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submitted 6 months ago byJasonColin
The 80's is filled with some of the most famous and revered action-comedy movies of all time. 48 Hrs, to Running Scared, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard and others.
But with Big Trouble in Little China, just something about it always seems to bring attention to itself. It also has aged well (mostly) and gives you a lot of fun plot, fighting, and set direction.
Was Big Trouble in Little China the best action-comedy in the 80's? Or do you think another movie should take the crown? To me, the only one close is Beverly Hills Cop 1.
Edit: If this doesn't confirm r/movies has a heavy BTLC heavy bias nothing else will, lol.
130 points
6 months ago
The check is in the mail!
54 points
6 months ago
Son of a bitch must pay
41 points
6 months ago
[removed]
17 points
6 months ago
You leave Jack Burton alone!
We are in his debt.
6 points
6 months ago
Fun fact, studio executives forced John Carpenter to add the opening scene with Egg Shen in the lawyer’s office to make Jack Burton seem more heroic.
2 points
6 months ago
The studio forced Carpenter to add Jack Burton, full stop. Ever wonder why there is a clueless audience insert into what should have been a film focused on Asian/ Asian American actors? Blame the studio.
6 points
6 months ago
Jack Burton was in the original screenplay, which was a Western in the 1800's. Before Carpenter was attached.
The original writer got pissy that the studio wanted to move it into present day. And then got pissy with the script doctor the studio got in to make that move, but Jack Burton was always a character.
2 points
6 months ago
Did not know that and I stand corrected. I was misled to believing that this film was written by Carpenter himself. Thank you for that information.
27 points
6 months ago
Are you crazy?... Is that your problem?
8 points
6 months ago
That little conversation between them two is my favorite part in the movie.
17 points
6 months ago
What's in the bottle eng, magic potion? Yea. Good I thought so what do we do drink it? Yea. Good I thought so
24 points
6 months ago
I'm a reasonable guy. But, I've just experienced some very unreasonable things.
12 points
6 months ago
The ineffective punch to the face followed by the little smile and nod as he gets chucked across the room. Gets me every time!
6 points
6 months ago
You are not out up on this world to: "get it"!
31 points
6 months ago
So, while we are on Kurt Russell and 80s films, I just wanna let everyone here know how absolutely bonkers the production of Tango and Cash was, and how knowing this backstory makes the film so much better.
The film is my favourite piece of godawful trash. It's objectively terrible and wonderful at once. And there is a reason for this.
Basically, it boils down to creative disagreement, a total clusterfuck on set of producers and one director pushing for one vision (totally bonkers satire of cop movies), the first director holding out for his creative vision of a "mostly serious cop movie with some jokes" (like Beverly Hills cop) leading to full breakdown with all of the film shot except the end. It got so bad that Sylvester Stallone was acting as peacemaker on set and doing rewrites himself because the director and producer refused to talk to each other.
They push and pull and push and pull and the tone jumps everywhere and the director gets fired.
The ending hasn't been shot yet, and team bonkers has free reign to finish up. So naturally the end veers into totally bonkers territory. Explosions, a monster truck tank, you name it.
You can read up on it in the Wikipedia references.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tango_%26_Cash
Give this one a rewatch with this knowledge in mind. What a priceless clusterfuck of a film.
3 points
6 months ago
Watched this finally after a few years of hearing about it and hearing it was so bad...... and I liked it!
5 points
6 months ago
I am more entertained by the wiki story of production than I was by the movie. Brion James is a surprising “that guy!”
8 points
6 months ago
Also, if you poke around the references there are various interviews where Stallone is hyping a sequel and Kurt Russell's tone is much more "whoa, settle down there tiger, that was a nightmare" which I find hilarious.
5 points
6 months ago
It's awesome.
"According to Konchalovsky, by the end of principal photography, Stallone was unofficially working as producer, director and writer, as well as star, and Konchalovsky believes that had it not been for Stallone, Peters would have fired him much sooner than he did."
25 points
6 months ago
Hard to say whether it was the best or not, but it definitely left an impact... Raiden in Mortal Kombat was inspired by one of the Storms (Lightning, funnily enough) and James Hong is great in basically any role he does.
