The turning point in Chuck Norris' career - he never had a really solid film hit after this (although Walker Texas Ranger had a long run). It's a shame because I loved how he wanted to broaden his range and do something a bit different that was still in the action arena.
The basic idea of this isn't bad - searching for treasure in Mexico. And director J Lee Thompson had done a decent tongue in cheek adventure for Cannon with King Solomon's Mines and it benefits from a cast that includes Jon Rhys Davis, Sonny Landham, Lou Gossett Jnr and Melody Anderson.
But it makes some key errors. A simple story is muddled with random things that jut out, like Anderson being affected by a spirit. It lacks decent stories to cut away to - you don't get a sense of impending danger or threat. Rhy Davies pops up, looks as though he's going to play a major role, then disappears. There's not enough Landham. It could have done with another subplot - someone else after the treasure, say.
Most damagingly all the lead characters are the same - amiable nice people who make the occasional joke. There's no character deliniation that you got in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or Romancing the Stone or even King Solomon's Mines (the Cannon version). Why not say have Gossett chatty and Norris taciturn? But they're both quite chatty. Why not have Anderson hoity-toity or virginal or something? Give her something to play...
It's not terrible. Nice scenery in Mexico. The direction is a bit flat. Thompson didn't do as good a job as he did in Solomon.
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