'Streets of Fire' and 'Big Trouble in Little China'

I can be found all over this database insisting on the parallels between Walter Hill and John Carpenter; I prefer to think of them as the same guy with schizophrenia...a master of action, with one half often toiling in westerns, and the other specializing in horror.

Perhaps this is just me over-reaching in an attempt to establish a further connection between the two, but do you find these movies similar at all? Hill and Carpenter drew on their influences to create two stylish, wildly-eclectic "quest" films, where an unlikely band of heroes set off on a path wrought with obstacles to rescue a kidnapped "princess" from an evil "warlord". They exist in surreal, comic-book universes.

Obviously, their sources couldn't be more different; Hill's film is a mishmash of 50s style and 80s pop-culture, with a liberal blend of rock-and-roll music and pop tunes. Carpenter's is a hybrid of Eastern culture and American action pics, with an emphasis on "B" films. Still, I assert they can be discussed together, damnit! I'm not the only one to draw a comparison, mind you.

I think they're both great fun, kick a lot of ass, and are yet more solid proofs why Hill and Carpenter were the two genre auteurs leading the pack in American cinema circa-1980s.

P.S. I also analytically discuss Southern Comfort and The Thing here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083111/board/nest/190593702?d=190867103#1 90867103

Cheers.

"...if that was off, I'd be whoopin' your ass up and down this street." ~ an irate Tarantino