter are in peak form and keep the action and subtle laughs coming. This is one of the most underappreciated cult classics ever made. A brilliant movie which you will love!!

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ORIGINAL: Jeremy Phillips

Something that I'm surprised people rarely pick up is the clever undermining of the action movie going on under the surface of Big Trouble in Little China. Jack Burton is not the leading character in the story - Wang is. Jack is the comic relief.
 
Every time a fight breaks out, Jack bungles his side, and blusters to cover up for his incompetence. The fight in the warehouse, where they are looking for Wang's girlfriend, sees him finish off half a dozen bad guys while Jack scrabbles around on the floor, looking for his knife. In the big rumble at the end, the first thing Jack does in knock himself unconscious and spend several minutes out cold while Wang engages Lo Pan in combat. He doesn't even get the girl.
 
Escape From LA I think is a very misunderstood film. Like BTILC, it's a parody of action films, mixed in with satire, and takes a familiar character from Carpenter's own back catalogue to explore and subvert the fictional world.
 
Consider the set-up: a Christian fundamentalist wins the 2000 presidential election, and consolidates his power through a massive cataclysm. His moral crusade results in the deportation to an off-shore prison those deemed undesirable, while the law becomes increasingly strict regarding what is "allowable" in the USA. "The United States is a non-smoking nation." Surely a terrifying prospect to a life-long smoker like Carpenter.
 
Ultimately, Plissken is forced to make a decision over whether to allow the US to crush the opposition, or allow an invading force, which is probably worse, to take over (It's clearly more than just a surface resemblance between Cuervo Jones and Che Guevara). Plissken decides that neither should win, and shuts down the Earth, wiping out 500 years of progress, but letting the world stay as free as possible.
 
Carpenter has a very strong anti-establishment record in his films, twice portraying the President of the USA as a snivelling coward, depicting the Church as deceitful and corrupt, governments as motivated by power, fear and self-interest, and capitalists as sub-human. It may not be surprising that he can't get films funded by studios, not with an attitude like that.

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ORIGINAL: Beat Royale

Big Trouble in Little China is an all-time fave of mine, and there's nothing better than watching the music video for the title track, featuring John and his band The Coupe De Villes - sublime AND ridiculous.

Did you know that Nick Castle (who played Michael Myers in the orginal Halloween) and frequent Carpenter calloborator Tommy Lee Wallace were also in the band? Another one of their songs can be heard on the radio in a car in Halloween.

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ORIGINAL: stuartbannerman

I still maintain that John Carpenter hasnt changed the way he makes films. Its just that the mass audience has changed the way it watches them.

Its much like the computer game world.
20 years ago Manic Miner was amazing. Yet today we want nothing less than real life CGI graphics and wouldnt even entertain the same games we would have in past decades.

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ORIGINAL: stuartbannerman

John Carpenter will have followers for decades to come. In the same way Roger Corman does.