Like an old slow-play action thriller that you only watched because there were limited options on the TV; this movie is mostly a boring drama by today’s standards, until about half way through, at which point the plot takes an interesting turn, or should I say, starts to move, because it was never going anywhere beforehand.
The Big Brawl was Jackie Chan’s American debut – at this time he had minimal control over the script and even the fight choreography, but it’s still full of the classic gymnastic comedy combat that Jackie is now famous for, with a touch of Bruceploitation style fight choreography at times.
Jackie gives a charismatic performance to this otherwise dull-come-soso movie, making it watchable, and even quite entertaining at times.
Makoto Iwamatsu (‘Mako’) also gives a strong performance in his supporting role as Jackie’s uncle and Kung Fu teacher.