It took Jackie Chan (“Rush Hour”, “The Twin Dragons”) several attempts before he became a hit in America. His first attempt was the abysmal “Battle Creek Brawl” (also known as “The Big Brawl”), which is easily one of his weakest films. Director Robert Clouse was hoping for another success like his “Enter The Dragon” with this one but he definitely did not get it.

Set in the 1930s, Jerry Kwan (Chan) likes to fight and wants to keep his father’s restaurant safe from local gangsters. The criminals see potential in Jerry’s abilities and take action to force him into a brutal street fighting competition in Texas.

Chan is known for his fast moves but here, the fights are so darn slow. It also is not helped by the fact that he’s fighting big men that move slowly most of the time. Chan also did not have the best English skills at the time so his performance is quite weak as he is clearly struggling with the dialog. Mako (“Conan The Barbarian”, “Pearl Harbour”) plays Jackie’s uncle, who trains him for the fights. The other fighters are all pretty boring. The main opponent is a big muscle man that has a bizarre kissing gimmick when he fights.

“Battle Creek Brawl” has a really irritating theme tune that plays throughout the duration of the picture. It also has some of the worst fight scenes ever featured in a Jackie Chan film (even the final bout is rather unremarkable). None of the acting is very good and the plot is completely disposable. No wonder Chan failed to make a real name for himself in the United States with this movie. There really is not much going for this one at all and the only reason why Jackie Chan fans may want to see it is so that they can see just how badly Hollywood understood him at first.