Movie review - "The Student Teachers" (1973) *** (re-watching)

 Liked this more the second time. Appreciated the energy, pace, politics, feminism, attractive cast. It's a bit more pervy than the others and lacks a top level star. I didn't like the two rape sequences but it gives the film a story.  Everyone is trying their best, they throw themselves into it. A healthy attitude to sex apart from the rape stuff; that is depicted as bad it's just unpleasant. Joyously silly shoot out at the end.

Stephanie Rothman apparently wrote an early draft.

Book review - "The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage" by Nick de Semlyen

 This was fine. Easy read. Very surface. Very kind on Chuck Norris who I gather is more terrible. Seagal is lively as he always is. I was hoping for more of a deep dive. These Hollywood stars are so addicted to log cabin personal narratives - I mean, Stallone went to finishing school, for crying out loud.

Book review - "The Cannon Film Guide Volume II (1985-1987)"

 The period when Cannon went for the big brass ring. They kept making their bread and butter films - Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris, plus Michael Dudikoff etc - but attacked on two other fronts: classier IP (Runaway Train, Superman 4, Masters of the Universe) and art house stuff. It came crashing down for them but also provided their biggest triumphs - Runaway Train, 52 Pick Up. If Cannon had kept their head down maybe they would've lasted, but if they could've done that they wouldn't have been Cannon. A fun read.

Book review - "The Cannon Film Guide: Volume I, 1980–1984" by Mike McPadden

 Lovingly done. Some great interviews. I wish it had been more thorough. Lots of credit listings and plot synopses, like a pre internet book. I wish he'd done some more research on production of films. This touches on early Cannon films - the Ninjas, breakdancing, Bronsons, Norrises, some of the classy stuff (eg Love Streams).

Movie review - "Silent Rage" (1982) **1/2

Lesser known Chuck Norris film in part because it had a way out element - a killer is brought back from the dead and becomes this unstoppable monster. A modern day Frankenstein's creature.

This actually is very intriguing and I had high hopes for this, especially with a good actor like Ron Silver as one of the doctors. There's some interesting debate over whether the creature should be brought back and Chuck is ideal as the small town sheriff who gets drawn into the action when the creature goes around killing people.

But any complexity is thrown away in the second half when the film becomes about the killer knocking off scientists one my one slasher movie style and Chuck trying to take him down.

Chuck is in good form - love the scene where he beats up a bar of bikers. He has some genuinely emotional scenes, a love scene with his girlfriend and a really moving moment where deputy Stephen Furst dies in his arms.

I just wish they'd done more with the Frankenstein element  - bring in the CIA or whatever. It feels like a waste.

Movie review - "Firewalker" (1986) **

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.

Movie review - "Forced Vengeance" (1982) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

A letter known Chuck Norris film from his heyday despite being made by a major studio, MGM, and having a quasi-well known director, James Fargo. It's not that bad - a simple story of revenge with Norris as a debt collector who avenges the death of his mentor.

It's set in Hong Kong which makes for consistently interesting visuals - crowds, skyscrapers, trips on yachts, etc. There's a solid amount of action, most of it kung fu orientated.

It lacks the moments of high camp we remember from classic Chuck films - it's too sensible - though there is some silly flashback stuff and narration which is introduced and then forgotten.

There's also an unpleasant rape scene - Norris' girlfriend (Mary Louise Weller) is raped and killed, and the scene where she's raped is dragged out (she struggles and slaps the guy for a bit)... and when we see her corpse she's nude, and it's just depressing. There's also an attempted rape of Camilla Griggs, a beautiful talent whose part should have been bigger. There's a third female role, a hooker who gives Norris some information - three women is a lot for a Chuck Norris film.

Although set in Hong Kong half the cast is white. There's a bizarre scene where Norris attacks a sleeping baddy in bed - he's in bed with his boyfriend, Norris suffocates the boyfriend in order to get the baddy to talk, but is careful to say "the best man I ever know was homosexual". I guess that's progressive...? In a way?

Richard Norton pops up in a small role. There's some stylish-ish moments like a kung fu fight shot in shadow against a giant neon sign.

Movie review - "Breaker Breaker" (1977) **

Chuck Norris' first film as star though the first real Chuck Norris movie was Good Guys Wear Black. It's a sort of trucker movie a genre briefly popular in the late 70s. Actually that's not really the case - it's part revenge melodrama, part corrupt sheriff ruling a small town flick, a little bit CB, some trucker, a bit of kung fu.

The first third is surprisingly limited on action but the last two acts have a decent amount. It feels low budget and cheap - limited locations, fights rather than stunts. The script is wonky... there's OTT moments like a mentally slow character.

The budget was big enough to cover the fee for George Murdock, an actor who I remember from an episode of Battlestar Galactica. He's an effective villain doing weird things like talking to a sock puppet and being believably corrupt. No satisfactory final show down though - Chuck beats up some cop in a horse corral.

