Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
The Golden Child (1986)
Director: Michael Ritchie
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Hot on the heels of Big Trouble in Little China, this similarly attempts to weld the thrills of oriental martial arts movies on to the Hollywood comic thriller, and similarly swan dives between the two stools to fall flat on its fanny. Murphy is a freelance LA social worker who specialises in finding lost children. Spotted by various wise oriental persons as The Chosen One, he embarks on his mission to retrieve The Golden Child, an appealing little waif who will convert the world to goodness, but has been captured for the forces of darkness by Dance. As in Big Trouble, there is much playing around with oriental mythic nonsense: underground caverns, magic daggers, even a trip to Tibet. But where the movie really misses a trick is its inability to reproduce the balletic splendours of martial arts. There is a comely Tibetan wench who can sink the odd villain, but her leaping wouldn't get her past an audition for the Peking Opera. Dance, sporting an orange goatee, is a splendid villain, looking like a Victorian actor-manager. The surprise is Murphy, who relies more on his undoubted charm than on the stream of wisecracks he usually delivers. CPea.Author: CPea
Cast & crew
Director: Michael Ritchie
Producer: Edward S Feldman, Robert D Wachs
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Charles Dance, Charlotte Lewis, Randall 'Tex' Cobb, James Hong, Shakti, JL Reate full cast
Genre(s): Action/Adventure
Duration: 94 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now