The Reel Rejects - BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986) IS INSANE!! MOVIE REVIEW!!

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Starting point is 00:01:16 Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts, and savings, and eligibility vary by state. without further ado let's get into big trouble in little china the old predator Sasquatch is going on tour yes what a journey oh what a fun time oh man all right uh want to talk about it but i got to pee real bad so this is good a time I'm not so big trouble in little china.

Starting point is 00:01:56 If you were listening to this on Spotify or iTunes or any sort of audio device, please leave a like, leave a comment, leave a rating, do things on the Spotify or iTunes that you know how to do. We appreciate you. All right, let's talk about big trouble in Little China. I think even if I'd known anything about it, I wouldn't have known anything about it. No.

Starting point is 00:02:15 Went in completely blind, only knew the Kurt Russell was in it. I didn't even realize it was John Carpenter, even though, like, I think this is probably one of his, like, iconic ones, and it just slipped my mind. I don't know that there is a comparative film. I can't say I quite seen a film like it. It's a weird time. I definitely enjoyed the humor. I enjoyed the practical effects. I enjoyed the world building.

Starting point is 00:02:38 I definitely think it's a product of 86 in a very real way in that, like, you had the money to make the effects, and it wasn't quite to where, you know, the things started to shift in the 90s. with practical effects and like how hokey slash like you know Jurassic Park was seven years after this eight years after this and and like I think after like Jurassic Park was that big Titanic shift I think to making things look as real as possible and I think this had a lot of fun not I think this had a lot of fun making absurdism kind of the thing like it's a very absurdist film but it was it was really unique what do you think man I thought it was a good time definitely had no expectations going in I knew that it was an action movie movie in the 80s and had something to do with China. And that's pretty much it. And I was definitely

Starting point is 00:03:26 surprised after having seen it. I think the thing that was the most surprising is how little Kurt Russell really did in the movie up until the end. I think it's my favorite part of the film. It's so funny. Yeah, because it's definitely a satire film for sure of like the type of movies that we would expect for Kurt Russell. I wonder how far, obviously, I said in the beginning, I haven't seen it's kind of early car russle movies so i wonder what his uh his movie intake was or not his intake his output yeah like was he traditionally known for being like the gungho action star at this point and this was like a a left turn for people to like divert expectations so like play on the spoof of himself like tom cruise and tropic thunder where it's like that's something he'd never do and

Starting point is 00:04:09 you're like this is actually really great i i just watched um stargate with him and uh i loved it so much like it is exceptionally good but he's playing like a stoic action hero and like you know it's just that's what you'd expect from Kurt Russell so let's see I'm going to go to his IMDB and see how far into this

Starting point is 00:04:27 his career was he's done a hundred and the seven films as an actor he's got 107 credits to date which is very impressive Tombstone came out that's my marker for him Tombstone is my favorite personal Kurt Russell film there's also an escape from L.A., which is his Snake Pliskin

Starting point is 00:04:43 which I think I used to get these mixed up about Big Trouble and Little China escape. Let's see Tango's Cash. I've seen Tango and Cash. I've never seen backdrop. Oh, there we go. Big Trouble Little China, 86.

Starting point is 00:04:55 And then Tombstone, I believe, was late. Oh, no, it's 93. Okay, so Tombstone is my exposure to him, and that's not for another seven years. But before this was the thing, which is action, and that's Carpenter. The thing was like a big action horror movie. Escape from New York was 81.

Starting point is 00:05:12 That's Snake Pliskin's debut. That's a big action movie. he played Elvis in 79 So I think he was established as an action guy And this was like a commentary on it Because he's got credits going back to Wow his first credit's 62 Now that was I remember he was a child

Starting point is 00:05:31 He was almost a Disney kid And I remember that was like his early career So he did a lot of TV in the 60s He was in the man from Uncle the original show Oh wow He was in the fugitive The show And then I think the 70s

Starting point is 00:05:43 He started doing action movies. This was 80s. He's been in it for 60 years. Jesus Christ. That is incredible. So I think this was meant to be a commentary on things. Tequila Sunrise was right after this. Overbord was the comedy did with his wife. Yeah, this was really unique to itself. Breakdown. Like he kept doing action after this and now he's doing like more family and comedy and stuff. And his kid, Wyatt Russell, is doing action. And they just did a Godzilla show together where they played the same character at different ages. Yeah, Monarch. I haven't seen it. Yeah. I haven't seen it. Have you seen it?