Chuck is solid - as in literally a lot of the time. He has presence, moves well, and a middle America face that would serve him so well. He can also fight.

Movie review - "Braddock: Missing in Action 3" (1988) **

Third one in the series actually has a decent central idea - Braddock returns to Vietnam to rescue his wife, who he believed dead, and child, who he didn't know existed.

The continuity doesn't quite match with the earlier films - from memory Braddock was in a POW camp after the war ended, and there was reference to his wife in the outside world. This one has Braddock present during the fall of Saigon, when he believes his wife is killed.

To be fair the fall of Saigon sequence is well done - lots of extras and production value, shot on location in the Philippines.

Aaron Norris does a solid job of directing - very professional and no nonsense. It looks good - there's camps and planes and kids. There's another Australian (?) character - a pilot who drops off Norris behind enemy lines.

The film doesn't quite work - it felt as though he went back to the well one too many times. I couldn't put my finger on it. Maybe the lack of a personal story underpinning it - sure, Norris connects with his kid but the kid has a short role, and they don't spend much time connecting. I never got the sense they were father and son. (Good on Chuck for attempting to broaden his range though). He's reunited with his wife but she gets quickly blown away. There's a priest looking after the kids - I know, I know - but he's not much. (Early Norris films had good casts - that changed after time. Maybe due to the location filming? Budget cuts? A decline in ambition?) The villainous commandant is an over the top evil Asian caricature, even for Chuck Norris (the baddy in Missing in Action 2 had a lot more nuance by way of comparison).

Maybe also it's the fact this isn't a kids film and there's lots of kids in it. There's a harrowing and all too believable scene where a Vietnamese tries to rape a young girl (she looks 12 or something). That's an adult movie. And there's all these kids running around. Kids kind of ruin the guilty pleasure aspect.

Thinking about it more I feel the biggest part of this is a lack of theme. In the first film it was about Chuck seeking a sort of redemption - proving that there were POWs still alive. In the second he was looking after his men. In the third... I guess it's about him finding his family but... I don't know it didn't power the piece.

Movie review - "Missing in Action 2: The Beginning" (1985) ***

This prequel to the 1984 was actually shot simultaneously and is a better film. This is because the subject matter is less cartoony - the stakes are bigger. It's about a group of American soldiers kept as POWs for years after the war is over - that's inherently moving: they're cut off from the world, their own life, they have wives and kids back home.

There is actually some character development among the support players - an American who has turned traitor, a prisoner wanting to be reunited with his kid, the commandant is obsessed with breaking Norris in a vaguely homoerotic way. This helps the writers with the challenge of keeping the audience interested while Norris is chained up.

They also throw in some torture scenes (Norris has his face gnawed off by a rat), a visit by an Australian (an effective moment). And Chuck escapes with over 30 minutes to go so he kicks some arse.

It doesn't have the great 80s craptacular moments of instalment one but there are some: Norris' initial appearance in sunglasses and hat striding on to a chopper, Norris beating up the baddy going "this is for McAlister... this is for Ryan... and this... is for me".

Movie review - "Missing in Action" (1984) **1/2

This seemed to be a breakthrough film for Cannon Pictures - but really it ended up as being a peak. It led to a long association with Chuck Norris which ultimately probably wasn't great for Norris' career - though who knows what would have happened had he worked more with outside people. Probably more of the same.

In the late 70s and early 80s part of Norris' success was he spoke to the culture - patriotism and white man action hero yes but also het addressed the trauma of Vietnam, in a way that say other action heroes weren't. This is a case in particular - it's got Chuck heading back to Nam to rescue some POWs.

As an action film this is okay. The structure is weird - the first third is shenanigans in Saigon with Chuck slipping out at night to beat up some people including James Hong. Then act two he's in Bangkok beating up more people. It's only the last third that involves retrieving POWs - and that's relatively easy, whoosing up the river in a boat, grabbing them and coming back.

So it's not one of the top rank Norris movies - not up with say Lone Wolf McQuade or Code of Silence - and its success I feel was more due to timing than anything.

Mind you it does have two all time great moments for 80s action films - Chuck leaping out of the water with a machine gun and taking out some Vietnamese, and some smug Vietnamese announcing there are no POWs left and Chuck bursts in the room carrying some... that's great exploitation.

Jean Claude Van Damme was a stunt man.

Movie review - "A Force of One" (1979) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

I'm having increasing respect for the way Chuck Norris kicked off his movie career - he surrounded himself with good actors (this one includes Ron O'Neal, Clu Gulager, James Whitmore Jnr) and had a decent story. This one he's a cop investigating a drug ring and one of his fellow cops may be involved.

Norris steered away from karate for his first two films as star, but he makes up for that here - the character fights in tournaments and runs a school and the plot is him up against a mysterious other ninja.

