Battle Creek Brawl Blu-ray Screenshots (Patreon)

Video

Echo Bridge issued Battle Creek Brawl years ago on Blu-ray. Other than more spacious compression, Shout's release is no better, arguably even worse. Filtered with DNR galore, the messy, noisy not-really-grain over the image does Battle Creek Brawl no favors. What little detail can slip through the digital haze still looks murky and waxy, with an unnatural, ugly gloss. In motion, expect smearing.

Dull black levels limit the potential depth, as if the near complete lack of texture would let any slip. Grayed out contrast won't offer any assistance either.

Middling, browned color saturation leaves flesh tones pale and primaries deadened. Battle Creek Brawl only features a few dry earth tones, making no impression or reason for this release aside from its inclusion inside a box set.

Audio

Defaulting to English mono (DTS-HD), additional tracks include stereo Cantonese and Mandarin, both uncompressed too. The surround 5.1 mix is available in Dolby Digital only and that's fine. Credit then where it's due, the mono track offers better clarity than expected considering the awful video. The score lacks dynamics - the entire track does, actually - but that's not unusual considering the age.