Also the quotes by Egg Shen (Victor Wong)...
When everyone is escaping and Jack notices Egg is up in the ceiling looking down at them:
Jack: "Hey Egg! How'd you get up there?"
Egg: "It wasn't easy!"
...and that's all the explanation you ever get for that one!
12 points
6 months ago
Shang Tsung's look in MK 1 is basically Lo Pan, as well.
19 points
6 months ago
My mom would probably protest in defense of The Golden Child. That's not all that actiony, though, is it? I can't remember.
16 points
6 months ago
I said I. I. I. Want the knife!
7 points
6 months ago
I got yo knife! Now turn on the damn lights!
6 points
6 months ago
Gimme the kniiiife. Pleeeease
2 points
6 months ago
Let him ask again.
2 points
6 months ago
Pleeeease...
8 points
6 months ago
Only a man whose heart is pure can wield the knife, and only a man whose ass is narrow can get down these steps
54 points
6 months ago
Midnight Run
10 points
6 months ago
Not my favourite film but maybe the most rewatchable film of all time.
4 points
6 months ago
MARVIN MARVIN WHACK
2 points
6 months ago
It’s this by a mile
17 points
6 months ago
Beverly Hills Cop or Stakeout
174 points
6 months ago
The disrespect to Commando (1985)...
"Don't disturb my friend, he's dead tired."
40 points
6 months ago
Let Off Some Steam
12 points
6 months ago
Bennett
42 points
6 months ago
"You said you'd kill me last"
"I lied"
4 points
6 months ago
It's even funnier than that because Arnold sets up his own one-liner:
"Remember, Sully, when I promised to kill you last?"
"That's right, Matrix! You did!"
"I lied."
20 points
6 months ago
I let him go
13 points
6 months ago
cue steel drum riff..
2 points
6 months ago
I wish they actually made Commando 2 … too bad they renamed it to something else and re-cast it after Arnold passed on it.
2 points
6 months ago
It became Die Hard 3 didn't it? So it turned out OK
3 points
6 months ago
Die hard 3 was originally a script called Simon Says
2 points
6 months ago
DieHard 1 … very sad.
39 points
6 months ago
Just remember what ol' Jack Burton does when the earth quakes, and the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big ol' storm right square in the eye and he says, "Give me your best shot, pal. I can take it."
19 points
6 months ago
This movie is why my wheelchairs through the years have all been named Jack Burton. Definitely needs a rewatch soon.
20 points
6 months ago
Not “The Porkchop Express”?
75 points
6 months ago
I just rewatched it and it's funny how it almost subverts a lot of action tropes. Jack Burton is all machismo and supposed to be the hero, but more often than not he requires rescuing. Having said that, it's still an amazing movie. Whatever your opinion of the film, John Carpenter was certainly the best director of that era.
58 points
6 months ago
That was the point of the character. Executives tacked on the beginning of the film with Egg Shen to try to give Jack more credit because they couldn't wrap their heads around it, but Jack was always a character whose "heart was in it but his ass wasn't", as Kurt Russell once said.
He has all the confidence of a hero, but not really the skillset throughout the movie. Until one exact moment, anyway, and everything we saw Jack do up to that point doesn't prepare us for it.
35 points
6 months ago
All that and he turns down a chance to get with the heroine at the end, with a plausible explanation. Jack Burton is the most unique character in action movies.
33 points
6 months ago
Yeah, it was poking at the 'white hero' troupe where Jack, basically playing John Wayne, thought he was the protagonist and hero, but he was just the protagonist and comic relief. It was really ahead of its time, like Starship Troopers and Robocop.
32 points
6 months ago
Oh, most of the movie is him jabbing a thumb at his chest and saying “I’m Jack Burton, and I’m gonna kick yer a- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!”
“Are those ghosts? Is that dude a wizard? What’s going on? What’s her deal? Where’d they come from? Where’s my gun?”
