BIG TROUBLE in little china: C/D?

Russell is pretty funny is this movie, tho.

is = in obv.

what?? this movie rules. total classic.

How can anyone not like this film?

by being Hoos

I guess it helps to be w/an audience that laughs at the jokes. My audience didn't.

you're nuts. this is one of the best movies of all time. this thread needs to be overrun with great quotes from this great movie.

yeah movie basically is the best

never seen it but good title innit.

I love it but don't think it's as great as I used to. I think a lot of that is several years of watching genuine HK gonzo fantasy (ZU WARRIORS to thread.)

this movie was so much better on re-viewing it than i thought it would be! the whole premise that the sidekick is the actual hero is so great and something i probably was completely oblivious to when i saw it as a kid!

there was this sensation throughout the movie that the audience wasn't being let in on significant elements of the plot

??

also i recommend the commentary.

"We may be trapped."

was this Carpenter?

it was

love this flick!

great film ruined a little by constantly being on Five for about 3 months.

Seriously, Hoos. You have lost much credit with this iLxor.

this thread needs to be overrun with great quotes from this great movie. Alright...my personal favorite from the movie...

Like I told my last wife, I said, "Honey, I never drive faster than I can see, and besides... it's all in the reflexes."

dull kidstuff for the Carpenter-deluded

I remember the trailer for this more than I recall anything else in the actual film.

also i recommend the commentary.

Seconded.

to the hataz i quote jack burton:

"are you crazy? is that your problem?"

from the imdb memorable quotes comes this:

Jack Burton: Have you paid your dues Jack? Yessir, the cheque is in the mail.

"cheque"?!! not how all american hero jack burton would ever spell it! haha

http://pjw.planetquake.gamespy.com/grafix/getit.jpg

this wall hollow? fuckit!

INDEED!

http://www.lib.clemson.edu/images/copyright/bigC.gif

man carpenter went downhill... but in his prime he was such a great director.

this is a guy who's rep outside film nerd circles has probably been really hurt by later work.

wait, there's a concept of "rep" beyond nerd circles?

Kim Catrall's character was an obnoxious idiot CRUSADING REPORTER

fixed

I saw this a few years ago, and it wasn't quite as good as I remembered it (or wanted it to be) -- some of the actions sequences toward the end really aren't that thrilling -- but it's still a pretty fine piece of trash. Kurt Russell: is he Hollywood's most likable Republican?

Also classic: 80s rock movie themes that involve the title of the film being sung over and over again.

he's a libertarian.

he posts on ilx as "dandy don weiner."

Also classic: 80s rock movie themes that involve the title of the film being sung over and over again

So many kilos of blow and ferraris were purchased with songs of this very type.

Goddamnit, why wasn't I born a decade earlier?

I blame the parents

Kurt Russell: is he Hollywood's most likable Libertarian?

dang, someone already did "you were not put on this world to "get it"!

how about, "what?! what'll come out no more?!"

John Carpenter wrote and performed the theme song!

80s rock movie themes that involve the title of the film being sung over and over again.

agreed that theme is a beautiful thing, and knowing that carpenter wrote/song it only makes it better.

I have also always liked this exchange:

Eddie:Well sure it was a war. And anybody that showed up was gonna join Lem Lee in the Hell of Being Cut to Pieces.
Jack Burton: Hell of being what?
Eddie: Chinese have a lot of Hells.

Oh, wow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D03E9kUTTtQ&hl=en

The many moods of Jack Burton.

Ha!

I have not seen this movie in probably fifteen years!

I SUGGEST YOU FIX THAT PROBLEM.

Oh man!! My roommate used to work at this theater with a DVD projector and we would break in after hours to watch whatever movies we wanted (and DRINK) with the theater all to our selves...ah but no longer. BTILC would be so perfect.

Though if you ever have the chance, really drunk + empty movie theater + Over The Top is a pretty good time.

Highly recommended.

Chanting USA is key.