Starting point is 00:06:14 No. Okay. But that I know of. Personally, I will say, not my usual type of thing where absurdism doesn't really have a structure. I do feel like this movie was kind of like, and then he stabs her blood. Like, there was a lot. And like, even the acting, like James Hong felt like he was just like, bra.

Starting point is 00:06:34 Like, there wasn't really kind of rules or mythology that felt like it was tangible. It kind of felt like they just kind of like, yes, and did the whole way. Yeah, totally. And that can work in something like Dungeons and Dragons where it feels like yes, but then it lands and it feels like structure and you're impressed by it. For me, this is something where it doesn't really have a story or rule set. It was like they go save them. And that's fine.

Starting point is 00:06:59 Like that's perfectly, but this isn't something I'd probably watch again. This isn't like something I'd revisit. Like I could see this being a cult classic for people growing up with it. I could see it being something that is like, especially if you saw it in theaters or if this was like of a time. I love commentaries on action but this particular one didn't quite land for me I thought it was fun

Starting point is 00:07:19 what I will say is that I like that you had said what you said because as we were watching it something that I was thinking is that I know for me as a viewer I'm someone who really likes characters that are established and we like can root behind them and then we go into a story

Starting point is 00:07:33 like if I had to choose and we lived in a world where you have to have a movie that's very plot driven or a movie that's very character driven I'm gonna go character driven every time and I feel like this is a movie that was very much about the plot. We just had these characters kind of carry through

Starting point is 00:07:46 this weird shenanigans of what was happening within its plot. And that was something that was very prevalent of the fact that it was very spoofy, but it didn't, I don't know, it didn't go far enough to be a spoof. But it was like still had silly things in it. So it was like kind of walking that line.

Starting point is 00:08:08 I was like, is this want to be something that's, that's views, views of the comedy or is something that is like just trying to poke fun just enough but still get people their action fix on it i definitely enjoy the act of watching it but i don't think it's something that um i would really invest in the world of because of that like i don't have a lot of i my favorite thing about it was that our lead wasn't every man to the point where he was bad at things yeah and i love that like in real life if you throw a knife it is not going to do but then the joke would be the catch and then the throwback.

Starting point is 00:08:44 Like, I liked that part of it and how he always just seemed to not be involved, the shooting up and then, like, you know, knocking himself out. Like, all of that was great. But I don't know a lot about the guy. And I don't know anything about anyone else. Exactly. Even though there was a ton of exposition. Right.

Starting point is 00:08:57 This movie is so exposition heavy. Like, the format of the writing was like a line to further the plot, a line of dialogue between characters, a line of joke. And usually the line to further the plot is pure exposition. So exposition, conversation between characters, something funny. And even with all that, I still don't know anything about anyone except for that guy who's going to marry her. They grew up together. And like, the Jack's a trucker.

Starting point is 00:09:18 Yeah. He's like charismatic, but that's pretty much all we have. That's just Kurt Russell. Yeah. That's literally all what he's bringing to him on this, on paper. There's not really much to that character. And Carpenter with Jack, not with Jack, with Kurt Russell. And the thing, there was more of an established world.

