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The Big Brawl

The Big Brawl (1980)

August. 29,1980
|
5.7
|
R
| Action Comedy

A young Asian American martial artist is forced to participate in a brutal formal street-fight competition.

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Reviews

StyleSk8r
1980/08/29

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

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Billie Morin
1980/08/30

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

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Janae Milner
1980/08/31

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

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Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin
1980/09/01

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

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alexanderdavies-99382
1980/09/02

"Battle Creek Brawl" was the very first attempt by Jackie Chan to conquer the American film market after having become a sensation in Hong Kong. Released in 1980, the box office takings were disappointing and the public wasn't quite ready to accept Jackie Chan's own brand of martial arts movies. One of the film's drawbacks, is that Chan has trouble with the English language. His acting is compromised as a result as his broken English affects his performance. Also in "Battle Creek Brawl," the plot can't seem to decide whether it's going to be serious or tongue in cheek. Attempting to incorporate both elements, only causes confusion and irritation. The martial arts is still good though and Jackie Chan still gets to perform his customary stunts. The street fighting style tournament features some effective moments. Better American films were yet to come.

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phanthinga
1980/09/03

In Battle Creek Brawl a tournament martial arts movie starring Jackie Chan we get the usual good guy Jackie Chan battle a bunch of overweight and don't know how to fight properly fighter in order to save his brother's fiancée from Italian mafia.It not a successful move to bring Jackie to a wider audience based on the Imdb score but if you want to know how Jackie first America movie go Battle Creek Brawl is still enjoyable in some degree

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leonblackwood
1980/09/04

Review: This movie was a big deal when it was released during the 80's, because it was one of the first Western movies starring Jackie Chan, which were fully English. The main problem that I found with the film is that the action scenes are pretty poor, which is surprising for a Chan movie, and the storyline wasn't that great. Jackie Chan plays Jerry Kwan whose father is being bullied by the local gangsters because he won't pay them protection money for his restaurant. When Jerry bumps into the gangsters while they are leaving his father's place, he uses his Kung Fu skills to fight them off and he warns them not to come back again. The mobsters then tell the head boss, Dominici (Jose Ferrer), about his Kung Fu skills and he decides to use him for the Battle Creek Brawl competition, we're various fighters come together to battle for a cash price. As Jerry is reluctant to fight in the competition, Dominici kidnaps his brothers fiancé, who has just arrived from Hong Kong. After some training with his uncle Herbert (Mako), he enters the competition to fight for her release. There are some other elements to the storyline but I don't want to spoil it for those people who haven't watched it before. Like many Chan movies, there is a lot of weak comedy throughout the movie, especially during the fighting scenes, so I was quite put off from the beginning. I also was expecting a big showdown at the end but it turned out to be a bunch of heavyweight men, wrestling with each other. Chan looked tiny compared to his opponents and the silly Kung Fu moves that he used against them, was pretty poor. The acting wasn't bad and I liked the chemistry between Chan and Mako but the film looked extremely dated and the comedy was just not that funny. Average!Round-Up: This movie was written and directed by Robert Clouse, who brought you Enter The Dragon, Black Belt Jones, Game Of Death, China O'Brien I & II and Ironheart. He sadly died of kidney failure in 1997, at the age of 68 but he firmly put his stamp in cinema with the movies that he made with Bruce Lee. I don't think that this movie was in the same ball park as Enter The Dragon or Game Of Death but he can honestly say that he had a hand in bringing Chan to a Western market before he died. Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $8.5millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their action/martial arts/crime/comedies starring Jackie Chan, Jose Ferrer, Kristine DeBell, David Sheiner, Mako and Larry Drake. 3/10

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Flak_Magnet
1980/09/05

"Battle Creek Brawl" had a lot going for it, but ultimately, ended up being pretty mediocre. Its got an early career Jackie Chan, Mako, and the guy who played "Luca Brasi" in "The Godfather" (Lenny Montana). Its got a big, exhibition-style street fight down in Texas, where a group of totally archetypal toughs duke it out for the screaming, crowded streets of Battle Creek, a sort of small town Americana-anywhere, reminiscent of the Dead Kennedy's alternate "Frankenchrist" album cover (1985). What bogs the film down is primarily poor editing and pacing, with a few completely unnecessary sequences given significant screen time, while other seemingly crucial plot elements are allowed to fall through the gaps. When its all over, "Battle Creek Brawl" leaves some significant issues unresolved and the film had a good amount of general plot holes throughout. Also, the sound was dreadful. This is one of those movies where you constantly have to adjust the volume to compensate for the very quiet dialog and very loud music and sound effects. Jackie Chan was quite entertaining and provides a good amount of slapstick-type humor, along with general butt-kicking throughout, but I can't say the choreography was any better than most of his other films. I'd say about 35% of "Battle Creek Brawl" is fight scenes, which has to be a big plus, but the story moves too slowly to the final set piece, meandering around for a full hour before things really get going. Overall, "Battle Creek Brawl" falls squarely into the realm of early 80's Martial Art Film mediocrity. It wasn't terrible or anything, but Jackie Chan has been in much better stuff.

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