'But Jack,' I hear you cry, 'Wikipedia tells me that this is a fantasy martial arts comedy film. I would hardly classify it as action.' And to you I say, it's my blog, I'll be the judge of that. Besides, there's guns and that's good enough for me. The reason I wanted to review this film is because it is the first film I remember watching. Well sort of. I have vague recollections of Kurt Russell and an overly stereotypical Asian man with long nails.
It turns out that I have a better memory than I thought because both of these things feature prominently. The only thing I didn't realise about this film is how funny it is and not in a 'because it's so bad' way. The comedy comes from Kurt Russell, who plays Jack Burton, an all American trucker who is doing a pretty good John Wayne impression. Burton stumbles around Chinatown misunderstanding Chinese customs and overestimating his own strength.
Burton comes up against Lo Pan (James Hong), an ancient Chinese sorcerer who has taken his friend Wang Chi's (Dennis Dun) fiance hostage. Well his more of a sidekick, very reminiscent of Shot Round in Temple of Doom. Aiding them in their adventure is Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall) and Egg Shen (Victor Wong), another sorcerer who moonlights as a tour bus driver around Chinatown.
The most egregious stereotypes come with the characters of Lo Pan and Egg Shen. Lo Pan is like a Chinese emperor of a forgotten age. James Hong (he was the maitre d at the Chinese restaurant in Seinfeld) is hilariously over the top. Egg Shen on the other hand is like Mr. Miyagi on cocaine. There are also some characters which ultimately became Raiden in Mortal Kombat.
Verdict: A super over the top martial arts movie that is really funny. I think the only thing that would make this movie offensive is if they added chop suey music.
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