Touches You

Boring

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Of everything you read about this movie it is somewhat better than you think, but it isn't much and definitely isn't what you expect from Jackie Chan in a leading role. The majority of the film is tolerable. I mean the story and acting could've been better but if that was the entirety of the movie it would be a "meh". I'm not blaming Jackie for acting because I know this was his first English movie, but the others weren't so good. But the action scenes is where the movie lacks the most. Jackie himself even said the reason he believed the film failed is because he wasn't allowed to direct the fight scenes himself. To me, the action scenes get to the point of cringe worthy. If Jackie had made them the way he originally wanted, it would've redeemed the film a bit. It wouldn't have been much but would've made it stand out and kinda worth it going through all the slow pacing. The film does have some comedic moments but not many and they're very spread apart from each other. But when they're trying to be funny and it fails, it looks awkward especially if it's Jackie who's doing humor. If you're a really big Jackie Chan fan, I say it's worth a watch for curiosity sake.

It's weird to think that there once was a time when the whole world didn't know about Jackie Chan. It's even weirder to realize that at one time, he was introduced to us but we didn't think to remember him. BATTLE CREEK BRAWL is odd for being a Hong Kong-inspired movie before Hollywood knew the value of the HK influence. But while director Robert Clouse may have been unable to capitalize on Jackie Chan like he did Bruce Lee, this is still an exciting adventure and an interesting study of one of the earlier chapters of one of the genre's top stars.The story: A martial arts-practicing adventurer (Chan) runs afoul of a Chicago crime syndicate and is strong-armed into competing in an all-important toughman contest.While there are plenty of criticisms to be leveled at this film, I don't accept its departure from the style of other JC movies as one of them. Director Clouse isn't Stanley Tong, and he doesn't need to be: his utilization of Jackie isn't the ideal standard, but someone as talented as Chan benefits from showing poise in alternative circumstances. Admittedly, one casualty of Clouse's style is Chan's comedy, which comes across as clumsy and childish, but his action scenes remain pretty swell. Almost none of his on screen opponents approach Chan's level of agility and they clearly aren't comfortable with the hero's rhythmic style, but Jackie's athletic abandon is matched by satisfying, stunt-heavy choreography. The filmmakers keep the camera pulled back, diminishing our boy's facial expressions but showing off the authenticity of his abilities. Given that this was the first time Chan was being captured as a lead outside of Hong Kong, I'm impressed with the results.The production is on the modest side of respectable. Clouse works well in small, homey locations and pulls off the 1930s setting pretty smoothly. Disappointingly, the story and characters within the setting are not intriguing. The screenplay offers exactly one character and relationship that I found intriguing: dear old Mako in his surprisingly stern role as Jackie's mentor. Everyone else, from Chan's on screen girlfriend (Kristine DeBell) to the evil champion (H.B. Haggerty), are simply varying shades of boring. Even Oscar-winner Jose Ferrer is incredibly vanilla as the lead villain and doesn't enliven a story that's almost solely kept afloat by its lead star's infectious talent. Chan himself isn't at his best either, though this is mainly due to his discomfort with English at this point, and his physical expressiveness conveys a lot of what his dialogue doesn't.BATTLE CREEK BRAWL teeters on a less enthusiastic rating, but eventually wins me over through its strengths. It's not surprising that this film didn't make Jackie Chan a household name, but it's good enough to qualify as a collector's item for the right viewer. The one thing all viewers needs to do when watching is not expect RUMBLE IN THE BRONX, and if you manage that, you'll probably have a good time.

This entertaining flop of a movie was Jackie Chan's big-screen debut in the US – but unfortunately the film failed to find an audience, and Jackie had to wait another eighteen years before RUSH HOUR provided him with the mainstream appeal he had been previously looking for. BATTLE CREEK BRAWL is far from a great film, but it remains entertaining, thanks to Jackie's antics in the leading role and the wealth of comedy and bizarre antics making the screen time fly by. This is a very strange film with a number of diverse elements – gangsters, girlfriends, prostitutes posing as lovers, a fight contest and a roller-staking competition – that merge into a fun, if insubstantial, whole.There's plenty of action which makes the whole thing entertaining, with Jackie (as to be expected) at the peak of his powers. It's just a shame his English is pretty hard to understand at this point. He's ably supported by the rest of the cast, including Mako in his clichéd role of, well, Mako, the wise sidekick and mentor; Jose Ferrer also hangs around, hamming things up at every opportunity. The actual brawl of the title doesn't take place until the last twenty minutes, but it's worth waiting for, providing an unusual spectacle: huge, American wrestling-style fighters versus the small, nimble Chan. Until then a wealth of stunts, showing off, and battles with gangsters keep things moving nicely along. Watch out for the unconventional roller-skating tournament as well, which comes out of nowhere and provides a nice distraction from the otherwise routineness of the plot.

"...amazing how this sort of idea managed to cross the pacific with him!." what's amazing is how ignorant of the historic 'myth' is in your small, pea sized brain. it is amazing how ignorant those who post movie reviews are about the history of literature. The 'fish out of water' accompanied by the wisdom of a mentor is an old tale, and in literature, movies, and the like long before any Chinese wood movie. Think about "Avitar" for 3 seconds...so blah , blah, blah, why is 10 lines of text necessary when less will do? because there are mindless numb nuts in charge of these reviews. I wrote for Breaking Bad, by the way.