The Big Brawl
The Big Brawl
R | 29 August 1980 (USA)
The Big Brawl Trailers

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

Reviews
Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
Staci Frederick Blistering performances.
alexanderdavies-99382 "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.
Anssi Vartiainen Jackie Chan's first attempt to break through into the American market and a famous flop in any meaning of the word. I can definitely see why. And it's not Chan that's at fault here, except perhaps in that he should have picked a better movie to star in. Because, quite honestly, aside from his enjoyable presence, the rest of the film is very amateurish.The story is barely there, first and foremost of all. A Chinese (Chan) man living in Chicago gets threatened by the mob and is forced to join a fighting tournament after the boss sees his martial arts skills. A training montage, some fights, et cetera. You know exactly how it goes. Exactly. The movie is short as it is and it insist on dragging us through every tired cliché there is. If you've seen any martial arts film or even any gangster film, you've seen this film as well. It's uninspired in the worst possible way.And sure, Jackie Chan is a great martial artist and even an engaging actor, if given even halfway decent material to work with. But he cannot work miracles and that's what would have been required here.Sure, see the film if you want to say you've seen all of Chan's films. And it's not like it's offensively bad. Just boring. Just very, very, very boring. Which is sometimes an even greater crime.
daworldismine even though it's his first American movie, it delivers everything you expect from a jackie chan movie, including stunts, great fight scenes and comedy. its a great watch and jackie chan is a joy to watch in his many fight scenes with big wrestlers, and the comedy while some of it dated, for the most part it remains very funny and is entertaining. now some fans don't like this movie, and i cant understand why, it delivers everything you expect from a jackie can movie, sure maybe it is a little cheesy and times, and the acting not the best you've ever seen, but arnt most of jackie chans movies. never the less the big brawl is a great jackie chan flick, and i recommend to fans if his, and action fans in general.
Flak_Magnet "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.