Strange Aeons Radio

177 CRYPTICON LIVE SHOW!

June 02, 2022 Strange Aeons Radio Season 4 Episode 177
Strange Aeons Radio
177 CRYPTICON LIVE SHOW!
Show Notes Transcript

177 CRYPTICON LIVE SHOW!
A lively discussion of John Carpenter's underrated classic "Big Trouble in Little China", recorded live at Crypticon-Seattle, 2022!

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sorry did I break your concentration somewhere between science and superstition sites to show you strange aeons. Welcome to strange aeons radio. That's Eric over there. Hello. That's Vanessa over there. Hello, Kelly. This is our cryptic on special. Vanessa, it would appear that you have picked up something gross and cruddy from the con. Yeah, I don't know what it is yet. We're lab results are spinning off right now trying to calculate what it could possibly be. I am hopeful it's just a cold. But we'll we'll find out quickly. There's a term that's been around for decades about going to conventions called cron con crud. Is that unusual to catch something? So maybe it's Oh, yeah. I've gotten the PAC box many times in the past in my life. So I'm not, I'm not immune to that I definitely didn't wear didn't didn't have like the hand sanitizer going as much as I should have did my mask as much as I should have. So this is it. We all know, this is a possibility when we go to these conventions that who knows who knows will happen. But you know, what's funny is Yeah, I think that we've all gotten kind of lacks, and how we were washing our hands every 20 minutes and all that stuff, but maybe for conventions, we should be that strict and try again. Yeah. So dumb after I was like, what was I doing? Why? Why I really got loose about it. So we should talk about it. So you know, let's, let's give our thoughts and then we're gonna play our Live episode that we recorded their crypto fun. This was cryptic on Seattle. 2022. And this is our second live show there. Yeah. That was, that was a little and it was a nice audience again. Yeah. Better than Emerald City. That's true. Really respond? Well. Great. Yeah. Great people who came and turned out and I think Fair, fair amount of people who probably hadn't seen us before. But I think most Yeah, that was surprising, folks. But I think most of them were new. Cool. Yeah. So I, I showed up pretty early on Friday, so that I could start drinking or writing. And I simply in my iPad to start writing, and Eric sat down, and I was like, Oh, thank God, I closed it. And then right after that, Carlos, said, Hey, why don't you come up to the room and have a glass of wine with me? And so then by the time the actual con started, I was good to go? Yeah. That's a good me. Oh, my gosh, you know what? You know, I realized that I really don't like these conventions very much. But I like hanging out with people I don't get to see very often. And I like hanging out with you guys. And I had, I had a really great time hanging out with you. The only thing I was bummed about is that we didn't get to hang out with like, Brian and Gwen from the Lovecraft Film Festival and stuff like we did last year. And our buddy Rick, who was staying home because he was sick and stuff like that, you know? Because that's literally why I go to any of these sites. And Matt was barely there. And Nick was at a different convention. Yeah. Although, yeah, there's still a lot of people of course, you know, for me, it's a relatively different experience most of the time, right and running around doing the film festival. But I did have great help from wonderful lady named crystal and Carlos during been helping with the festival this year, run a few blocks. So I actually had some time to go to a panel or two or actually get meals or drinks at some point. This is a little bit of a truncated experience for me, typically, I do, like do a lot of the show floor and I walk around and this time I really showed up in time for my panels, and then would hang out with you guys, which I think was definitely the superior way of doing the convention. For me. This is probably my fifth cryptic con, maybe more. So it was it was nice to just hanging out with you guys hanging out with some of our friends, and then unfortunately, ate something that was kind of like a lot stir kind of on Saturday. Like I think I described it to you guys is like a lobster who was like smoking a pack a day. So it wasn't feeling great the next morning, so I did bail on Sunday, but I also really liked the panels. I did a my second year doing a editing panel, which was sneakily me. Yeah, so I deconstructed very, very, thank you, Christine. I was like no, Kerry, Kerry versus Kerry old carry versus new carry and had a lot of people that I had no idea who they were, who were really enthusiastic and showed up and like, hung out and talked about it. And that was it was a really good crowd. I really enjoyed that. So I was able to jump into that one for a few minutes. And well, I hear not just showing up in chat and stuff, there's a lot of work you put into putting on that particular panel to run in and so that's pretty cool. Okay, yeah, had the videos how the trailers, you know, started giving them a little bit of a crash course on, on what different shots sizes mean psychologically. You know what, why we break things down into different elements such as sound music, the lighting, the costumes, the set, the you know, there's so many other pieces that when you start to deconstruct those, you can really start to take apart films and start to see what they're doing and how they're doing it. So that's pretty good. It's fine. It's really fun. Awesome. They get a chance to visit with Jason wise just a little bit at least, but the only place I ever seemed to see him anymore. So show up at some outside film thing. He's always a lot of fun to talk to. Yeah, Saturday night in the 13th floor, but you go job Sherlock course, in the party floor where they take out all the furniture of all the rooms up there and then just kind of trick or treat between all the parties. With what it's scary. Okey, that's right. The VIP VIP party, which even I'm not supposed to get into, Oh, I've not paid VIP. I just worked for the kid. And I brought my I am Khan famous for I bring a portable bar to every panel that I am on. It's a tiny little suitcase, it has a bottle and four glasses. And I usually bring a nice bottle of scotch to share with whoever I'm paneling. And this year, I bought a bottle of the Glenlivet 15. But then, my very, very dear friend, one time a guest on the show, John abandoned showed up. And I hadn't seen him in years, and we retired up to the room and broke out the Glenlivet 15. And then a few other friends showed up and all of this stuff, and I missed my panel that I was supposed to do with Tony. Sorry, Tony, this is why the Scotch that I was going to bring to our live show. Oh, We all drank up in the room beforehand. drink a bottle of scotch. I wasn't gonna have any anyway, I know you weren't. I'm just saying. If I sound like I'm drunk, it's because I was drunk. Ah, yes, that is that is 100% accurate. I'm really gonna look forward to I mean, you