There's some tropes so overused that it can't help induce laughs - like when Norris introduces a kid "who's like a son" he practically has "this person will die by the second act" tattooed on his end. There's some over the top "drug addiction" acting to reinforce the point that Drugs Are Bad. And at times the film feels like a blending of various movies (part martial arts flick, part serial killer movie, part cop film) rather than a cohesive whole.

But there's lots of action, Jennifer O'Neil gets to play a smart cop, the support cast is strong as mentioned. This is pretty good.

Movie review - "Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection" (1990) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

My expectations were low going in to this film - it doesn't have much of a reputation - but it was a solidly made action flick with plenty of bang bang and good stunts: climbing up/sliding down mountains, jumping out of planes, fights, etc. It was shot in the Philippines (substituting for Colombia) which gives great production value - there's jungle and lairs and mountains. It's a good looking film.

A couple of gripes. The plot isn't very original - in fact, it's very close to the Bond film Licence to Kill which came out the year before, and even that seemed unoriginal (cop captures drug lord who gets off, drug lord kills cop's friend and wife, cop goes looking for revenge in drug lord's home country which is run by corrupt general). In 1990 this stuff was old - it feels like it was made five years too late.

It's not very Delta Force-y - the original film was very much about a team, but this is really mostly about Chuck getting personal revenge, with the team then tagging along at the end. To be fair, they pull their weight - blowing up a lot of stuff, and coming to the rescue... but it doesn't feel like a Delta Force movie. It's like a movie was written separately then they added Delta Force elements. It would've been great if they'd Delta Force-d it up a bit more - had more prominent other members in the team, talk about the team's role in combating drugs, had differing attitudes towards revenge (because the guy killed was part of the force).

Billy Drago plays the drug lord as beyond evil - but that's not as scary as John Ryan's performance as Norris' superior. Ryan is supposed to be a good guy but plays him like this cackling psycho - a little like Buck Turgidson from Strangelove. Once I accepted these performances on their own terms it was okay but they clashed with the rest of the film, which was more competent, professional. It did make me wish that John Milius had done a draft of this - really gone over the top with Americans saving the day. (Milius should have worked with more of the 80s action star crowd, eg Seagal, Norris, Van Damme - I think he would have done good stuff).

I wasn't a fan of the subplot of that female villager. Her husband is killed, her baby is killed, she helps Norris, then she is killed by Drago. Really she should've been allowed to live or at least been allowed to kill Drago before dying. It just felt unfair.

Still, a solid action film and it gave me fresh appreciation for the talents of director Aaron Norris.

Movie review - "The Delta Force" (1986) ***

In hindsight this was a high water mark for Cannon Films and Chuck Norris. They must have thought this was a sure thing - Norris was coming off a series of successful films (Code of Silence even got good reviews), it was a rescuing-hostage drama which was pertinent and also tends to work. the director had experience in the genre making Operation Thunderbolt. So they ponied up for some big (ish) stars - they tried Charles Bronson but he turned it down (not wanting to share the spotlight?) and got Lee Marvin, who is a pretty good plan B.  The support cast includes Shelley Winters, Martin Balsam, Robert Forster, Bo Svenson (a star for a bit in the 70s), George Kennedy, Kim Delaney (very pretty as a nun), Joey Bishop (!), Lainie Kazan, and Susan Strasberg - that's pretty good.

And the film has some good moments. It's very over the top and the Arabs are caricatures. And sometimes you can't help but laugh - such as when Shelley Winters cries out to the other passengers as the terrorists take her husband away ("there's only two of them!... it's like the camps").

But the fact is this sort of thing did happen -terrorists taking out the passports of the Jews, and killing the American soldiers. It is makes for decent drama.

The real problem with the movie is that its two films. First part (after  a brief introductory sequence that is in the wake of Operation Eagle Claw in Iran 1980) is a hostage drama with what happens on the plane - Robert Forster leading the baddies, and a blonde German stewardess trying to be heroic, and George Kennedy giving himself up for Jews, and Martin Balsam giving a fine understated performance and Shelley winters playing to the back row.

The second part is cartoonish stuff with Norris, Marvin and his gang hooning around Beiruit on motorcycles, firing rockets and killing Arabs with the help of Israelis. To make things worse the terrorists have released the women and children by now lessering the stakes. Indeed at the end you kind of forget there are any hostages it's like people playing war games. Now I don't mind this sort of movie - but it's a cartoon and is based on cartoons whereas the first half is based on reality and the two sides do not mesh.

Marvin's part actually isn't that big but he still moves around a bit - he'd be dead soon. Norris isn't in the film that much either but kicks some but towards the end. They pump up the role of Norris' blonde friend played by William Wallace, so he can die and it can mean something and we can have a poignant moment as his friends stand around his corpse while the others sing "America the Beautiful".