What the fuck? I watch this film every night. FPd all of you.

the remake of btilc was p much "the mummy" tbh

Russell was great at balancing dumb action movie swagger with self-aware dorkiness. I like the Rock as a choice, but it will be a totally different film.

I thought it was really great because it was a post-Ghostbusters/Star Wars take on b-movies, with all the special effects and cool supernatural stuff. It was like a Kung Fu mix of Indiana Jones and Rambo.

So much of what's lovable about the film is Russell's goofery and John Wayne impression, the way everybody is really emphatically talking past/at each other in this absurd situation, and the generally gleeful ridiculousness of the script, set amidst lots of charming practical effects and sets and stuff. The story is just a dumb setting for that, it's not like it's a classic tale that you can sorta imagine maybe being good brought up to date with a new cast. Or could have sorta imagined, once, but no longer can after the past eons of terrible generic remakes.

i enjoy this movie, but i also enjoy gunga din and i that would be a really fucking stupid movie to remake as well

feel like the original has a "just hangs together, barely" aspect to it that a remake will surely crush

dude is already doing a jack burton imitation in a lot of movies anyway

also this movie wasn't remotely a hit when it came out - is the rock dying? is this his make-a-wish foundation request?

you'd think the smarter road if you want to make a nu-carpenter remake with the rock would be snake plissken

Escape From Witch Mountain

haha yeah i did realize after the fact he's already done some VERB FROM A PLACE movies. But still, remaking a cult dystopia hit makes a lot more sense today than remaking a cult camp kung fu flop

Dr. Casino otm, loveable goofery and gleeful ridiculousness are v apt.

the key to the movie is that wang rules and if they miscast him/diminish his importance nothing else will matter

When is the buckaroo banzai remake happening

The thing is, an an Escape to Witch Mountain reboot hardly makes a ton of commercial sense either! Though apparently it did pretty good. Maybe the rock has just committed himself to using his stardom to force forgotten properties of his youth back onto the American public. Buckaroo Banzai not so unlikely really.

The lamest thing about remake-topia is that it never actually enables a proper do-over a movie to bring out its best ideas. Like, I just watched D.A.R.Y.L. recently (dunno why I'm picking that, maybe witch mountain made me think of it), and it's got many charms but many faults, and I just caught myself thinking "why can't the Rock remake D.A.R.Y.L. instead?" which is crazy because obviously it would just be awful and certainly missing everything I found really lovable out it (mainly: gentle early 80s woodsy suburban milieu, kids dressed exactly like me at that age).

otm about Wang. Also Egg.

also lo pan

i dunno, seems kind of like trying to remake rocky horror (which it seems is also happening)

maybe they can make it funny and exciting this time

Dr c, the original escape to witch mountain was a hit with two sequels. Remaking that makes a lot more commercial sense than this.

Second sequel was direct-to-TV, but yeah, true, hit. But it still has to be one of the more obscure big-studio properties to get a remake in the last decade, right? Up there with Dark Shadows at least - I can't recall one time in my adult life that anybody has ever brought up the original films to me or anything, they had basically zero pop-cultural presence when The Rock's movie was greenlit. Darby O'Gill, your number's gotta come up soon!

Excuse me; I am of course thinking of Merlin Jones.

Well dark shadows was 100% a makeawish foundation movie the Depp burton brand spent some cred on, but Disney is always looking to revive kiddy properties. Escape from witch totally fit in with their steez.

Disney also made a witch mountain TV movie in the 90s

all the more argument for corporate synergy to bend The Rock's revival of Snake Plissken into a Witch Mountain followup, is all I'm saying

I hope Carpenter and W.D. Richter get as much money as they can from this and release their own Rifftrax-style alternate commentary track.

the dark shadows thing was kind of out of nowhere. the last time that show had much currency was when, well, it was briefly (unsuccessfully) revived in the post-twin peaks era. i guess they thought "vampires! twilight!" a greenlit it? the tone of the film had basically nothing to do with the old TV show, anyway.