are holding it pretty well together. I think you'll you guys will hear in the episode. But I think you did a pretty good job of leading us through some pretty complex moments of talking about Big Trouble in Little China, despite it all Oh, well. I guess we'll we'll all know when we hear it in just a few minutes. Any other things Hi highlight of the con Vegas. That was kind of neat to see. Joe was back to Sherlock was back kind of booth this year, which hasn't had for years. And he did fairly well and sold some really cool pens actually. And I'll stick them they were fantastic. One of those. Yeah, I got picked the whole setup. So that's always fine. Of course. Quentin Stacy had their hot sauce. Brian, you mean I mean, Brian, sorry. They're biter man on the brain. But Brian, but which is pretty good. It is hot. It's got a nice little kick to it. The Film Festival, which I've got some involvement with, did fairly well this year. We had the Northwest filmmakers block which run is most of Friday night. And that's usually our best attended evening because they're all local. So the filmmakers show up. It's something like, I don't know, in the end, how many really showed up? We had more than 70 filmmakers show up over the weekend. Wow. kinds of conventions are weird. So there's always that Sunday. Last thing on Sunday is like, well, let's put some good stuff up. See what shows up. Like 2030 People watching that final hour. Like, literally right up to well, they actually went over time. So they watch movies, right till after the time ended. Wow, that was that was great. Good audience had a lot of fun interaction. So. So you know that that's most of my experience, obviously, showing up putting that stuff on and making sure that runs smoothly. But I did, like chomping at the bit to get on one of the panels, I went to how blu ray box sets have changed. Watching movies and modern times. I won't talk about this. But that, so that was fun. That was fun to go to a panel. And then the front desk people were a lot of fun to work with this year. And Mickey was like, yeah, it was fun. I gave Kelly a whole bunch of crap early on. Why? Because she can. Nikki loves me. Exactly. Yep. And then obviously the best part like I said, with Jason and Joe and the Oregon folks and every buddy that's, that's what's fun about doing that. You know, there's a few people that you get to see every year and it's about the seems to be the only place you see them, even if they're local. But that's that's what makes it so damn cool. I had such a great time, like being I think I was I was trying to find you guys to say goodbye on Saturday night. But I did find Tony and I was like Tony, have you seen them? And he was like, No, I was like, Oh, I'm heading out and he gave me a big hug. And then we proceeded to talk for another like 20 minutes so you know, it's just such a nice opportunity to see a lot of these people that we don't get a chance to otherwise and really I got I got snubbed a little bit by drunk Tony on Friday night. Oh, Bill sitting there in the one of the sitting in the chairs getting ready. Wait for the final thing to start for the midnight movie to start. And he walks by he's like, Hey, how you doing? Hey, what's up stops for like 30 seconds goes Oh, yeah. Okay, I'm going back over 30 floors like, fine. Not so shiny. Not a problem. So but now, it's getting done a lot. A lot of good talking with him too. Of course. Yes. Always. Always a pleasure to see Tony. Well, okay, guys, should we wrap this up and play our live show? Yeah, let's do it. All right. Great to see everybody. We'll be back next week with a regular episode. By welcome strange aeons radio. That's Vanessa over there. Hello. That's Eric over there. Hello. I'm Kelly. We are recording live from cryptic con 2022. So that means you guys have to make some noise. People are here. They're actually in the audience. There's proof. Anybody here who was here last year for our live episode. Okay. All right. Welcome back. Yes. Last year, we talked about John Carpenter's The Thing. And this year, we thought it would be kind of cool to focus on a different flop of John Carpenter's. It's our favorite topic. Yes, lots of John Carpenter. So I'm gonna set the stage a little bit here. After consistently overachieving with his films, assault on precinct 13, Halloween, especially the fog, John Carpenter is given a virtual blank check for his next movie, which is the thing after the thing bombed at the theaters governor was taken off the movie he was in pre production on which was Firestarter. He and Bill Lancaster who was the writer the thing, we're hard at work on it and that was just taken away from them completely. In its place, John was given Christine the script of which was already written. And I don't know about you guys, but I think it's a fairly decent movie. But it's a simple movie and is based on a Stephen King book and King was already the best selling horror author of all time, so it was safe bet that the film would do well. And it did it well. Can I just say I don't know if love between man and a car is really a simple thing, but fine, um, I won't I won't go and die on a hill on that one. I have had many love affair with a car kink shamer cheese man. So after that carpenter go He's even more mainstream and he makes the movie star man, easily the most commercial film of his career. And it does well enough, it gets Jeff Bridges and Oscar nomination for Best Actor. And it is in fact the only carpenter film to get an Oscar not in any category. So he is now given another blank check. And he decides he's going to make Big Trouble in Little chat. This is Jack Burton in the porkchop Express and I'm talking to whoever is listening out there. It's a pretty amazing planet we live on here and a man and have to be some kind of fool to think we're all alone in this universe. There is a hidden world where ancient evil weaves a modern mystery of what's going on here is some kind of magic the darkest magic they call it little china and finally we shall bring order out of chaos it's where a big trouble was waiting for Jack Burton. Cool, Jack pardon me. Jack They told him to go to hell one and that's just where he's going. Somebody I don't care who tells me what is going on I have no idea many mysteries many unanswerable questions even in a life as short as you're my destiny rests in your capable hands. I'll do my best this is gonna take crackerjack timing weighing one to two maybe track holding concentration. Ready, Jack? I was born ready to go Jack, Jack Burton is coming to rescue your summer. They were more can a guy asked for 20th Century Fox presents Kurt Russell in John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China. On the reflexes it goes very well for him. 0% any problems whatsoever in any capacity along the entire way of production, the end and release? Alright, thanks for joining us. So he was aware of the original script, which had been bouncing around on Hollywood for years when it was written as a fantasy Western and heroes name was wildly Prescott. Yes, oh my God. He didn't love that version, sir. And