Horror maestro John Carpenter is clearly in awe of Hong Kong movies, but this brave attempt to fuse martial arts action with a westernised adventure story sadly doesn't quite gel.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 13, 2024

On many occasions I have the feeling that its recycling of genres with a B-series formula is hackneyed and terribly boring when Kurt Russell fights in a simple way in the bizarre alleys of Chinatown. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/10 | Dec 21, 2022

...it is certainly great fun—as deliberately absurd a contraption...

| Aug 19, 2022

...Big Trouble in Little China rises to meet our elevated expectations; fast, chaotic and inventive, its yet another Carpenter film that really deserved more than it got from audiences at the time...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 9, 2022

It's sporadically amusing but not consistently funny. There's plenty of action but minimal tension. And the story never tries hard to be even a little convincing.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 16, 2021

"Big Trouble in Little China" turns into yet another failed remake of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 29, 2021

A rollicking, colourful comic strip of a movie with bells on.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 29, 2021

Carpenter and his lively cast seem to be having such a good time that the easiest thing to do is relax and enjoy the ride. In a way, this is the movie "Escape from New York" was trying to be but never quite managed to pull off.

| Jun 29, 2021

Watching Kurt Russell display not only a set of bulging biceps, but also... easy-going self-confidence is admittedly fun at times, even if the movie is as impenetrable as chop suey.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 29, 2021

A campy, convoluted series of outrageous adventures that careens through an imaginary world for two hours before depositing you, breathless, back in your seat.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 29, 2021

Big Trouble in Little China is a failure, but it's a fascinating, atypical failure.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 29, 2021

If you're in the right mood for this sort of thing, John Carpenter's new movie presents as fine an opportunity as any this summer to have a good, goofy time.

| Jun 29, 2021

The result - suspense/action/comedy/kung fu/supernatural - defies categorization. Let's just call it a rousing good movie and proceed

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 29, 2021

This is yet another movie of special effects over substance.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 29, 2021

A bad marriage of martial arts and action spoofery, bungled by director John Carpenter working from the world's worst screenplay.

| Jun 29, 2021

When a circus is done right, you get caught up in its rhythm and lost in the fun of it. Carpenter has done it right.

| Jun 29, 2021

It's easy to appreciate the movie's colour and vigour, even if it's difficult to know exactly what the heck is going on.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 29, 2021

The director, trying for speed, spectacle and whimsy, seems hamstrung--like his pratfalling hero, Jack Burton.

| Jun 29, 2021

Russell, who has been making movies for years and who almost became a pro baseball player, turns in a fabulous performance.

| Jun 29, 2021

"Big Trouble in Little China" might have been fun 10 years ago. Now, it's an embarrassment long past its time, with nothing new to offer audiences.

| Original Score: 3/10 | Jun 29, 2021