This, the initial attempt to introduce martial arts icon Jackie Chan to American audiences, was unfortunately a flop in its time, which is too bad considering that it's actually pretty enjoyable. It's not among his best work (and Chan himself dislikes the movie as he had little to no control), but aficionados of the martial arts genre could easily do worse. The fights are decent and somewhat rousing, and as has always been Chans' style, there's a liberal dose of comedy to the proceedings; the viewer may be laughing as often as they might be cheering. A number of familiar faces add to the fun; some of the people behind the legendary "Enter the Dragon", including director Robert Clouse, were on hand for this one.Jackie plays Jerry Kwan, a young Chinese man living in Chicago who catches the attention of mobster Dominici (Jose Ferrer), whose goons have been hassling Jerry's restaurateur father (Chao Li Chi). Dominici has his men kidnap Mae (lovely Rosalind Chao), fiancée to Jerry's brother, in order to force Jerry to compete in the Battle Creek Brawl, a big stakes fighting competition held in Texas. There Jerry must ultimately take on the reigning champion, Billy Kiss (H.B. Haggerty), so nicknamed because he gives his opponents the "kiss of death" after defeating them.With a bouncy, very amusing score by Lalo Schifrin as accompaniment, "The Big Brawl" creates a reasonable recreation of 1930s Chicago and Texas, and delivers an acceptable amount of humour and action. Jackie is engaging as always, no matter if English clearly wasn't his first language. Ferrer is a hoot, and Kristine DeBell is cute as Jerry's girlfriend Nancy. Mako is wonderful as Jackies' uncle and trainer; their training scenes are some of the brightest in the movie. Look, also, for appearances by Lenny Montana, Sonny Barnes, Earl Maynard, Larry Drake, and Ox Baker.This is an amiable diversion every step of the way, even if it isn't prime Jackie.Seven out of 10.

After Bruce Lee's departure to heaven, Hong Kong cinema has been craving for another kungfu star like Bruce, and a certain famous director Loh Wai spotted the potential of a virtually unknown Jackie Chan (at that time), and determined to make him a Bruce next in line. I guess pretty much everyone know how it went. Jackie was never Bruce, and in fact, no one could emulate the kind of style and flair poised by the great man. All the Bruce Ler, Bruce Li, Bruce Looi clones, for god sake, they even have a Korean guy (whom was a great Karate champion for his defense) to fill the void. None of them really work. Even Jackie Chan, whom later found his fame worldwide fail to duplicate anything remotely close.That is not until a young director Ng See-Yuen, together with now an industry legend, Kungfu choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping, loan Jackie Chan from Loh Wai (he bloody owned Chan that time) to make "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" which catapulted Jackie into movie star status in Hong Kong. The latter film, combined Kungfu with continuous comedic sequence and style that Jackie parodied from silence film era was such a great success that it defined the style for Jackie's future films.1973, Bruce Lee's Enter The Dragon grossed 25 Millions in North America. That was probably equivalent to over 200 millions today (based on 5% inflation per year), a Roman triumph for a movie with less than a million budget. Though not to the extend of Hong Kong, Hollywood and the American audiences certainly still look forward and certainly marketable for a guy like Bruce, 7 years after his death. This is where both Jackie and his boss (Golden Harvest) were looking for, an inroad to Hollywood.I guess, human race kind of have a short memory, and Jackie's earlier success and his even earlier flops were easily push aside, and you have this movie made. A disappointing kungfu movie that shown neither the style of Bruce or the comedic of Jackie, just a suppose star-vehicle for some random Hong Kong dude tried to be Bruce while being funny at the same time but in the end fall all over the place.At about 60% mark of the show, I was actually enjoying it. Nevermind the lack of style, nevermind that Jackie wasn't really Jackie we familiar with, it is still an enjoyable one. But the more towards the ending, the more we realize that this is just a show focus on that Hong Kong guy and nothing else. The rest of the characters were merely background, they are not suppose to be anything. Even that previous champion (it has a cool name in Cantonese version, Killer King Ali), who was suppose the baddest man in the universe seems like a paper tiger in the end. Not to mention, Rosalind Chao character (the sister in law) never shown her face after being abducted by the mobs. What kind of story is this? Robert Clouse is the guy who made Enter The Dragon, and also this one. In the former, Bruce Lee aside, still a solid martial art movie. With Bruce being the star, the main guy, central of the universe, there's still ample room for secondary characters like John Saxon and Jim Kelly managed to show a bit of their style, not to mention they have one of the most iconic villain, Dr. Han, the guy with iron claw. With this one, from the same director, you seen NOTHING, absolutely nothing. By the end of the movie, I kind of realize how poor the script was and how it has heavily impact the show.They have some good chances to make it right. The climatic fight was such a mess that pale in comparison to even Cynthia Rothrock later works (after she went back to US). The girlfriend was there to flash her boobs, the horny uncle, played by the wise wizard in Conan movies only managed to let himself captured, twice! And don't talk about the mob. Jose Ferrer's mob boss had found out about his treacherous nephew's scheme, and nothing was done to stop the sabotage. Most of the villains appeared to be sore loser type, they have no depth, no class or any fighting prowess to match with (except the bald black dude whom at least had his head).

for Jackie Chan's first American film this one was pretty decent,at least i thought so.it was directed by Robert Clouse who also directed the not so good movie Gymkata.but this film works pretty well.the acting is pretty good.the fighting scenes are alright as well.Jackie Chan certainly has his own style.later on in his films,his fighting scenes became hokey,but in this movie they weren't too bad.the film movies along at a good pace,so it's never boring.the story may not be original today,but back then it may have been.the basic plot is that Jerry Kwan (Chan)is forced to fight in a brutal street brawl,hence the title of the movie.for me,The Big Brawl is a 6/10

I just re-watched this movie after seeing it for the first time about 8 years ago, and right thereafter watched Jackie's masterpiece Police Story 2, and my god was the difference painful to bear! The story (although secondary to the action naturally) doesn't really add much to the viewing experience. It doesn't seem to fit well with the tone of the rest of the movie, and the lack of excitement, interesting characters, or pretty much anything that makes many Jackie Chan movies the joy they are, gives the movie a bland and dull impression. In a way, it resembles a boring version of Enter the Dragon, which is probably the movie Clouse was trying to revisit for a possible success in the US. It's almost painful to watch most of the action scenes, when you think about the movies Jackie had starred in just a few years earlier, like "Snake in the Eagles Shadow", "Drunken Master" or even "Fearless Hyena" or "Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin". Jackie steals the show completely and the only thing I can imagine Jackie thinking while shooting the majority of the action is: "Really, this is what I have to work with.. let's just get it over with and fly back to Hong Kong tomorrow.." The entire tournament, which is supposed to be the highlight of the movie, is actually the part with the worst fights in any Jackie Chan movie. They basically consist of wrestlers twice the size of Jackie punching with the speed of a snail and trying to hug opponents to death, while Jackie performs some fast, acrobatic moves to finish them off. Some of the moves from Jackie are really impressive though and this is probably Jackie at the hight of his physical capacity, too bad it's squandered the way it is here. Most of the time, Jackie's character is probably intended to resemble a Bruce Lee-like figure with powerful, execution-style moves (complete with the EXACT punching sound effects from Enter the Dragon) and it doesn't really fit him well. The movie actually seems hand-made for coming Belgian Ballet-super star Jean-Claude Van Damme, and I can't believe I'm about to write this, but he probably would have made the movie the cheese-fest it should have been and not the sleeping-pill that it is now.