even though the studio had bought the script, they weren't exactly sure what to do with it. So they brought in WD Richter, who had directed the flop, Buckaroo Banzai, which was a big favorite of mine, also, he came in to rewrite it. And he thought that asking the audience to buy into all of this Asian mysticism, on top of a period piece was just a little too much and suggested to get moved into a modern setting. And the studio said, that sounds great, and much less expensive. So let's do that. Also, as a side note, there's a ton of buzz at this time about a film called The Golden Child, the Paramount is developing. And Hollywood in general, is going crazy for Asian culture. So 20th Century Fox thinks they've made a very smart decision by giving this fast working mostly dependable director the chance to get their mystic Asian Film out first. And as a side note, on that side note, the golden child was offered to John Carpenter earlier and he passed on it, which was before Eddie Murphy was attached to it. Wow. So carpenter gets $25 million and get to work on this big budget Hollywood kung fu film. I want to talk to you guys about your thoughts on this and especially you Vanessa, because you came to this movie late. really late. So late. Talk to me about it because Vanessa is our John Carpenter expert super fast. Yeah, I see. slight slight problems not in therapy, never going to join therapy for it very happy with my issues. Like our last episode on midnight movie she did Darkstar because it's incredible. Up Oh, and man, if you're just there for a cool trip, that is a great ride. So this movie was really weird for me because I came into horror movies. And overall in general very late, I hated them until I got to college and felt like I kind of ran out of movies to see. And I sort of kept predicting all the plots. And I'd sit down in the first five minutes of any movie, my friends wanted to kill me because I was like, Oh, well, he's going to do this, she's going to do that. And then they're going to end this way, and it would happen. And so I was like, I'm gonna dip my toes into horror. And of course, that eventually led to carpenter. And that eventually led to a bunch of people saying you haven't seen Big Trouble in Little China. And I went to a theater screening, I think it was playing it safe uptown or something like that. And I went in completely cold did not know. I think it was maybe one of the earlier carpenter movies that I was watching at this point. So I had no frame of reference of what his style was. And everyone there was like, quoting it and like having a romp as good time and remembering their childhood watching it on, you know, cable or whatever, on VHS, and I was like, I don't know what is happening. This movie is weird. I'm so confused. And then I did not watch it again until yesterday. So yeah, so you know what, of course now I've seen all the other John Carpenter movies quite a few times. And it was really nice to go back in again, knowing him a little better understanding the the sort of situation and the frame of reference and his actors and his style and how much this is and isn't his style all at once. And man, this is some fast and furious writing. incredible joy variety of just weird. Hi, I believe in the law. The law is great. My name is Gracie law. Okay, cool. Sounds good. What about you, Eric? When did you see this? When did I first see it? Boy, when it came out? I didn't see it. Now, but I did see it a video rental. How can I teen age really close? pass up a movie that looks like that cover with that stuff. And you see the trailers and the the guys with the strange hats and the stuff flying around and Kurt Russell doing his best John Wayne? Mike on Okay, I'll see this one. But oddly enough, I did not watch it for a very long time. I again, I have the sharp battery collection with the little 45 rpm. Yeah, and I hadn't even watch that yet. I split my collectors are kind of stupid that way. Where you also surprised there was a steelbook inside. I did not order the steel bucket. Okay, nevermind. I am now the loser. But I think it's a really fun movie. You know, obviously appeals greatly to teenage sensibilities of a kid, because it's so ridiculous and over the top and you have no problem going with it. And when it gets you see more when you get older, I can watch it going. Holy shit. This is a reversal of hero and sidekick. Are it's like Kurt Russell thinks he's the hero of his movies. But he's actually the sidekick in this film. And there's when I was watching this earlier this week, as like, there's a lot going on in this movie that I know I missed the first time watching. Yeah, for sure. Me too. I did see it in the theaters. I was 17 when this came out. And I think I was probably just starting to develop my own personal sense of humor, which was a lot of Monty Python and stuff like that. And oh, you were one of the yeah, there were two of us here. And I'm liking the movie, but I didn't love it mostly because I wasn't sure that I got it. Yeah. And it wasn't until I actually graduated from film school that I went back and watched it again. And I realized oh my god, there is 100% a hero's journey story going on here on screen. And it's Wang so good at everything that happens where he is, you know, he's refusing the call and then he goes he has his own personal mid at to rehearsal and all of the stuff that happens there. And I was like, wow, this is really masterful, surprisingly good writing. Yeah. And, and the funny thing is, you know, you still have those cues that Kurt Russell is somehow the hero because he just talks so loud and the camera keeps showing us him but everything he says and does tells you he is the sidekick which makes it even more complex to showcase that kind of okay, we're gonna follow the sidekick who thinks He's the hero, then we're gonna film the in a way, where he's the hero, but he does all the dumb stuff. So we're gonna show a close up on him when he gets knocked unconscious during the big final battle, and just lays there and then tries to stab a guy and can't get him off him for like 10 minutes. Very cool. Very, very cool. I love that. I mean, they say that we are all the hero of our own story. And Jack Burton is definitely the hero of his own story when we first meet him. He's literally narrating the story, his story in the third person and mythologizing himself to no one and particularly to the other poor truckers out there who are like probably trying to turn off their CV like, could he stop this guy so weird? when the shit hits the fan, he accepts a call to action that was never given to him. He's kinda like, you know, I'm ready for this. And it was like, this isn't even your own fight. Why are you here? He wants his money, I guess. And then just keeps hanging out with Wang, which is very nice of him. He's a good friends, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. I love that he is mostly inept at everything he does in the film, and how proud he is of everything he also does. So what would you guys say if I told you that carpenter didn't want Kurt Russell? I would say you're