The Movie Diorama Given the title, and having already witness a scene with an asian man exploding, I knew I was expecting 80s absurdity. It's all well and good, but it does come at a price amounting to more than the cost of a number 67 from my local Chinese takeaway (egg fried rice between you and me). Truck driver Jack gets caught in an ancient battle where two girls are captured because they have green eyes. Yes, that's the best I can do. There's sorcery, cheesy one liners and Raiden from 'Mortal Kombat'. A "Chinese Showdown" consisting on atleast fifty extras flipping on wires in every direction, as director Carpenter bathes in the mayhem for a decent five minutes. Considering he is best known for crafting some of the best horror films ever, his authentic prosthetic trademark is put to good use here. A floating flesh ball comprising of eyeballs, a hairy yeti resembling a drugged up Chewbacca and, as mentioned before, a man enlarging himself to the point of explosion. It's madness, sheer lunacy. Yet, it knows what it is. You can't class it as "so bad it's good" because it isn't serious, and that only adds to the charm. Acting was serviceable, Russell revelling in his action glory days whilst Cattrall adds some sass with her character. The screenplay, unfortunately, is lacklustre. Having slept on this film (not literally...or maybe), I can't remember any of the one liners except Jack frequently shouting "Wang!" "Wang!?" "Waaaaaaang!!!!" whilst the script negates all racial context. The story seems like it has plenty of lore, yet hardly any of the fantasy elements are explored. Simply just used for environmental set pieces. It substituted an engaging story for B-movie action. Also, some of those effects have not aged well at all...but that's a given, I don't think you need me to reiterate that for you. Did I enjoy this? Yes, unquestionably. Do I think it's good? Now that's where I question myself. Perhaps it's just not to my taste, B-Movies have never enticed me.

Pjtaylor-96-138044 'Big Trouble In Little China (1986)', a charmingly bizarre little gem of a film, pits an all-American 'everyman' truck-driver against an ancient mystical warlord and is wickedly entertaining throughout, a wonderfully weird walk on the right side of silly that manages to balance its action and comedy impeccably to the point where its few flaws are almost too easy to overlook. Tying it all together is Kurt Russell, who's wide-eyed wonder and honest reactions not only highlight the absurdity but also sell the believability of the flick's fantastically imaginative fantasy elements, and it's the down-to-earth attitude that the whole out-of-this-world piece adopts that allows it to sort of transcend its B-movie status and become an extremely entertaining picture that never takes itself seriously and doesn't ask its audience to either. It's just incredibly fun. 7/10

Alexandra Costa I hadn't seen this movie before, I just watched it today and I had a blast! It was fun, still holds up to this day imo!

rolfesam This movie is a complete and total mystery to me. Things just happen in this film and Jack, the main character, is in the same complete confusion that the audience is. Normally this would be a big negative for the film as a whole but for this movie it just adds to its strange enduring quality. And when I say things just happen in this movie I am not over exaggerating. This movie goes from a pulpy trucker flick to a gang movie to a supernatural action film in the first 20 or so minutes of screen time and it is just too good to miss. In a world so far removed from the 1980's in ways that have changed how movies are made (which is neither inherently good or bad) its just so exciting that I as a 20 year old millennial got to see this for the first time without any kind of information on it at all. To put that in comparison I know the how the entire next few years of Marvel's movie empire are going to go with what characters I should expect to enter the universe and what story lines are going to be used. But for this flick I honestly couldn't have told you more than I've seen some of the directors other movies. That's it. There's magic in not knowing and as a person who grew up in the years of CGI being in damn near every major movie in my lifetime it was a strange feeling to see the monsters and effects in this movie and go "wow, now how the hell did they manage to do that?" I know its not real but at the same time there is this piece of my brain that is trained to pick up on CGI that was just screaming that the effect was genuine. It may be a silly and at times stupid movie but its one that everyone going into film should see at least once to just get a feel of what things can be done with practical effects better than CGI and what things should be left to a computer.