POP UP CINEMA BRIGHTON

Two cult classics, one night, zero sense of normalcy. If you love action, humour, and just a dash of absurdity, this Bank Holiday double bill is your destiny. Originally, Big Trouble in Little China was partly conceived as a sequel to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, making this the perfect pairing.

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First up: the greatest movie about a neurosurgeon, physicist, test pilot, rock star, comic book hero, and samurai you’ll ever see. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai follows the titular hero, played by Peter Weller (yes, RoboCop himself), on his quest to save the world from evil aliens.

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With aliens from the 8th dimension played by John Lithgow (3rd Rock from the Sun, Conclave) and Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) battling the likes of Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park, The Fly) and Clancy Brown (Starship Troopers, Promising Young Woman, HBO’s The Penguin), this offbeat sci-fi comedy is irresistibly bonkers.

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Some of the most gloriously nonsensical fun ever committed to celluloid, it has also become a hugely influential cult classic. Wes Anderson even copied the film’s ending almost verbatim for the closing moments of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, while the pop-culture buffet that is Ready Player One features numerous references to Buckaroo Banzai—so much so that Steven Spielberg’s film sees the main character dressing like Buckaroo himself.

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Following that, a film that was once proposed as Buckaroo’s sequel before being reshaped into another gloriously offbeat classic from John Carpenter: Big Trouble in Little China. Director of Halloween, The Thing, The Fog, Starman, Escape from New York, and They Live, Carpenter is no stranger to pulpy, genre-bending cult hits — but Big Trouble might just be the quirkiest of them all.

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When truck driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russell – The Thing, Death Proof) makes a routine delivery in San Francisco’s Chinatown, he suddenly finds himself caught in the middle of a supernatural conflict between two ancient Chinese warrior societies. Before long he’s dragged into a wild rescue mission with his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) and sharp-tongued, fearless lawyer Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall – Sex and the City) to save Wang’s fiancée from the clutches of the 2,000-year-old sorcerer David Lo Pan (James Hong – Everything Everywhere All at Once).

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Packed with irresistible dialogue, gleefully chaotic martial arts battles, and fantasy-style wizardry, the film also features one of Kurt Russell’s most iconic performances: a swaggering hero who thinks he’s the star of the show but is almost entirely out of his depth. Big Trouble in Little China is a Pork-Chop-Express-load of fun beloved by filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro, Edgar Wright, and James Gunn. Its influence can be felt everywhere from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Guardians of the Galaxy to the Mortal Kombat series.

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Join us this Bank Holiday Sunday for a spectacular interdimensional adventure and a double dose of tongue-in-cheek action.