In 1986 Twentieth Century Fox and director John Carpenter released one Carpenter’s greatest films ever action/fantasy genre films Big Trouble in Little China. I’m assuming everyone out there has already seen it so the good news is that in November of 2005 it has been re-released on UMD for the Sony PSP.

When truck driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) goes to pick up a girl at the airport for his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) they don’t expect it when they run into a gang who kidnaps the girl right in front of them. But being a loyal friend Jack is compelled to help get the girl back. Only when they get to little china they are overwhelmed with resistance from an immortal sorcerer named Lo Pan (James Hong) who has stolen the green eyed beauty to, first marry her then sacrifice her so he can become a mortal man again. This is when Jack meets attorney Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall) who decides to help as she’s been trying to bring down Lo Pan’s gang for years. With the help of Egg Shen (Victor Wong) a local magician, they devise a plan to get the girl and defeat Lo Pan.

Unfortunately this is when Gracie gets kidnapped, raising the stakes that much higher, so armed with a bottle of magic and a few handy ninjas the group has there big stand off against the evil gang. After interrupting the wedding and some intense fighting against monster’s, sorcerers and all around bad ass guys they are finally victorious. So Jack leaves the girl behind (being a tough guy and all) and says goodbye with pride and victory over evil notched in his belt.

Now I’m convinced you’ve all seen Big Trouble in Little China so you can fill in any holes I might have left out of the plot. What I do want to say is, this is one of the very best classic movies of the 80’s. First of all there is John Carpenter as director whom we all know is no stranger to fantasy movies, the way he shot this and the special effects placements were extremely good for films made during that time. I also really appreciated the heavy comedy and where it was placed in this film. This wasn’t the first time that John Carpenter has worked with Kurt Russell (Escape from New York) and I think that helped both of them with presenting the character of Jack Burton. This is a great character, you’ve got a guy that looks and acts tough and when the time comes for action he tries his best but he just doesn’t have the know how, like when he throws his knife and misses or never can get his gun to work right between running out of bullets or just forgetting to take the safety off.

Luckily for him things seem to always work themselves out at the right time. I also appreciate the character of the main enemy in this movie, Lo Pan played by James Hong. He was scary and mean at the right times but he also had a touch of whininess at others and that made for a real cool character. The one character that I wasn’t impressed with in this film (other than her beauty) was Gracie Law (the hands on renegade attorney in search of ultimate justice) played by Kim Cattrall. I felt that her acting was lacking at times and overdone at others but that doesn’t really take away from the film at all. So between a great array of strange, unique characters, some great fight scenes and even greater comedy scenes, this makes for one great movie and if you have a Sony PSP I suggest you add this to your collection as it’s a must own. The quality of picture for the umd was great and it had a very clear sound to it. The umd special features include a vintage featurette (with behind the scenes looks and commentary with cast and crew) a music video and a commentary with John Carpenter and Kurt Russell. Other than the music video (that was silly even for the 80’s) it’s all worth watching. The film has an approximate runtime of 99 minuets and is available on umd all across the country in November.