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| Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun,
Victor Wong, James Hong |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
4.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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[Jack
Burton {Kurt Russell) opens the only exit door, and slams it shut when
he finds himself face to face with a fearsome mob of Chinese warriors]
Jack Burton (Kurt Russell): We may be trapped.
A
truck driver is led into the magical underworld of San Francisco's Chinatown
after his Chinese pal's fiancée is kidnapped.
 From
the successful TV movie Elvis onward, Kurt Russell and John Carpenter
formed a winning actor/director team for several years. In Escape
from New York and The Thing they explored different types
of action heroes, from the bemused cynic to the skeptical pragmatist,
but in both cases the protagonist's defining characteristic was his
practical sense of intelligence. Big Trouble in Little China
saw them move into new territory, rather closer to Russell's portrayal
of Elvis Presley: his performance as dimwitted, buffoonish truck driver
Jack Burton is a rather puzzling entity, and probably the main reason
the movie flopped at the box office. Moving a few steps beyond the tongue-in-cheek
self-awareness of the Indiana Jones movies, Jack Burton is the kind
of hero whose macho swagger and gross ineptitude are played only for
laughs. This is at times rather confusing, as the movie itself is hardly
a parody: it's an action comedy in which the supposed hero is the butt
of most of the jokes.
But there's a lot more wrong with the film: the narrative is messy and
nonsensical even for this kind of film; the dialogues are heavy-handed;
many of the jokes are poorly timed or simply don't work; and there's
a general lack of consistency to the characters and locations that makes
it all but impossible to get truly involved in the proceedings. On the
bright side, the visual effects - courtesy of maestro Richard Edlund
- are most impressive, most action sequences are well-handled, Carpenter's
trademark electronic score is effective as always, and the overall sense
of silliness at least makes it watchable if not particularly enthralling
entertainment. An added attraction for those with a sentimental streak
for 1980s high camp is the laughable tackiness on display in the hairstyles
and the neon-lit subterranean kingdom, which looks like nothing so much
as a cheap Chinese restaurant in an American mall. Big Trouble in
Little China is a big, expensive piece of ridiculous nonsense that
will prove endearingly funny to those with a taste for this kind of
thing, and an abysmal waste of time for those expecting anything resembling
a solid adventure movie. |
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Available
for Region 1 and Region 2 in similar two-disc special editions, the
only real difference being the absence of a DTS audio track from the
R2 release. The R1 version served as a basis for this review..
The
anamorphic widescreen image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx.
2.35:1. Although contrast levels and shadow detail are on the low side
in some of the darker scenes, image quality is overall surprisingly
good for a film of its age, with strong, bright colors and little to
no damage on the source print.
The Dolby Digital 4.1 sound mix is also very solid, with a wide dynamic
range and good sonic fidelity. The single rear channel occasionally
draws sound effects into the rear, but surround action is generally
limited, as are directional effects other than those across the front
soundstage. The DTS mix adds a little more detail to the mix, but is
otherwise equally limited by the source material.
Anyone
familiar with the commentary track Russell and Carpenter did for The
Thing will most likely agree that a commentary from these two
guys pretty much justifies a purchase on its own. Their audio commentary
on this DVD is at least as good as their previous one, and includes
almost nonstop laughter at the expense of Russell's character, hairdo,
and other poorly judged film roles, some incisive comments about work
ethics under Hollywood actors, plenty of gossip about unnamed but easily
imagined fellow actors and directors, and a generally infectious good
humor that is really a lot funnier than the movie itself.
Disc 2 is dedicated to the extra features, and it holds a treasure trove
of information for fans of the movie. The deleted scenes section
is impressively well-produced, with each scene clearly documented and
presented in anamorphic widescreen. Introductory notes explain that
some sequences could no longer be derived from any other source than
a Betamax working cut, and most scenes offer a choice between the shorter
remaining film footage or the entire sequence in somewhat lesser quality
from the Betamax copy. The best inclusion is a five-minute compilation
of tidbits excised from the final film, many of which are highly amusing.
Another interesting presentation is the 'Lava scene', which was storyboarded
but never shot the way it was intended due to budgetary constraints.
Both the storyboard sequence and the scene as it appears in the film
can be viewed here separately or together, with the possibility of switching
back and forth using the Angle function.
An alternate ending is also available, featuring Jack tying up
one last loose end and the inclusion of some final words between Jack
and Egg. The original featurette is really the 1986 version of
today's Electronic Press Kit, with generous amounts of footage from
the film, some behind-the-scenes material and some interviews. Three
trailers have a section to themselves, with the original theatrical
trailer in handsome anamorphic widescreen, a shorter version of same
presented in 4:3 (originally used for the home video release), and a
longer version of the theatrical trailer produced for the Spanish market
(in anamorphic widescreen, subtitled in Spanish). Six TV promos
further illustrate how the film's marketing campaign hinged on the 'Meet
Jack Burton... a *new* kind of hero' concept.
The first item to dig deeper into the film's outstanding visual effects
is a fifteen-minute interview with Richard Edlund, the renowned
visual effects supervisor also responsible for SFX in 2001: A Space
Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Ghostbusters.
His mild-mannered anecdotes are informative but a little monotonous;
a great feature however is that his comments are illustrated with stills
that appear in the upper left of the frame, while the angle function
allows switching to full-frame versions of the illustrations. Delving
further into the technical aspects of the movie's production are reprints
of magazine articles from American Cinematographer and
Cinefex. Both are very nicely illustrated with still images as
well as audiovisual clips, and though they are both somewhat technical
(especially the American Cinematographer article uses plenty
of technical jargon), they will provide informed fans of the movie with
a wealth of great in-depth information.
One item certainly deserves special mention: the music video
for the movie's title track (which hardly made it into any pop charts)
is performed by John Carpenter's own band The Coupe de Villes, and the
video is the kind of thing that he probably suspected would come to
haunt him later in life, and is more than likely to have him waking
up in a cold sweat to this very day. It features all those cheesy video
process effects that were popular in music promos at the time, but is
most notable for Carpenter's bizarre wardrobe and vocal performance,
which must truly be heard to be appreciated. Trust me: you will never
watch a John Carpenter movie the same way again...
An elaborate still gallery includes cast portraits, publicity
stills, set design photography, behind-the-scenes material, and conceptual
art and storyboards. Rounding out the numerous extras on this second
disc are several pages of production notes (actually a reprint
of the original press release), and some decent selected cast and
crew filmographies. All in all, a superlative set sure to delight
the many devoted fans this film certainly has.  The
animated menu screens portray 3-D rendered versions of some of the main
sets from the movie, accompanied by suitable music cues from the score.
The options on Disc 1 are presented in the central cavern featured in
the film's climax; the extras on Disc 2 are 'hidden' in the sewer system.
Navigation is pleasant and nicely designed, though the articles featured
on Disc 2 have print that is small and rather hard to read.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on Big
Trouble in Little China.
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