"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.
Review of Battle Creek Brawl
