6.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
A young Asian American martial artist is forced to participate in a brutal formal street-fight competition.
Starring: Jackie Chan, José Ferrer, Mako, Kristine DeBell, David SheinerAction | 100% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 1.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Note: This film is currently only available in this double feature: Jackie Chan: Battle Creek Brawl /
City Hunter.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Jackie Chan is one of the biggest international superstars of his
generation, a performer who not only performs his own stunts, but has become synonymous with a certain subgenre of
martial arts fare where comedy is often king. But it may surprise some to know that Chan actually not only had a fairly
hard time matriculating into the American market, even his early Hong Kong efforts were met with less than resounding
success. Though Chan had actually been appearing in films since his early childhood, it took him several tries as an
adult to finally break through into mainstream prominence in Hong Kong, ultimately really breaking into the big time with
1978’s blockbuster Drunken Master, a film which perfectly typified what would become the almost patented
Chan blend of action and comedy. A couple of years later Chan made his first starring attempt for the American market,
Battle Creek Brawl, which bombed pretty spectacularly. He stuck around long enough to play a fairly minor role
in The Cannonball Run,
before striking out again in The Protector Chan retreated to his more familiar geographical turf for the next
several years, increasing his star power and box office appeal in that neck of the woods. It would be close to a decade
until Chan finally attempted to reestablish himself once again stateside, and even then it took a little while before he
finally had his first true blockbuster, 1998’s
Rush Hour. The rest, as they say, is history, and it’s perhaps indicative of how popular Chan has become
that few seem to remember his long struggle to achieve that level of stardom. This new double feature from Shout!
Factory collects that first American bomb Battle Creek Brawl with a fondly remembered 1993 Hong Kong offering
from Chan, City Hunter.
Battle Creek Brawl is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. This is another master provided by Fortune Star and there seems to be little doubt that in the case of Battle Creek Brawl this is an upscale. The image is fuzzy and ill defined, with noticeable edge enhancement halos cropping up from time to time. There's variable clarity throughout this presentation—at times it approaches adequate levels, at other times, it devolves into near VHS territory. There are also consistent density issues which present a kind of quasi-flicker at times. The best thing about this presentation is probably the color, which can be quite good at times, albeit skewed toward the ruddy side of things some of the time. One thing that must be kept in mind with Battle Creek Brawl is that thie film has always had a kind of shoddy look, one that is only minimally "helped" by this presentation.
Battle Creek Brawl features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix as well as the film's original mono sound mix delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Both of these tracks sport fairly decent fidelity, though both have a surprisingly boxy sound at times that belies a perhaps less than fulsome approach to the original recording of these soundtracks. Additionally, the repurposed 5.1 track has some pretty noticeable phasing, probably due to effects being artificially placed around the soundfield and the resultant doubling of other ambient noises. Dialogue is cleanly presented here, if never outstandingly so, but some may be expecting more visceral "wow", especially in the film's action sequences, than is offered here.
Battle Creek Brawl has a lot of what would become signature Jackie Chan moves, including a kind of goofy combination of humor and action. But the film frankly never really gels very well. Part of this may be due to Chan's "newness" in the American market at the time, or the uneasy collaboration between Chan and writer-director Robert Clouse, which leaves the film floundering much like one of the cartoonish villains trying to overcome Chan's martial arts mastery.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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1976
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1978
風雨雙流星 / Fung yu seung lau sing
1976
劍花煙雨江南 / Jian hua yan yu jiang nan
1977
龙拳 / Long quan
1979
1982
The Armour of God / Lung hing foo dai
1986
'A' gai wak
1983
Jung on zo / Zhòng àn zǔ / 重案組
1993
Sing si lip yan / Chéng shì liè rén / 城市獵人
1993
'A' gai wak juk jaap / 'A' ji hua xu ji / A計劃續集
1987
Armour of God II: Operation Condor / Fei jing gai wak / Project Eagle
1991
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1983
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1985
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Xià rì fú xīng | 夏日福星 | Hong Kong Cut & Extended Cut
1985
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1973
肥龍過江 / Fei lung gwoh gong
2020