lying. You're lying so hard. He wanted Clint Eastwood. He wanted Clint Eastwood. Yeah. He always wanted Clint Eastwood. John Carpenter has always wanted to work with Clint Eastwood. And he thought that this was the movie. What do you think about that? I think there's no way in hell doing this movie. I I'm just surprised because I saw like three different behind the scenes commentaries, where everyone was very much in agreeance, that man that Kurt Russell was perfect for this. And I was really telling the studio that Curtis should be in it. You wanted him and Kurt wanted it and then kept reading weird things like Kurt actually was trying to improve his career at this point, and was a little hesitant. And then the studio actually maybe wanted Jack Nicholson and this other person, Jack Nicholson was another name they talked about. I think that Jack Nicholson maybe gets the humor of this character and not quite the action of this character. And I think that Clint maybe gets the action of this character and not quite the humor. So then you get Kurt Russell combined the best of both worlds, right? Well, it wasn't just it wasn't just Carpenter, the one that Clint The studio was like, yeah, if you can get Clint in this, we would love that. Clint pass on it. And Jack Nicholson passed on it. Yes, it was actually the studio that brings up Kurt Russell next. Oh, interesting. And carpenters like, I don't think would be interested in this. Yeah. And it sounded like Kurt wasn't 100% Sure, either. Like he read the script, and was a little like, I'm not sure who this character is. But, I mean, he's so perfect. Yeah. Once he once you've seen him, he's embodied it. It's done. Yeah. It's hard to picture anybody else in that role. That's true of a lot of roles. But I couldn't imagine Clint Eastwood be really weird in this. Yeah. Yeah. And I do know that Kurt Russell wasn't as big of a star at this point, right. And when they started doing marketing, Kurt Russell was really surprised to see himself front and center on all the posters, because he was like, my star power can't sell this movie guys. Like, what are you doing? And he was right. Yeah, also, yeah, he wasn't sure he could do it. And he was juggling two scripts at the time and trying to figure out what he would do next. The other script was a movie called Highlander. Oh, shit. I did read that. Yeah, that would that would have been that was fun. It was Goldie Hawn, who said I don't think Highlander is for you. Gold, you know, I'm gonna go with Highlander also a massive flop when it came. Okay. I feel fine. Once a Kurt Russell vehicle then that's like a journeyman actor, man. He's not. Yeah, I mean, he's, he's high level, journeyman actor, but he's never been a Tom Cruise open a movie at $50 million. kind of guy. But no, we all love him. I hope I know. I do. I so I rewatched it this week in preparation for this. And I was really struck, because I hadn't seen it in awhile. And I remember, you know, kind of liking it, but not sure. And I was like, I just know this is going to be a white savior story once I watch it again. And I was like, Oh, my God, the only person who can't do anything right in this film is the white guy. Everybody else is so much more capable than than Jack Burton. Absolutely, yeah. It has a really strong Asian cast. I mean, they're doing incredible action work. They're doing incredible acting work. I mean, it is a very 80s Chinatown store. As with a lot of that kung fu humor that and unfortunately weird mysticism that's like brought in and it works with without him. It would be less funny story, but it would still be a solid story. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I I remember reading reviews, and I'm not sure how I felt originally. But the reviews were really latching on to the effects and saying how the effects were really shoddy. And the effect company was, you know, sleepwalking through this movie and I was looking back on this thinking, Boy, any effects company should be pretty proud of the effects in this movie, especially the stop motion stuff. Oh, yeah. And the the floating eyeball thing. Yeah, that stuff. I was like, Oh, these are amazing effects. No, they're really good. And wasn't it the Richard Edel Edlund, who had just done start? Well, not just on but had originally been on Star Wars with ILM. And then he had done Ghostbusters. Yeah. So like, what are they talking about? This wasn't this wasn't like the end of Hellraiser. These. These are good optical effects. I also feel like I know why we are now as you know, a humanity and as a planet out of neon. I feel like this film concerned a huge amount of it. I blame Joel Schumacher for that. Well, this is prior to that, but there is a there is a weird thing where he is trying to meld modern day Hollywood, which I guess is neon with the kung fu movies of the 70s that he loved. So yeah, it there is a lot of stuff that I that I will agree does not work. But I think overall, the film was just an absolute blast. I had so much fun on this rewatch. Yeah. Yeah, I liked it a lot more than I was expecting to because it's, it's just one of those go. Are you sure? Okay, let's go for it. Right. Right. So yeah, like I was saying, it had every opportunity to feel very recent racist. And I thought it was just the three Caucasian actors who are made to look ridiculous throughout the movie. And it's kind of extraordinary given the timeframe. This was written in and shot in. Let's talk a little bit about the cast. Dennis Dunn is Wang he's he's our actual hero, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, it's pretty obvious. Yeah, he's handsome. He's very capable. He has the perfect love story where he has been waiting his whole life for this beautiful girl, his childhood sweetheart, to come overseas from China. He's paid for her trip. She shows up and is kidnapped by a gang gang and then kind of re kidnapped again by weird ghost. God actuation going on to fulfill some kind of destiny and He is there to you know, go and say if there was one question bring up the ghost Destiny thing that I'm curious if I just missed an answer to it, but why does a guy who's living immortal want to become vulnerable? To getting killed so easily? It's so confusing because he is kind of mortal and he's like, all old and messed up mortal but he can like ghost hop. But then if he becomes human, he gets to be like young Verrill human, but then eventually he's gonna be like old decrepit, but without like the ghost powers. So I don't really understand the benefit either. Okay, that vampire thing I guess, you know, I'm tired of living. I'm gonna go out into the sun. But before I do that, I'm gonna whine about it for about four books. We talked about her getting kidnapped. I love the the Lord's of death. And the sunglasses. Yes, that the one guy is wearing. Okay. No assumptions on age in here but in the 80s I never wore glasses like that. I didn't know anybody who wore glasses like that. Did anybody outside of a weird gang and a movie where those weird ass solid plastic with little slits in the middle of them? Kanye at some point I believe