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/06/08/dwayne-johnson-john-carpenter-big-trouble-remake

“I loved reading the reactions from the fans, that they were so polarized – I’m the same way,” the star told EW at Saturday night’s taping of the Spike TV Guys Choice Awards. “My response is: know that I come to the project with nothing but love and respect for the original, which is why we want to bring on John Carpenter.”

...“I loved the original when I was younger and I loved the main character – all the characters,” said Johnson, who will fill the role Kurt Russell played in the earlier film. “It felt like if we surrounded ourselves with the right group of people, the right writers who loved the movie too and wanted to honor it, bring on John Carpenter in some capacity … If we did that, then we have a shot at hopefully making something good.”

“Let’s see what feels good, what we can come up with and then go from there,” Johnson said. “And as we write it, if the whole thing starts to stink up, then we thank everybody for their efforts and accept this just couldn’t make it.”

points for admitting the possibility of this stinking up

chris pratt would be a better choice for jack burton

nah too obviously a doofus

i mean chris pratt basically ~is~ jack burton

Trade paperback of the boom studios comic is coming out today. Has anybody kept up with it? I only read the first issue and wasn't into it at all.

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Trouble-Little-China-Vol/dp/1608867161

I know, there's a problem with your face

The thing is to make them drop their guard.
I'll Try
The thing is to look stupid.
He does!

Boring

This perfectly illustrates the problem with overly abbreviated communication. Yes, it may save time and keystrokes to say "Boring", but more accurately, what you meant to say was, "Personally I found this to be boring." This kind of amplification and expansion, while time consuming, also has the effect of removing the idiocy from what you said and replacing it with a measured and true statement of fact.

oh

Maybe they found the BIG TROUBLE part to be boring, because yeah, the BIG TROUBLE is maybe a little boring, but the rest of the movie rules.

We gotta run
Run into the mystic night
Run until they take us away
Take us away!
Taaaake us awaaaaaay!

This perfectly illustrates the problem with overly abbreviated communication. Yes, it may save time and keystrokes to say "Boring", but more accurately, what you meant to say was, "Personally I found this to be boring." This kind of amplification and expansion, while time consuming, also has the effect of removing the idiocy from what you said and replacing it with a measured and true statement of fact.

Yup. Love ILX most when it's a discussion board, not Comic Book Guy terse opinions.

This movie's a regular rewatch for me, and I still laugh/marvel at bits I've seen a dozen times before: Jack shooting the ceiling in the big fight and knocking himself out, lipsticked while facing Lo Pan, Egg at the opening when lightning travels around his hands, etc.

Re: the first comic trade, I liked it a lot, once I got used to the exaggerated art. BTiLC ending with the beast clinging to the truck always bothered me, preferring resolution, so it was nice to have that settled. There are 3-4 later trades listed on Amazon. I'll be buying those eventually.

Thought I found about the Funko Pop BTiLC figures here, but didn't run across a mention, rereading this thread. So FYI. There's a glow-in-the-dark Lo Pan that's not shown on that page, but might still be available elsewhere.

It played last night at the Senator theater in Baltimore. I didn't find out about it until too late.

https://media.giphy.com/media/hUgYyZwFNvr4A/giphy.gif

OTM

I take every evocation as an invitation, and you're welcome

https://youtu.be/D03E9kUTTtQ

lol i knew exactly what that was gonna be before i clicked the link

Here's some good news: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-05-10/james-hong-star-hollywood-walk-of-fame-ceremony

His "Indeed!" is one of my favorite sound bites from this film.

So happy to see him recognized. I'll have to check out that Everything Everywhere All at Once movie. I think the last thing I "saw" him in was Kung Fu Panda.

Love that he has a prominent and very memorable supporting part in a successful, buzzy film at this same moment. Dude is a living legend.

As soon as I heard his voice at the beginning of Everything Everywhere All at Once I knew it was him... he pops up in so much of the schlock that I enjoy watching. Look at his IMDB credits, dude has been in everything. Most underrated role: the Jeweler in Diablo III (a video game).

James Hong with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA costars is all I care about today, and always. pic.twitter.com/KFKiSipZdr

— Jon Abrams (@RealJonAbrams) May 12, 2022