Episode 41 – Movie Night: Big Trouble In Little China

This week’s Movie Night podcast is very special, in more ways than one. Due to some technical/scheduling difficulties, this week’s movie got a recording session all it’s own, so we’re “kicking it old school” as the kids today say – bringing you around 45 minutes of red-hot podcast about the movie Big Trouble in Little China. The increased length can also be attributed to the fact that Rich WOULD NOT STOP EATING CHEETOS and because of that, we spend a lot of time talking about Cheetos. Specifically Cheetos Zingers. Loudest. Snack. Ever. Whatever the reason, we spend about twice our usual amount of time talking about a movie Jake calls “One of the best movies ever made” which from the start seems HIGHLY questionable. On the other hand I WOULD accept “weird-ass trip through an American screenwriter’s mostly un-researched version of Chinese mystic culture” – seriously, this movie made me feel like I had signed up for Intermediate Chinese Mysticism 201 and then skipped every class leading up to the review session for the comprehensive final. Question 27: This is a _________ and it eats _______. (Answers: "fucked up thing" and "your soul probably". Maybe THIS is the point at which my lack of knowledge of other 80’s movies is finally coming into play… Perhaps if I had the complete knowledge of every other weird kung-fu movie made during the 1980’s then this one would have been more of a homage or a spoof or something instead of just… well… confusing. Nerdy Kurt Russel says "It's ok! Don't be confused!" Anyway. That’s not to say I HATED this movie. It was weird, but weird in a fun way. The whole plot essentially consisted of Kurt Russel and some Chinese character actors fighting the cast of Mortal Kombat and some super-scary looking muppets. As a side bar – this movie was apparently popular enough to warrant it’s own action figures. Take that, world. Your cast, in plastic. The only thing that REALLY bugged me about this movie was the beginning and the end – neither seemed complete enough and were both FAR too out of the context of the movie which they were made to bookend. I could also go on a rant about how the ending was obviously intended to set-up a sequel that never got made, but I wont (because I did enough of that on the podcast). So there you go –  listen to our thoughts on Big Trouble in Little China which while not being one of the best movies ever made, is definitely pretty good. I’ll leave you now with an artist’s rendering of the “Chinese Wild Man” who while seeming so violent on the streets of Chinatown, proves to be nothing but a gentle giant in its natural habitat. Whoever drew this is about 1000000x better of a person than you are.