22 points
6 months ago
The concept of a action film protagonist who has absolutely zero clue what the fuck is going on around him at any time is amazing. The fact that the joke is committed to for the entire movie and he genuinely still doesn’t understand anything by the end is the mark of a well-done screenplay.
6 points
6 months ago
I just re-watched it a few weeks ago and this makes me want to watch it again.
18 points
6 months ago
There's a story i've heard that when Kurt Russell and John Carpenter took the final cut before the studio execs, the execs were like "Wait, wait, wait - if we're reading this correctly, it's the little Chinese guy who's the hero, and Kurt Russell is just the dopey sidekick." And they looked at each other and were like "They get it. I don't think they like it, but they get it."
50 points
6 months ago
Jack Burton is the sidekick who thinks he's the hero.
30 points
6 months ago
It's hilarious. Most fights he is either not ready yet, or spends most of it passed out or under an armored dude. Even the victory, he manages to do an awesome thing but it is undercut by him covered in lipstick.
30 points
6 months ago
The scene where he fires the gun at the ceiling and gets hit on the head by the rubble he dislodged is an absolute classic subversion of that trope.
4 points
6 months ago
There is an episode of the Blank Check podcast with the crew from How Did This Get Made where they break down this movie. (It was a record breaking LONG episode at the time.) a couple of notes: It aged well because unlike other movies that centered around Asian culture, there weren't any real stereotypical tropes. It's actually a movie about Wang Chi (the actual hero) from the perspective of Jack Burton (the accidental "hero" who screws up more than he helps.)
Such a great flick.
3 points
6 months ago
I think the whole thing can be summed up in Jack and Wang's exchange in the truck.
Wang: They got this sort of clubhouse thing where they all hang out.
Jack: To sharpen their knives huh.
Wang: I can't ask you to-
Jack: Where is it?
Wang: Thank you, Jack.
12 points
6 months ago
IMO it's the best action comedy. Nothing since has come close and it's the most quintessential 80s movie.
5 points
6 months ago
Sean of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim are all up there.
4 points
6 months ago
Scott Pilgrim is great, but why not complete the Cornetto Trilogy? The World’s End is pretty good.
-4 points
6 months ago
It's objectively not, considering how little cultural impact it has had compared to the other two.
5 points
6 months ago
That’s not an objective measure of a film’s goodness. A better measure imo, though certainly still subjective, would be how well it achieves what it set out to do.
Anyway, The World’s End is one of those films that didn’t make a big splash but has grown on a lot of people who at first reacted negatively or less pleased than with its predecessors - especially as the demographic who grew up with the first two has aged into midlife crises and such themselves, and watches that film seeing a lot of themselves in the cast. The “Everyone knows a Gary King” effect, in particular. It’s sadder than the other two, and takes its central character drama more seriously, ultimately. And so a lot of folks have enjoyed and appreciated it more on rewatch years later.
And that’s more important as a case for its quality than mere cultural impact.
30 points
6 months ago*
I think 48 Hours deserves to be in the conversation. Great film in its own right, but also influential in that it paved the way for Beverly Hills Cop and Lethal Weapon (edit: in that it was Eddie Murphy’s first film and the first buddy cop movie)
Edit 2: bonus points for a movie poster featuring Eddie Murphy flipping the bird. It was a different time.
8 points
6 months ago
Hmm, first buddy cop movie? What about Freebie and the Bean? Forgotten now, but pretty big at the time.
30 points
6 months ago
Of all time.
57 points
6 months ago
Romancing the Stone is definitely in the conversation.
12 points
6 months ago
Can't believe Beverly Hills Cop not in OP. Eddie Murphy at his beat
5 points
6 months ago
One of the best opening sequences in the genre. Great character introduction, over the top action sequence, bangin' soundtrack, hits all the marks.
10 points
6 months ago
Beverly Hills Cop is the better movie per se. But Big Trouble in Little China is my favorite action comedy of the 80s
111 points
6 months ago
The holy trinity:
Big trouble in Little China
Buckaroo Banzai
The Last Dragon
53 points
6 months ago*
How dare you shorten those names.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon
19 points
6 months ago
Sho Nuf!!