them again show gun show enough to last Reagan There you go. Didn't one of the Back to the Future bullies in the future. Probably one of the background? I don't know. I just love them. I just like where's this going? There's you know there's a real disconnect to watching people wait for other people to get off a plane. You know now that we're no longer allowed to do that. I was also like, it was this common like you would just go the airport and watch people get off and then go I'm gonna kidnap these three girls. Hold on, get out of the way everybody. I certainly remember being able to wait for loved ones but these guys all had guns and everything else on them. So I was like, oh, it's much less security back then. James Hong, as little pan. Sorry. Yeah. Beloved and is in every movie ever made still working at the age of 93 and just got a star on the Walk of Fame? Yeah. How cool. Is that? Very justified. Yeah. Also 453 credits. Yeah, that's amazing. It's incredible. I was like, Oh, hold on, hold on yet. Nope. Absolutely. He was basically in every single TV show ever. I was just scrolling through like, how did you? Oh, I see now. Yeah, I was a little surprised. Out of the young that I say his name the guy, the long haired guy. Okay, we all know him as the guy who ate the candy bar and diehard. I thought he was in a crapload more movies. And he is he's got like 75 credits or something. Oh, from 1983. But He's great. He's always fun to see show up in a movie. Yeah, I mean, everybody is just so fantastic in this. Speaking of James, I was really surprised to hear him just recently in everything everywhere all at once, but not not surprised to see his name. But when Has anybody seen this movie? Oh, it's really spectacular. Oh, God. It's a major part. And he does a lot in it. Oh, I thought he'd be you know, a small part. Oh, no, no, he's definitely I mean, everybody in that foam is just, yeah, I feel like they all kind of own their roles. And he very much does. He's like in a wheelchair most of the time. Right. And yeah, he isn't until he is Victor Huang, of course as egg Shan What a sweetheart. When it absolutely, sweetheart. Yeah. The highlight of the film for me. Yeah, yeah, definitely. For sure. Like, and he's the second scene that we see. Or is he the first scene that we see? He's doing that on? interrogation? You're right. Yeah. That really, really done the scene. Yeah. Of the beginning. Yeah. And then as the tourist driver and just yeah, he just kills it. He absolutely kills it. Yeah, he follows this. And with Prince of Darkness. He goes on to tremors and a ton of other films. He's also the golden child. And well, yeah, a lot of these actors are in the golden child, which says something about Hollywood's casting. I passed away sadly, in 2001. I love just everything about him and all of his scenes. In fact, yesterday going up in the elevator while I was a little tipsy, you guys may recall standing next to someone I didn't know at all. And I just said he only can and he said crack it up. So he knew what I was talking about nice. He just thought this weird drunk guy. Odd shit to me. He's funny laugh or something. Fun. It's a glass elevator with very little escape. Like, I don't know that that lab was really as intended as you thought it was. And finally, let's mention Chem control who I think is gorgeous and perfect in this movie. Yeah, she's great. I didn't realize what kinds of content she had been in before this because I didn't realize she was in police academy or Porky's or anything. I just knew her from being in Star Trek six, watching. Yes, they had a heart. She was also not really wanted to be cast in this film. They fought against her because of her roles as an Porky's and stuff and thought, well, she's just sort of this one kind of character. Yeah, but no, she's great. She's really yeah, she's channeling kind of a Katharine Hepburn. Oh, yeah. With the snappy dialogue and all that stuff. Did you know that the roll was originally the studio was pushing for somebody like Madonna to be in it? They wanted a music video. Sure, female musician that they could kind of push the movie forward that that's very easy. Not at all, because she's so funny and quick, and like playing dumb and smart at the same time, like dumb, but we know that there's just some kind of doubling that's happening. Yeah, she's pulling off so beautifully. And I don't think anyone who's not actually an actress would have that level. Well, then also their interactions like you talked about the snappy dialogue with Kurt Russell and her. That's about the smartest parts of them film for him. That's where he's kind of smart. They go back and forth with that wonderful answer. Yeah, and it's just smooth and easy and sounds cool. You know, you don't always get to there's I think there's too much emphasis put by a lot of people and movies to be real. This needs to be realistic. Stop. Screw that man. Give me that flowery over the top. Maltese Falcon kind of script, and I friggin love it. Yeah, I mean, when you've been hearing how This was a movie where her wrestle plays the sidekick. You know, you've been hearing that for years. And I wasn't sure that I actually believed it until I rewatched it again. And I was like, Oh, this is all on purpose, the scene where he's where they're all talking in the office. And he's like, I'm feeling a little bit like an outsider here. She says you are. Like, this is all written in there to be exactly what they have been saying it was. I think that it's finally being appreciated for now. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Right. Yeah. All right. So I know that I want to talk with you guys about a lot of stuff. But let's just kind of wrap up the whole part of the movie here. The film comes out. It grosses $11 million against his $25 million budget. Ouch. It opened 12 on its opening weekend, behind psycho three of the Great Mouse Detective. That was out last night. And under the cherry moon. Oh, cheese out of theaters within three weeks. Wow. It's so it's so sad because it ends up having such a huge following. Obviously, the people who wanted to see it were out there. And we're seeing these like it, but they just didn't know it was there until it went on to VHS. