Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

I remember reading the transcript of an interview about UHF.   Several of the actors were saying how the movie probably wouldn’t get made today, considering some of the content.  Times change.  People change.  What was popular 20 or 30 years ago would probably go over the heads of modern moviegoers.  Things you could get away with back then would never make it into a film today.   Big Trouble in Little China is a product of the same era as UHF.

The movie takes place in San Francisco’s Chinatown.  Jack Burton is a truck driver who has to make a delivery.  He sticks around a while and racks up a large pile of winnings by playing cards.  After all is said and done, he agrees to take his friend, Wang Chi, to the airport to get Wang’s fiancée, Miao Yin.   Miao is kidnapped by members of a local gang.  Wang and Jack go after the gang members to get Miao back.  Instead, they end up in the middle of a gang war.  The Three Storms appear in the middle of the fight, led by Lo Pan.  It turns out that Lo Pan is impervious to being run over by a big rig.  It’s not going to be easy getting Miao back.

The movie comes across as knowing what they could get away with.  It’s like the people writing it and acting in it knew where the line was.  (They may have even crossed it a few times, depending on where you stood.)  There are a lot of clichés, like Lo Pan being a warrior that had a curse placed on him.  There’s a very specific way to break the curse, providing an opportunity once every generation or two.  There’s an epic battle to defeat Lo Pan, who is immortal, but wants to become mortal, even though it may lead to his defeat.  There’s even an unlikely hero.

I had been saving this movie for streaming for a while now.  I think I’ve had it saved for so long that it’s gone through several cycles of availability.  It’s one of those movies I sort of knew about, partly because I keep getting it confused with Chinatown.  Both are classics, though this is more of the cult type.  It has that certain mix of quotability and goofiness that go well together.  It’s not something to be taken seriously.

I am a fan of John Carpenter.  (They Live! should be watched just for the fight scene.)  I’m not a big fan of Kurt Russell.  He’s always played the macho type.  (I’m not a big fan of the macho type.)  He was good in Stargate, since the military macho type was what was called for.  Here, it’s the same thing.  His character needs to be more manly than average.  You can see him channeling his inner John Wayne.

It’s a fun movie to watch, but it’s nothing spectacular.  I don’t know how much of that is judging the movie by modern standards.  Several decades have passed since its release.  It’s possible that the movie was intended for an audience that doesn’t exist any more.  It’s a good way to spend a few hours, but I don’t think it’s going to be for everyone.

IMDb page

They Live (1988)

Note:  This is a review that I've reposted from my Epinions account.

Sometimes, a premise sounds so ridiculous that I just have to watch the movie. When I came across They Live, I realized that I had found such a movie. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper plays Nada, a construction worker who drifts into town looking for a job. On the job that he gets, he meets Frank, who’s played by Keith David. Frank leads Nada back to an area with tents that a lot of the homeless people in the area live.

When strange things start happening at a church across the street, Nada becomes curious. He finds several boxes and an elaborate chemistry setup. Frank, who’s far less curious, advises Nada to simply leave things alone. When the church and homeless area are raided, Nada finds himself in a position to do just the opposite. After everything has calmed down, Nada goes back into the church and finds the boxes, which are full of sunglasses.

I know that you’re thinking that sunglasses don’t make for an interesting plot point, but these are no ordinary sunglasses. These sunglasses allow the wearer to see the world as it really is, at least in black and white. Every sign, billboard, magazine or other printed medium bears some subliminal message. Messages range from things like “Obey” and “Submit to authority” to “Marry and reproduce”. To make matters even more interesting, there are aliens living among us.

After a knockdown, drag-out fight, Nada convinces Frank to put on the glasses. The two then manage to find the group that made them, which happens to be a rebel group fighting the aliens. The aliens plan to take over humanity by making us passive. They then use us to mine our own planet. Most of the population is unaware of what’s going on, but there are a select few that are so lulled by the good life that they can be told what’s going on. Somebody has to do something about this and Nada is the man to do it.

This is one of those movies that I probably never would have found out about without the aid of NetFlix. I don’t recall ever hearing about it when it first came out. (Then again, I was only twelve at the time.) This is one of those movies that could have done with a lot more detail. I think that it could survive as a miniseries or even a regular TV series.

Very little is said as to why the aliens are here, other than for our resources and cheap labor. The resistance group was never really built up. Even the ending left something to be desired. The only part of the movie that lasted any length of time was a fight scene between Frank and Nada. (Speaking of which, why was frank so resistant to putting on those glasses?)

Ultimately, this is a three-star movie. Nothing about the movie is spectacular, but it is entertaining for an hour and a half. I’d recommend it to people who are just looking to watch something without thinking about it too much. From what I’ve read, it was supposed to be making fun of our consumer society, but I didn’t get that so much. Yeah, there were a few plot points that seemed to beg us to wake up, so to speak, but overall, the movie just seemed like a movie.