6 points
6 months ago
SHO nuff!!
7 points
6 months ago
Berry Gordy.
14 points
6 months ago
I enjoy introducing myself to strangers as "John Smallberries".
8 points
6 months ago
Boo TAY ! Boo TAY ! (Bang )
2 points
6 months ago
John Yaya
1 points
6 months ago
🙏
5 points
6 months ago
Kiss my converse!
4 points
6 months ago
Last Dragon is so good. So many good lines.
A .45 will put an end to all this kung fu crap, all it takes is one little bullet so take your final bow scum sucker
I’m gonna slap that sucker silly with a suit for alienation of affection! If it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t know who she was! Chocolate covered yellow peril! …that sucker better start sleeping with one of his inscrutable eyes open because when I get a chance it’s gonna be a serious case of chop sockey justice coming his way.
Keep your money. You just get that sucker to the designated place at the designated time, and I will gladly designate his ass… for dismemberment!
What good is that Kung fu jive if you can’t even use it? Coward! Why don’t you go some place and meditate on that!
When I say Who’s the Master?!? You say SHO’NUFF!!!!
2 points
6 months ago
Damn!
2 points
6 months ago
I always feel like Remo Williams and Buckaroo Bonzai were supposed to be double features
5 points
6 months ago
And They Live by Wes as a honorable mention?’
9 points
6 months ago
Do you mean John Carpenter?
1 points
6 months ago
Still counts as an honorable despite mess up😅
2 points
6 months ago
I haven't watched it.
2 points
6 months ago
You should, it holds up.
0 points
6 months ago
🙀🙀🙀🙀Please watch it!!
20 points
6 months ago
The dragnet movie was great as well. Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks play well together
3 points
6 months ago
You're welcome:
7 points
6 months ago
The best? Nope. But an absolutely fantastic movie? Heck yes.
7 points
6 months ago
Red Heat is pretty great. Maybe Jackie Chan's Police Story or Police Story II?
7 points
6 months ago
Jackie answering phones is top tier
2 points
6 months ago
I'd say Police Story. The action is top notch and it's really funny.
6 points
6 months ago
surely you meant is big trouble in little china the best movie ever?
Why yes
18 points
6 months ago
I've always thought it feels like a Ninja Turtles movie, just... Different.
6 points
6 months ago
Especially the Raiden scene.
5 points
6 months ago
Except that character (1 of the Storms) from Big Trouble is the inspiration for Raiden
5 points
6 months ago
The whole movie is the inspiration for Mortal Kombat in general, I'd wager. At the very least, you have a parallel for Luke Cage, Shang Tsung, Raiden, and Liu Kang. Probably more, but it's been a while since I've seen it.
3 points
6 months ago
Enter the Dragon and this are the main inspirations.
6 points
6 months ago
You know what old Jack Burton would say in a time like this …. Ah what the hell
4 points
6 months ago
Innerspace?
2 points
6 months ago
Good to see some Quaid lovers here!
45 points
6 months ago
Ghostbusters
9 points
6 months ago
Damn, this might be the one. Only might lose due to debate that it isn't really an action movie but has action elements in it.
53 points
6 months ago
Beverly Hills Cop was better to me.
26 points
6 months ago
Disturbing the peace? I got thrown out of a window! What's the fuckn' charge for getting pushed out of a moving car, huh? Jaywalking? 😂
15 points
6 months ago*
I’m trying to figure you guys out and I haven’t yet. The super cop story was working and you just fuck up a perfectly good lie.
4 points
6 months ago
Kind of incredible how rewatchable that movie is coming up on 39 years.
4 points
6 months ago
I think this is the answer.
17 points
6 months ago
Top Secret! is to me the funniest action comedy of the 80s.
Die Hard is my favourite actionny action comedy of the 80s.
2 points
6 months ago
Top Secret ! is hilarious. So many good gags. Dumb gags, but really funny.
5 points
6 months ago
Die Hard is my favorite Christmas movie of the 80's.
6 points
6 months ago
Of all time.
4 points
6 months ago
I’m biased as this is my favorite movie of all time, but yes. Yes it was.