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of movies like that they find their crowd later on. They do terrible in the movies. And then fine, there are the other the other side of that coin is a movie like Blair Witch, which was so well promoted, that it was huge. This goes back to because I was working at Suncoast. At the time when it came out. They bought that deep, and it just sat there. Nobody bought it. Because that one was like the opposite. Now Big Trouble Little China sold all the time. That was in store with sell. Because it's fun. It's action packed, it does something interesting and different. It found its audience based on the content of the film, as opposed to the content with the advertising. Well, and what's interesting, too, about the advertising because I was reading all of these different things about how it wasn't advertised very well. And this and that. And then I found this interview with Kurt Russell, where he gets like really conspiracy theory about it. He's like, Oh, yeah, I knew a guy who was in the room at the time, right? When they decided to bomb it. He was there. He quit that day, because of how much they screwed us over. I knew a guy. I'm not going to name him. I was like, Whoa, what is this? I remember reading or listening to an interview with Kurt and he was saying at the time, he had friends that would be like, don't you have a movie coming out pretty soon he goes, it's coming out Friday. Just nobody even knew about this. I had also heard something about how I think this was was this 20 Century Fox at this or it was not paramount. I know that 20th Century Fox correct that they had a just a flat $3 million that was spent on advertising for every film at the time. And, you know, compare that now to you know, if you've got a Marvel movie coming out to cost 600 million, they've spent 100 million on advertising. Yeah. So I did hear from I think I think it was that same interview. He said that three days ahead. This was part of their campaign three days before it went out. There was like a picture of him on the poster and it says Who is this man? Two days before it says Where can you find him? And like that was kind of there and nobody he's like I have no starpower no one cares. This is a really weird marketing strategy. I don't know what on day one, it said but he said Yeah, his friends had no idea where to find him. He didn't know where to find him. It wasn't a in the newspapers. It wasn't being printed. Like what you know what times where you can go and see this movie. So Wow. Yeah, they showed it for advance audiences and his scored, you know, off the game was so high scoring and in this one interview I picked up it says this quote from Kurt Russell, he says, a lot of people on the press junket for the film said, How does it feel to be in a movie that you know is going to be a massive hit? And I would be falsely humble and say, Well, hey, you never know. You just got to see how it does. But inside I was going yeah, I'm so happy. And then it came out. Come on with taglines like this. How could it fail? Adventure doesn't come any bigger. That is detailed. You know exactly what you're gonna watch. Doesn't come any bigger than Big Trouble in Little China. No, I'm just any bigger done. Or a reference to the movie that you'll get if you've seen it, but you're not going to read this on the poster and go oh, it's all in the reflexes, right? I get that but you're watching walking by the movie. Go on. Okay, try to find a big reason before you visit world of magic. Oh, no, the hell that means. Jack burns in for some serious trouble and you're in for some serious fun. Tonight I say that. See, that was a real voice. Chat Bird said for some serious trouble and you're in for some serious thought. And the final one that I've had mystical action adventure comedy kung fu monster ghost story. Accurate, this might have been the problem. Yes. They didn't really know how to market it. They weren't sure what they were doing. And then they couldn't, they couldn't push one of those things strongly enough. So that's probably what was turning audiences off. And like I said, I wasn't even sure how I felt about it afterwards. I liked it. But, you know, I, let's see at six. I'm 17. I've already seen the thing and I think it's the coolest thing around Escape from New York, stuff like that. I'm just like, God, I'm so looking forward to another Kurt Russell John Carpenter movie and it was weird. And it's really weird. Even his costume is actually pretty weird. I don't know those shoes do not exist on Earth. They are hideous and weird. It's sort of like the complement to his hat from the thing. Oh, God in the boots from big trouble. He needs something he can wear both of those. Those boots were supplied by Kurt Russell himself. He had those made from a tailor I think in Aspen, Colorado. And he in another interview he was saying that he had brought Wyatt to the same guy and they had some boots made for him. So no, not okay. Nothing about that as okay, it's I mean, you're if you're gonna have like an attractive up and coming star who, you know some girls, maybe you'll get some fans of Disney movies out of like, don't, don't throw hideous costuming on him do something. His hair was good. But Kurt Russell's here is always good. I know. It's great. I was always confused by the the three elements and not a fourth element. Well, and also the elements like I was trying to write down what the elements were when they showed up and I was like, lightning and then the second one came in I was like lightning. I was like let lightning and then later read like rain thunder and lightning right? We're all storms so just Yes, Storm elements, I guess. Yeah, it's it is very confusing, although of course it then brought forth the wonderful Raiden from Mortal Kombat so I'm not mad about that. Oh, no great character. I love the costume designs and I really was blown away watching it this last time just the set design not of like these amazing underground sets or anything but the gorgeous set of the the Japanese horror house that that he walks into undercover with his glasses and all this stuff. And it was so meticulous the sets in there I was like wow, this is really I mean, you see all $25 million of that budget on screen. Yeah, absolutely. I mean like but yeah, the sets are incredible between that and the is it like little golden Buddha statues that are maybe I'm wrong that are lining all the way up thin? Yeah, and then of course you do have the underground sites and then you have the big neon site which almost looks like a shopping mall that they took over four of it just between the elevators and later in no need. Who knows why there's an escalator then you've got the streets sets and the different little rooms that they're in and the truck and the bus there is a lot of money being thrown up onto screen through those pieces. I kind of hate that, that that set with the skull and the escalator and the very random feels extremely random. I'm like why is what is this Why did you make this room? Is this your like wedding room like you plan this out ahead? Or is this like your meeting room but you can occasionally just zazz up for special events like that I also love how at the very end. There's so much to love at the very end when when Kate Burton, the actress asks Jack Burton, the character if they can't remember Kate bear burdens character's name. She says you're not even going to kiss her and they do a shot of Kim control where she is so stunningly beautiful. That it's like the perfect shot on something for him to say nope. Goodbye and he carries his money out in saddle begs, yeah. Like this is this is the Western stuff still coming in? Well, one interesting thing I also read about what the Western is, originally in the script, it was the horse that gets stolen and then they just interchange that first truck. Yes. Which I think is so beautiful. That's such good writer. But yeah, sometimes you just gotta say no to