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Comment by xxr | Hacker News Reader

The trick they use to handle the transition from Russian to English dialogue is so cool.

It's so cool that John McTiernan did it again in The 13th Warrior. A worse movie (not as bad as people say), but I think that one scene is extraordinary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVVURiaVgG8

13th Warrior usually makes the top list of any “movies that Rotten Tomatoes has done dirty”.

It depends I think on whether the Big Trouble in Little China fans are still asleep.

Rotten Tomatoes scores Big Trouble in Little China favorably, as it obviously should.

Not sure if Mandela Effect or the score has been changing over time.

Edit: I think the box office was terrible

13th warrior is a fantastic film with an undeserved reputation. It's the best version of Beowulf on film and full of memorable lines.

That scene is one of my faves.

Heh, I just watched The Wild Robot with my nephews, and the film uses pretty much this same trick early on.

Agreed. As for the Russian spoken by American actors, my friend, a Russian linguist, said Alec Baldwin’s Russian was fine, but Sean Connery’s was terrible.

'Let zem zing!'

I'm trying hard to think of a false or dated moment in the whole movie. If you made a 1984 period film about the same subject, in 2025, I'm not sure what would be different other than the actors. Even the SFX hold up.

Early Tom Clancy, before he monetized his name, was pretty amazing. The Hunt for Red October was published by the Naval Institute Press. [0]

It was also the first adult book I read. Probably around 6 or 7? Before Jurassic Park, which I read before that movie came out.

I'd asked my father if "There were books about other things, because kids books were boring."

He handed me Tom Clancy off his bookshelf.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Naval_Institut...

That is one of my favorite moments in the film, and maybe in filmmaking generally.

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