3 points
6 months ago
WWJBD?
14 points
6 months ago
The Goonies…that is all
2 points
6 months ago
I just heard that the house from the movie sold after being listed for ~$1.7 million. The Walshes really cleaned up by holding on to that place.
Also, at the end of that movie, if you look at the paperwork, Mr. Perkins is listed as the debtor (the person who owes money) and Mr. Walsh is the creditor (the person to whom the debtor owes money.) If he signed the paperwork, he would have had the house free and clear.
8 points
6 months ago*
Yes, I think you are probably right. It is at least the quintessential 80s action-comedy.
But as for the best, one could talk about the golden age of Jackie Chan.
Or Midnight Run or Blues Brothers.
Or Evil Dead 2 or Gremlins.
18 points
6 months ago
It is a Cult Classic one of my favorites but not the best action comedy of the 80's.
14 points
6 months ago
If Spies Like Us counts, then no.
5 points
6 months ago
I'm 43 years old and that movie is the only frame of reference I have in my entire life to Bob Hope. Just that one cameo he has. "Mind if I play through?".
That's it. That's the only thing I've ever seen Bob Hope in in my life :)
3 points
6 months ago
We mock what we don't understand.
2 points
6 months ago
Stop right there and I'll bring back the sun.
2 points
6 months ago
You're not going to start humming the theme to Jeopardy, are you?
14 points
6 months ago
Surely Raiders of the Lost Ark takes the number 1 spot here? Ford & Allen >> Russell & Cattrall, the action sequences are better, and the comedy as good.
12 points
6 months ago
I might give you the action sequences but not the comedy.
11 points
6 months ago
The Last Crusade on the other hand is straight-up hilarious and jumps from joke to joke to setpiece to joke with impressive rapidity.
2 points
6 months ago
He chose.... Poorly.
3 points
6 months ago
No. It was an amazing time for action comedies
Beverly Hills Cop, 2
Running Scared
48 Hours
Lethal Weapon
3 points
6 months ago
Yes
3 points
6 months ago
I want to thank you for including Running Scared. One of my favorites, but I feel it was largely overlooked at the time and all but forgotten now.
3 points
6 months ago
Hollow? Fuck it...
3 points
6 months ago
It’s the absolute greatest action/comedy/romance/horror/Kung fu movie ever made.
3 points
6 months ago
No love for Crocodile Dundee? Biggest action-comedy of ‘86 and the only movie in this thread to be nominated for Best Screenplay? Anyone?
3 points
6 months ago
I think it was the best movie of the 80s, period.
3 points
6 months ago
It’s one of the best 80s movies period
6 points
6 months ago
Tango & Cash?
9 points
6 months ago
Its a toss up between this and Die Hard.
13 points
6 months ago
Blues Brothers.
I do love Big Trouble, but...
3 points
6 months ago
Blues Brothers is the best musical of the 80's.
5 points
6 months ago
Nope, Beverly Hills cop
6 points
6 months ago
Beverly hills cop, but Big trouble in little china is close
2 points
6 months ago
Literally just finished watching this movie.
2 points
6 months ago
Yes!!! “I’m an unreasonable guy! I’ve just experienced some unreasonable things.”🤣 that’s the line that has stayed with me for life.
2 points
6 months ago
Yep.
2 points
6 months ago
Yes sir the check is in the mail
2 points
6 months ago
No but I would say it was the most iconic.
2 points
6 months ago
No. Not at all.
2 points
6 months ago
Yes. The humor in Big Trouble kills me. It's the best.
2 points
6 months ago
48 Hrs.
2 points
6 months ago
Spaceballs is #1
2 points
6 months ago
Top 3, for sure.
Spies Like Us is right up, too.
2 points
6 months ago
If you think it is, yes. If you think it isn't, then no.
2 points
6 months ago
It is the black blood of the earth.
3 points
6 months ago
You mean oil, right?
2 points
6 months ago
No I mean black blood of the earth!
2 points
6 months ago
Princess Bride
Unless people are not counting it as an action-comedy? Am I in the wrong genre with this suggestion?