him. Just sometimes. He knew it wasn't gonna work. He had to get out of there. Well, they get in was good. Impossible. Gotta go tell his CB buddies about what had been going on. For the weather, I've gone through all the stuff I wanted to talk to you guys about. I know that you guys have brought some other notes. Well, what do you think about the proposed John Dwayne Johnson? I was gonna bring that up at the end. I don't think that's still on. I don't know. It's a little vague. Because they he started talking about it in 2015. And then they were still talking about it in 2018. And then COVID. So I'm like, I wonder if they're still thinking about that. Boom, also made a huge push between a comic book series that came out and then in 2016, they put out the, the, the game, tabletop game, tabletop game, thank you. They also had action figures for Funko that came out. I feel like it's very much back in the air. So it would make sense that they're still thinking about a film. I'm just not sure that the rock is the right guy for something like this late to start with. I like him and I think he's got a good sense of humor. I don't think he's okay with making himself look as foolish as Kurt Russell. From my understanding, he wouldn't be in it. He'd be producing an affair. Oh. Well, carpenters thought on it was it's very early in the process. I haven't spoken to Dwayne Johnson about any of this. I'm ambivalent about a remake. So yeah, that's kind of John. That last part. I think John Carpenter says about anything but touring with his music right now. He's so happy to just be cashing a check every time. Yeah, these people talk about this stuff. Well, I think what there is time for it is, at least time for would be a new version of the video game. There was a video game that came out for it for the Commodore 64 to mixed reviews. I would love to play an updated version, if available. Some NES game that was released in 1.20. Really? Oh my gosh, okay. Well, I gotta I gotta check that out. That did not come up on my Wikipedia search, shockingly. Or you could do with a deck building game from Upper Deck. There's all kinds of it's weird how much shit gets produced for films that are 3040 years old? Even. I'm not complaining. I mean, somebody's buying it. Yeah. So I picked up a lot of those boom, comic books. And are they any good? Because I did too. But I haven't gotten to them yet. They they weren't very good. And I felt like they missed the humor. And I felt like the art was just a little off. And I don't know I there was something about it that I think that it just proves what a strange product this is. And then it's impossible to really put it into any one thing and make it work well. Isn't it boom, that drops all their money into licensing and then doesn't pay any artists or writers to put together a good comic book. Most of the time. It really, I don't know about them. They did a pretty good Buffy serious, but I don't want to get too far into that. And then even I think it was boom that put out the making of the movie books and the art of the movie and I I picked both of those up and both of them were very disappointing as far as making of books go. What about the crossover comic they did with Escape from New York. I think I had given up before. I do know that there's a crossover with Snake Plissken there so you can see Kurt Russell meets Kurt Russell. Extreme characters have very opposite ends of the spectrum on let's not forget the 23rd episode of the second season of the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's so good. Maybe series had a Chinatown ghost story. This episode is so good. I can't. It's amazing. It's really it does a great job and you also have low pan essentially returning. So in James Hong does voice him Yeah, and he's co Chan. The storm figures show back up. Um, it is an awesome episode, but I also love that series of the Ninja Turtles, so I am gonna have to search that out more. It's from the Nickelodeon 2012 version. Yeah. 2012 super good, super good. But a lot of people I guess have been doing kind of a montage episodes. I think that I read that Rick and Morty had an episode that was a little bit of a nod towards it. Also, Marvel has some influence that they've stolen from this movie, including the character of the Mandarin was apparently modeled after the appearance of low pan. And also tiger in a lot older than Big Trouble Little China. Yeah, no, yeah, no, no, the the new movie appearance when he was an Iron Man three or whatever. Oh, I don't know. I just, I can't tell you whether or not it's super factual. And then Tycho ytt said that he was heavily influenced from this movie when writing Thor Ragnarok. Which I can see a little bit of like that sort of like really knowing humor of watching Thor just kind of spin around at the start there. I can, I don't know. I can get those vibes. Oh, yeah. I think that's funny. You mentioned that because I would say that Chris Pat has made Chris Pratt has made a living out of being Jack Burton in just about every Jack. Yeah, I guess Chris, Chris. Chris pride, he probably you're sure you're not wrong. Sure. Star Lord is Jack Burton. Yeah. And actually, when playing the most recent guardians video game, I had a lot of like, watching this movie, I had a lot of similar fields of like, okay, you're playing as these, like, do faces who are on this mission, and they're wildly messing up. And it does feel very same, you know, in some positive ways. Good ways. Good game. For those of you who have any interest in playing video games whatsoever. What else? Oh, yeah, host. I do have a couple of things here. But I wanted to save them for the very end. So if you've got a very end, let's see. We're getting close. 45 minutes in here. I mean, you can always do that. And then we could open it up to q&a. We can we could do that. Well, okay, I'll say this. So the movie flopped. Massively flawed. Currently, though. 75% rating from the Rotten Tomatoes critics. Audience has an 82%. So you know, this has become a beloved film. By the way, the golden child. Not a very good movie. It also had a $25 million budget. Gross$80 million. Wow, has a rotten tomatoes rating of 22%. Whoa. And that was a Christmas movie. So in fairness, they put it out at exactly the time that people were like, I don't know, we just went shopping and we're tired. Let's go see this. Betty Murphy. Well, yeah. And Eddie Murphy was a name Eddie Murphy. Movies at that biggest, biggest star in the world at the time. Yeah. That was that was gonna be a hit, no matter how bad it was. And it was not very good at all. So yeah, that's that is the real problem. Carpenter turns it down. And then he decides to make a much better, smarter movie. And the golden child comes up and still mops the floor with. