Remakes & reboots are a touchy subject for a a lot of us fans, these days. Every once in a while the concept works, but often times it’s just a ham handed attempt to rake in easy money from an already established fanbase. Hollywood knows all too well that a lot of us fans will show up to watch, even if for no other reason than to simply complain about how awful the attempt was.
When I first heard the news about The Rock remaking Big Trouble in Little China my first reaction was shock, followed by outright anger. How dare he! There is only ONE Jack Burton as far as I am concerned, and in his words “Son of a bitch must pay!”
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I know this reaction is a complete overreaction, and it’s the typical freak out we see all over the internet involving changes to classic & iconic characters, but hear me out for a second. That movie is in a very exclusive group of movies for me personally. It’s one of only 4 movies that I have watched over 50 times (Star Wars, Repo Man & Road Warrior are the other three). When you love a movie so much that you obsessively re-watch it, it starts to become a part of you almost. Jack Burton is more than just an iconic character for me, he is almost one of my buddies. Someone else playing that role is almost sacrilege, in my mind. I would almost prefer just a sequel with an almost geriatric Jack Burton who naps through all the action.
Don’t get me wrong here though, I like The Rock and I do believe he has the comedic chops to pull this role off. I am just very attached to the original, and the thought of not seeing Kurt Russell as Jack Burton is going to make me hyper-critical of this remake. Those are some very big shoes to fill, and we still don’t even know who will be playing Egg Shen or Lo-Pan yet, if they screw up those roles that could also ruin it for me, heck even if they screw up Eddie I might be upset. This is serious stuff, folks.
That all being said, I will probably still go see this movie. After all, how can I justify bitching about how they screwed up Jack Burton, for the rest of my life, if I don’t at least watch it once. Damn you, Hollywood!!!