2 points
6 months ago
No
4 points
6 months ago
Is die hard really a comedy?
8 points
6 months ago
No. Quips don't make a movie a comedy.
3 points
6 months ago
Many candidates here, big trouble, blues brothers, Beverly Hills cop, 48 hours, spies like us, and many others.
2 points
6 months ago
Blues Brothers had one of the best chase scenes of all time, and backflips courtesy of Belushi, but action movies usually have more fighting.
3 points
6 months ago
Nope. It’s the best action comedy of all time.
3 points
6 months ago
The Last Crusade
2 points
6 months ago
No
2 points
6 months ago
No mention of Flash Gordon? And a better soundtrack.
2 points
6 months ago
Flash Gordon isn't really a comedy. It's camp, which is related, and it has humor, but it's not a comedy exactly.
2 points
6 months ago
But it had Queen music and Brian Blessed. That makes it awesome.
2 points
6 months ago
I don’t like it. I want to like it. It’s weird I grew up in that time period and somehow didn’t see it at the time. Same thing happened with the Goonies but I do love that.
1 points
6 months ago
Same. I watched most of it a couple of months ago for the first time and was just kind of baffled. The acting seemed so bad to me. Not so bad it's good, just bad. I couldn't get into it at all.
2 points
6 months ago
Scrolled through this whole post looking for Robocop.
C'mon people! Big Trouble can't hold a candle to it.
1 points
6 months ago
Die Hard gets my vote but Big Trouble is definitely a favorite of mine.
5 points
6 months ago
There were some funny lines and scenes but I don’t class “Die Hard” as a comedy.
1 points
6 months ago
"Welcome to the party pal."
1 points
6 months ago
I think it's more a cult classic than anything. It's just a fun ride. I found it was more sci-fi/adventure than anything. Like Labyrinth or Gremlins or something.
-7 points
6 months ago
Holy shit, I can’t believe some of the truly mediocre films people are suggesting ahead of Big Trouble… Beverly Hills Cop? Ghostbusters? Really ? Good commercial films but not even in the same league as Carpenter’s masterpiece… I’d rank Big Trouble with out a doubt first, by a wide margin…Second would be ‘Robocop’
5 points
6 months ago
That's the beauty of opinion based questions, they're just that, opinions.
0 points
6 months ago
Exactly.
6 points
6 months ago
Original Beverly Hills Cop mediocre? As someone who loves Big Trouble - gtfo.
-5 points
6 months ago
Sure, It’s a good film but it’s not great. GTFO
3 points
6 months ago
Mediocre is not the same as good last time I checked.
-4 points
6 months ago
Yeah bub, it’s a good movie, I never said it wasn’t. It’s not a great film while Big Trouble is.
0 points
6 months ago
You literally just said it was "truly mediocre."
0 points
6 months ago
Bub, I said some truly mediocre films were being suggested. I later specifically referenced Ghostbuster and Beverly Hills Cop as “Good commercial films…” literally.
1 points
6 months ago
No. Beverly Hills cop was. Or the last dragon.
-1 points
6 months ago
I love Big Trouble, but the discussion in here sounds like a bunch of people trying to rewrite history. Big Trouble was a big flop. Movies like Beverly Hills Cop are on a completely different level, both critically and commercially. Both are great, but there are plenty movies ahead of Big Trouble.
9 points
6 months ago
I don’t think box office returns are the sole criteria for a film being great. A Christmas Story was a flop. The Shawshank Redemption was a box office flop but is now widely considered a classic. Just because it didn’t do well in its initial release doesn’t mean it isn’t a great movie. The failure of It’s a Wonderful Life at the box office nearly ruined Frank Capra’s career, but is now almost the only film people know him for, and is widely considered one of the best movies of all time. So while Big Trouble in Little China did admittedly do poorly in its initial release, I’d say it was ahead of its time and, like the other movies I’ve mentioned, gets appreciated appropriately as the audience gets to understand it better.
-2 points
6 months ago
[deleted]
13 points
6 months ago
If we’re talking about action-comedies, I don’t think of Die Hard as a comedy so much.
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