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I do kind of understand partly why the studio was a little. I mean, obviously, it's a confusing Martin film to figure out how to market. But they did ask for Indiana Jones. And they did not get Indiana Jones, this movie is very far removed, because they apparently they liked the sense of humor. And they like the script. And then they saw the movie. And they did not like that version of the sense of humor, and that version of the script. So yeah, like you said before, I think it was probably a little bit hard to mark it. And I don't know what time of year. I mean, this came out after around the time of aliens to write Samia, that was part of the problem. It was actually a really big year for films. And this just did not stand up to all of those other films. So should we open this up? Are there any questions? comments, thoughts about big trouble? Yes, sir. But returned to its roots as a Western. I know that the original writers want that. But they feel that their chance was in 1986. And it's not going to happen again. I'm not sure. I mean, I'm all for that. I'm not sure that westerns are a big thing right now. Yeah, you rushing and it goes up and down. You get tombstone or young guns or something every couple years, then two or three Westerns follow whatever that hit is and fail miserably. So I mean, we had a very short zent with Assassination of Jesse Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Like we had this small, like, indie, super indie Westerns that were popping up and you had a couple of big names like Clint Eastwood and also Arnie like coming in movies that felt Western knee and had like western edges to them. But yeah, in there, but that's that's another one. Oh, there it is. pretty huge. Hit everything fall. Yeah, yeah. So that question, it'll be a huge hit. If they do it. That question. brings up the weird opening titles where it is written by the two original writers, which I don't have down here. But it is then adapted by WD Rector. And that is so rare to see anything like that, because he did a total rewrite on it. And then well, apparently they were, the studio was going to strip their names from it entirely. Didn't didn't want to give them any credit whatsoever. And I believe that WD had like kind of talked to them and had a little bit of a report and had said something along the lines of look, I'm going to do this rewrite. And they're like, please don't and he said, Yeah, but if I don't do it, someone else is gonna do it. So I might as well be the one to do it. And I think he actually fought to have his title be adopted by Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. Well, it was. Come on. We're talking about Gary Goldman, the writer of Navy SEALs. All right. And David Weinstein. Unfortunate last name. It really unfortunate. Not that one, but not. Not that Weinstein. And he's only done this. Yeah. Yeah, he did. This is his only credit. Yeah. Which is, which is unfortunate. Something that actually came up in a panel that I was on yesterday. Westerns may have been replaced at this point by post disaster wasteland films. So movies where you have like walking dead, right, like where the world is not what it was, and you have an opportunity to kind of do whatever you want within it. There's no rules. There's no laws that might have actually been circumvented by disaster cinema. And TV. I'm not trying to say Marvel, you know, because Marvel. I'm sorry. Yes. Also Marvel. Absolutely. Absolutely. Also Marvel and also things like space westerns and Star Wars and guardians are all they're all doing the Lord's work. Any other questions? Yes, your verbatim recital monologue? The ending or the starting? I can do the monologue on that guy's shirt. stands up. I cannot but I will say that a student of mine I teach over at Seattle Central a couple days a week and a student of mine I gave them a monologue channel challenge and he did the opening monologue and he did like a fake like CGI like truck setup and everything I was like ah bless you always recited Nice. Oh my God having it as a voicemail message I mean, and forcing everyone to just sit there beautiful. Oh, you're I want I want a Facebook friend your uncle this this man sounds incredible. Anything else? Well, let's we'll take a moment here to explain a little bit more what strange aeons radio normally is where generally we get together to do a talk each week based on a subject we picked us a strange subject like pizza and a movie yes yeah or midnight movie or what is a recent one you've done oh well Nick Cage Yeah. He does ship do but but and then we each pick one and we go watch it we'll spend the first half of our of our podcasts just talking about whatever we've been watching recently what TV shows or movies or weird shit we have going on on our life usually in his life. Man leaves an interesting life. But and then we will discuss each talk about the individual films we've got so it's it's sort of a version of what we did here it's just a one of us would talk about that big trouble and somebody else would do the thing or then we do Star Man for All doing carpenter or something. So present a very different kind of field, but that that wouldn't work here. We tried. Just like we'd like to talk about one thing Have some fun with it and generally pick a film we think or hope most everybody has seen I mean the thing was easy. We knew everybody had seen the thing when we recorded a cryptic on right. And this is we do do live shows we did one for emerald city this year. We were fortunate enough to do that and this is our third or fourth you guys had a show before I existed in your lives I'm pretty sure I don't want to discuss it wow, I was magic upon this planet and now I am here as part of your show what more do you need to know Anyway give me one of those things Yeah I'm pretty sure we've got enough for everybody here if you're interested in we've got these little challenge coins things with a girl make you read it this time let's say on the back or should have been so right. Yeah, these these are amazing. First of all, it has a picture of our logo on on one side and these are nice heavy duty challenge guys. And then On a picture of Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla on the other side and it says one must be seen to think clearly. But one can think deeply and be quite insane Yes, very limited amounts of these left. Yeah, if you want one of these come up and grab it. Yeah, yeah, I've got more in the case than are just sitting there on the table. And definitely feel free to check out our podcast. And if you want to listen to the podcast you were here for Oh my god. Oh my god. Thursday. Yes. So thank you guys so much for your amazing audience. Thanks for hanging out with us and talking about one of our favorite movies and one of our favorite directors and wearing a shirt that represents it. So I gotta thank you guys so much. Yes, so that is our show you people sit tight hold the fort and keep the homes fires burning. And if we're not backed by Don call the president oh my god yeah, we're Darksteel. Strange aeons radio was artisanal quality podcasting, handcrafted and all natural ingredients and edited to perfection by Eric Borchert. Our blistering theme song is strange aeons part one by the band nightshade is used with permission. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider dropping a positive review on what was I doing? Why