Starting point is 00:09:33 And it felt more like there was some yes-handing in the story in there, but it still felt like there were rules. It felt like there was a structure to the story. that being said all that being said that's my experience with the film and people that love this film I'm sure like the things about it that I don't like I don't particularly like country music I don't think it's bad

Starting point is 00:09:53 I don't think it's like if you like it you're dumb I just the sounds of it don't work for me this feels like that where it's like if people like this movie they probably like that it's chaotic that it's got no rules that it feels like it's just an improv game that it's fun and the character design all that stuff

Starting point is 00:10:09 and that makes sense It's just like not my thing. This is the kind of movie I put on certain scenes for Like the whole scene's like exploding And just has smoke Or the or the scenes were We're dealing with a little eyeball thing

Starting point is 00:10:22 I thought that all that was funny But I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it Let's say I had like friends Like all right like what are we gonna put on in the background To like how did something fun to have like a vibe I probably put this on But I wouldn't go out of my way to just like sit down and watch it Like we need to watch this movie because it's cinema

Starting point is 00:10:37 Yeah we had a party and those like put on three or four movies just to have them on rotation, that I could see. Like, you know, you have like your, you're, you just tune in for certain scenes. Exactly. And it's good for the background. There were, you know, Ghostbusters moments, Goonies moments. There was definitely like that mid-80s comedy sensibility. And therefore, I think it'd be good as like a middle movie amongst one of those.

Starting point is 00:10:57 But I'd probably sit down and watch one of those before I'd watch this. But at the same time, there are some movies that I watch and I go, like, I don't get why people like this. This wasn't one of those. Like, there are times I don't understand something being beloved. of this, I get the cult following. I get that the weirdness is part of itself. I get that maybe if I'd seen this as a kid, I would have a different feeling towards it.

Starting point is 00:11:17 Or if I was this age in 86, I'd have different feelings towards it. But having seen 4,000-some movies and like, you know, watching movies, it's just not my genre. I will say after watching this and seeing Kurt Russell in an action kind of comedy role, I made me understand why he was cast as ego.

Starting point is 00:11:39 Oh, interesting. Yeah, because I'm like, okay. I got the Kurt Russell of it all. I'm like, okay, I can definitely see how Chris Pratt was emitting certain things of Kurt Russell within those. That's how a cowboy element. Like, there's such a cowboy nature to him, which is so much fun. I'm going to look up trivia facts because I'm sure in this movie in particular, they are insane. Oh, yeah.

Starting point is 00:12:00 So I'm very curious because sometimes you watch a movie and you're like, I bet the trivia is like details about the actors. But this movie, I have no idea how it got made, what the story. storyline is like what what like what pieced it together okay let's see Kurt Russell confessed in the DVD commentary that it was afraid of starring in the movie because he made a string of movies that flopped at the box office when he asked John

Starting point is 00:12:21 Carpenter about it he'll told Kurt that it didn't matter to him he just wanted to make a movie with him aw that's sweet so it's the Carpenter Bond that's how this came together also looked it up while I was Pian Kim Cottrell is one of the leads of sex in the city I did recognize her 40 years later which means that's great she looks great

Starting point is 00:12:37 same same looking person Great skin care. Right. The Chinese characters, the main title, translate to evil spirits, make a big scene in little spiritual state. Oh, that's clever. Like, you know, that version of Big Trouble in a little China.

Starting point is 00:12:51 Kurt Russell suffered a bad case of flu during the scene just after the brothel, so the sweat in his body is real caused by the fever. Champion Kurt Russell, doing the work. Good on you. Hard worker, man. The three storms were partly, oh, there it is. The three storms were partly the inspiration for the popular character of Lightning God,

Starting point is 00:13:08 Raiden from the Mortal Kombat Fighting Video Game series, while David Lopan was the inspiration for the evil sorcerer Shung Sang. Mortal Combat came after, was inspired by this. That's cool. I felt like it. Okay, good. I feel better.

