This is another box office bomb that has since gained a massive fan following. Admittedly it's not one of director John Carpenter's top films but it certainly is very original and very zany. It's a comedy but difficult to define as it's also a sort of action/adventure/fantasy and for first time viewers it will be quite a surprise especially as it gets dafter and more zany as it goes on. Kurt Russell plays trucker Jack Burton who delivers goods into San Francisco's Chinatown. When his friend, Wang Chi (Dennis Dun), has his fiancée kidnapped by a street gang Jack agrees to help him get her back. But Jack is not prepared as they search the backstreets of Chinatown because they get caught up in a centuries old battle between an ancient, evil wizard and a local mystic, which leads them to an eerie denizen below the streets of the city. And Jack's reluctant girlfriend, Gracie (Kim Cattrall) falls into the bad guys clutches too adding to his problems. Burton is a sort of useless hero here, incompetent and clumsy beside the more skilled Chinese with their martial arts and fancy weapons. The film has some weird things going on but if you just go with it it is a joy and very funny. This is something different to try, it'll certainly have you smiling and occasionally scratching your head.
Too confusing, too loud, too unbelievable, too rubbishy to even be taken seriously as a film.
"edge-of-your-seat" adventure? No. An early Kurt Russell film that should have been buried under San Francisco.
Nothing good about the film at all, no storyline, no decent special effects (perhaps excepting the bug-eyed all-seeing beach ball) and too many Chinese mythology sub-stories that just help confuse the main 'action', which is a long uninteresting sequence of kung-fu confrontations that have been better done in other films and TV series - yes, you, Grasshopper. Cannot recommend at all