Kernal's Geeky Reviews

Who doesn't love the tag team of director John Carpenter and Kurt Russell. They done The Thing (1982), Escape from New York (1981), Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and Escape from L.A. (1996). The pairing is just great because Kurt Russell works great with John Carpenter writing and directing.

Movie synopsis:

One my favorites of the two is Big Trouble in Little China. Kurt Russell play the character Jack Burton in the movie. Jack Burton is an unlikely sarcastic hero. A short summery of the movie is that Jack comes into town on his truck the Pork Chop Express. While in town with his friend Eddie Lee (Donald Li), they do some gambling. Which leads to Eddie owing Jack a large sum of money. He tells him he doesn't have it on him but if Jack comes with him he will get his money. Before he can get the money he has to first pick up his future wife at the airport Miao Yin (Suzee Pai). While at the airport Jack bumps into a lawyer named Gracie Law ( Kim Cattrall). Gracie Law is sponsoring a women to immigrant from China. When the plane arrives so does chaos. A Chinese street gang called Lords of Death takes Miao Yin to sell into sex slavery. This lead Jack and Eddie to chase them down in the Pork Chop Express. While on they chase they fall into a middle of a gang war. During the fight, the three storms appear Thunder, Rain, and Lighting and attacks both sides. Jack and Eddie freaks out and try to get away but Lo Pan shows up a powerful legendary sorcerer. Jack runs him over and starts a weird magical adventure to save Miao and defeat Lo Pan. Its a fun movie and worth the time. The supporting cast is also wonderful. Looking at some of them you have Victor Wong who played Egg Shen. Victor Wong is also well known for Tremors (1990), Golden Child (1986), Prince of Darkness (1987), and many more. Kim Cattrall who played Gracie Law. She is known for Sex and the City, Police Academy (1984), Star Trek VI (1991) and many more. James Hong who plays David Lo Pan (the main villain of this film). He is known for Kung Fu Panda trilogy, Golden Child (1986), Tango & Cash (1989) and many more. There are a lot more but ill leave it up to you to be surprised who you see. The effects, the story, and acting together makes this a fun movie and worth a watch. I would give it five out five. It definitely worth to watch a couple of times.

Now that your caught up some what lets get to the main review. At the end of the movie, you see the reluctant hero Jack Burton drive away in his semi truck the Pork Chop Express on a dark stormy night. Was this his ride off into the sunset moment? Who you kidding this is a John Carpenter movie, the camera pans to the back of his truck were you see this hairy arm and the ugly face of the demon pops up. The screen goes dark and credits come zooming by. This left question to the fans what happen next? Well the question has finally been answer in comic book form. In 2014, John Carpenter and Eric Powell (The Goon) came together to continue the story of Jack Burton with the help of artist Brian Churilla (Secret History of D.B. Cooper). The graphic novel that will be reviewed in this entry contains the first four issues of the series. The nice part of this graphic novel is that the original director and writer is working on it. Also that the graphic novel picks up right where the movie ended.

Synopsis:

The graphic novel picks up with Jack driving down the stormy highway with the demon in the back of his truck. He stops the truck to try and get rid of the demon but it turns out the demon is actually friendly towards him. Jack decides to bring the demon to Egg Shen. And when he get back to china town, he shows up just in town for Eddie Lee's wedding to Miao. While at the wedding he bumps into Egg. Who tells him the demon is attached to him since he killed Lo Pan. He calls the demon Pete. While at the wedding the Lords of Death shows and one of Lo Pan's followers. A fight erupts and Eddie is taken hostage and Lo Pan's follower make an ultimatum to jack and Egg in order to get Eddie back. He has to travel the Black road and gain the spirits of the three storms. Jack of course accepts the mission. Even with Egg protesting it. Jack, Egg, and Pete travels down the Black road. Ill leave the rest up to you to read. It an interesting sequel and dives deeper into Jacks past life. It is neat to learn about all his ex wives and how his adventure in Chinatown was not his first interaction with the mystic and supernatural.

Verdict:

The art isn't bad and the story is fun. I quickly got through the first graphic novel and moved on to the second. It definitely made me laugh at times. It worth to pick up if you liked the movie and John Carpenter's writing.

Rating:

I would rate this Three out of five. The story seems to closes up quickly to move on to the next story line. It is kind of like a T.V. show.

Original Trailer:

The first issue cover.

Pete's and jack's first interaction in the comic.


Lo Pan's follower taking Eddie

Makes me laugh how they dress Pete.

Pete and Jack's interaction is just great.

Just a fun cover art.

It's summer time the kids are out of school and many of them are going to camp for a couple of weeks. So why not review an 80's summer camp movie called. "Summer Camp Nightmare." Not sure if this movie would count as a horror or a thriller. I would kind see it more as a horror movie but with the low body count and not really any main killer not sure. The running time on this campy good time is 1hr. and 29 mins. It is also rated PG-13, which makes the film a little tamer than it could be.

Synopsis:

The story opens on a bus full of boys on their way to camp North Pines. On the way you get to meet one of the main characters who narrates off and on in the movie to help keep the plot going. He is token geeky, big glasses, techy, skinny kid that is almost every ensemble of a group of kids in the 80's. The name of the character is Donald Poultry (Adam Carl). When they arrive they meet the counselors and new camp director Mr. Warren (Chuck Connors). Mr. Warren decides to put some new rules in place such as no cursing, no girls, and only religious channel shown. These strict rules leads to one of the camp counselor Charlie Stratton (Franklin Reilly) to stage a revolt again the camp director and the other counselors. After Charlie takes over the camp and get the other boys to back him he decides why not also take the girl camp over next door. Once both camps are taken over and the only authority figure left is charlie and his military rule. Under his rule it no holds bares parties, alcohol and sex. Just like the "Lord of the Flies" this no rules society only works for a little before it breaks down. It leads to murder, rape and the cops to shut it all down.

Loopholes:

The first one is that the two murders in this film is really not talked about and is pretty much ignored. The second one is that at the end of the movie only one of the murders is caught and the rest are left go.The next one is each camp is taken over easily and the adult camp counselors are never seen again after they are taken and imprisoned. The final one is that the two bodies are never find by the police at the end. They talk about it so maybe it is applied they found them but not sure.

Verdict:

I enjoyed it. I thought mostly all the characters were built up strong. Charlie had that Charlie Manson cult leader feel to him. Donald basically played a character that the audience could follow in the story and become one of the few people in the movie with moral and lives up to them after he learns peer pressure is a killer. The two deaths were lack luster and really didn't move the plot forward too much. I think there could been more of struggle when both camps were taken over. There is only one gun used in order to accomplish taking over both camps and there was more adults that could fought back against Charlie. For an eighties movie it was low on gore and nudity which was interesting.If you like the concept of the "Lord of the Flies" and cheesy 80's teens in a horror/ thriller situation than this is for you.

Rating: Three out five stars. worth a one time watch.