Starting point is 00:13:24 Jackie Chan was John Carpenter's first choice to play Wang Chi, but producer Lawrence Gordon was highly against it, fearing Chan's English wasn't good enough after seeing his porn's in battle Creek Brawl and the Protector of the Protector. But Carpenter won a Chan after the success police story i thought that was him from police story chand declined oh no it wasn't

Starting point is 00:13:42 i was like i'd recognize this guy i got to see what he else was in chand declined and dennis son was cast instead i want to see what dennis son was in because i definitely recognized dennis dunn for for something else uh dennis dunn is known for big trouble elginer prince of darkness year of the dragon the last emperor i think i've seen something else all right anyway uh yeah very interesting journey from page of the screen it makes sense that like that bond between them is what brought it all together uh john carpenter and carrus explained in the audio commentary that the test screening was so overwhelmingly positive that

Starting point is 00:14:12 both of them expected it to be a big hit. However, 20th Century Fox put little into promoting the movie and ended up being a box office bomb. Oh, dude, in addition, the film was released in the midst of the hype for aliens, which was released 16 days afterward. However, it went on to be a huge cult, hit through home video. Carpenter and Russell

Starting point is 00:14:30 explained that the reason the studio did little promote the film was because they simply didn't know how to promote it. I would know how to promote it. Like I said, I don't know what it is now. And we just watched it. Yeah, like this is insane. Yeah, it's definitely a unique experience to say the least. I can't say I've seen a movie quite like this. I could say it's fun.

Starting point is 00:14:46 I was never bored watching the movie. It was weird, and I wish they could have turned up the weirdness or at least previewed us in earlier to the fact that this was like a heightened reality and kind of, like I said, it walked that line between stuff that was really weird and like keeping it more grounded, but we really didn't get to know any of the characters. Yeah. Or like it had that classic thing of all these two people are hot. hot, so yeah, of course they're going to get together.

Starting point is 00:15:10 Right, without much beyond that. Exactly. And then he left her at the end and I was like, it's not really a character choice. Yeah. Is there a sequel to this movie? I don't think so. Because it felt like they were trying to lead up to that.

Starting point is 00:15:19 They didn't do well. I think they intended it to be. Then it didn't do it. Remember, like the home video release wouldn't be for a year later back then. So I don't think you'd make anything on it. Yeah. I know there's a comic. There's a comic sequel?

Starting point is 00:15:30 I think, I think boom studios. I think did a comic sequel. I think, yeah. I know, I've seen comics of it. Okay. So, well, if you want to check out the sequel, I think it's in comics. If you want to let us know in the comments below what Kurt Russell movie I or especially Aaron should check out next, because I've seen a few.

Starting point is 00:15:44 You've seen a little less. Very little. I'm a big Kurt Russell guy, but apparently not big enough to have seen this classic. I'm glad to have enjoyed it this way with you Lovelies. Let us know in the comments below again what you'd like us to check out next. Please leave a like. And actually, you know what? I'm going to say, I'm going to read the comments on this one.

Starting point is 00:16:00 Let us know and let me know what you like about this movie. because maybe there's something I just didn't hit, and I always like to improve my experience of movies by way of the people who like it. So, leave a comment below and let me know what you think of big trouble in Little China. Anything to say to the folks where we got out of here? Yeah, also, check out these shirts at Rejectation Shop.com.

Starting point is 00:16:21 We got some cool shirts amongst with all the other shirts that we got. We got the Space Babies, got the, what, email shirt? Got the Deadpool and Wolverine that I love dearly, super Marvel Bros. We got your fancy tickets. We also got nipple chills. There's all sorts of goodness over there,

Starting point is 00:16:35 and it's a great way to support the channel. We appreciate it. Speaking of the support of the channel before we get out of here, thank you to Prepper for making us look good, you guys, truly. I feel like YouTube is the main source of art and media.

Starting point is 00:16:47 I think it even passes network TV often and certainly passes many other things, but the people that edit YouTube do not get the credit they deserve. So Prepper, thank you. And Reject Nation, thank you. Because if you weren't watching, then we'd just be crazy people,

Starting point is 00:17:02 talking to the air, a movie. So without you, we're insane. So thank you. We will see you very soon. Much love Reject Nation. Bye.

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The Reel Rejects - BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986) IS INSANE!! MOVIE REVIEW!!

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