It Goes to 11 — Jack Burton

Flying swordsmen? Chinese magic? Explosive martial arts battles? All this, plus a swaggering, wise-cracking Kurt Russell playing a parody of his popular “tough guy” character? What in God’s name is this movie? That’s what American audiences and critics thought of director John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China when it hit theaters in 1986. To put it mildly, the movie tanked like an anvil pitched into a well. But in the years since, this flick has gathered the audience it deserves, and has in fact become a bona fide cult phenomenon. Fans even quote Jack Burton’s (Russell’s) lines to each other and...