It's a film which wears it's heart on it's sleeve, I'll say that for it.

Movie review - "Code of Silence" (1985) ***1/2

I think Lone Wolf McQuade is the best "Chuck Norris" Chuck Norris film but this is probably the best movie starring Chuck Norris - it's King Creole vs Viva Las Vegas if you get my meaning.

This is a genuinely good film and Norris gives a strong performance as a cop in Chicago taking on drug dealers. There's a bunch of subplots - the best known one involves Chuck giving evidence against a cop who irresponsibly shoots a kid, but there's also one where he forms a relationship with the innocent daughter (Molly Hagan) of a drug dealer.

There is good action, which comes about logically and a very strong support cast - including Dennis Farina, and Henry Silva. There's no romance between Chuck and Hagan (she's quite young) which was surprising - I guess it's more realistic though it does rob the piece of some emotional impact when he's coming to the rescue. I feel her character should have been a love interest or been made younger so she could be like a "daughter interest" if that makes sense.

A strong film, which makes you wish Chuck Norris had done more work for Orion or at least worked with Andrew Davis again. He really didn't work enough with good directors.

Movie review - "Good Guys Wear Black" (1978) **1/2

Chuck Norris regarded this film as a breakthrough for him because it really confirmed him as an action star and proved Breaker! Breaker! wasn't a fluke. I think it was his idea too - and it feels "Norris" if you know what I mean: he plays a special services soldier who is sent on a mission in the dying days of the Vietnam War which ends in disaster (like the Son Tay Raid)... years later he is prompted to re-investigate by journalist Anne Archer.

The pacing of this is a little odd. It takes Norris until the last half hour until he starts kicking arse - the first hour he's mostly investigating and navigating.

Norris was smart in his collaborators. He got the experienced Ted Post to direct (presumably Norris would have liked the fact Post did a couple of Clint Eastwood films). The supporting cast is strong - Anne Archer is achingly lovely as his love interest (and they have sex too! Norris would zip on up later in his career), and has a decent role to play. There's also James Francisscus, Jim Backus and Dana Andrews, so the film would have some legitimacy.

The story has a strong background - special ops team, dying days Vietnam War, betrayal by the government... I mean that's all good stuff. Possibly unhealthy politically (Hitler used that argument to come to power ie that Germany lost WW1 because the troops had been betrayed). But it's rich dramatically. And it reminded me that at one stage Chuck Norris wasn't a joke - he made films that spoke to issues that a lot of people cared about. That sounds pretentious but films like this and later Missing in Action and Invasion USA - they struck a chord.

There's a great moment where Norris karate kicks into the drivers window of an incoming car. I wish he'd done more like this in his career.  Or even in this film which lacks action. In particular it lacks people for Norris to kill - at the end when he takes out Franciscus it's by driving him off a cliff, and you kind of want something more.

There are curiously cheap credits.

Still, an interesting film.

Movie review - "The Octagon" (1980) ***

Fun Chuck Norris film that really made a mark - Pablo Escobar was a fan! The script by Leigh Chapman - a real guy's girl kind of writer who should be better known - is pretty solid. There's a very interesting gimmick in that you can hear Norris' thoughts.

He plays a man who becomes aware of a secret society of assassins (they do freelance?) and takes them down. Art Hindle (the brother in Porky's) is his friend who I thought would be killed around the end of the first or even second act but who makes it until the end... where he dies. The villain is Norris' Chinese half brother which is interesting.

The film has three main female roles and they're all actually quite good parts, well played - there's a dancer played by Kim Langford who Chuck romances and who then dies, and an enigmatic  Karen Carlson who tries to get Chuck to fight the bad guys and dies, and then Caro Bagdasarian who is introduced quite late as a assassin who turns good and helps (and sleeps with!) Chuck... and lives! Bagdasarian is a bit of a bad ass. I think Chapman' s influence meant this had better female roles.

It takes Chuck surprisingly long to go kick ass - it's like only the last third. But it is an impressive lair.

The cast includes people like Lee Van Cleef as well as Australian Richard Norton. It's a fun, interesting film, one of Norris' best. He's a bit stiff but he has a calm presence.

Movie review - "Lone Wolf McQuade" (1983) ***1/2

Perhaps Chuck Norris' best movie - a really fun cheesy early 80s action flick, with tight direction by Steve Carver, who should have had a bigger career, very much in Sergio Leone mode. You've got a Morricone score and lots of sandy vistas, with Norris effective as the loner hero who works with a team.

Mind you it might be better for those close to him if he's stayed a loner - his daughter gets kidnapped, her boyfriend gets killed, her ex has to give up a dream job (it seems) at the end, his girlfriend is killed, his Sam Elliot-like friend is killed. Such is life for the friends of the hero in an 80s action film.

This is surprisingly progressive - the girlfriend character is decently well rounded (Barbara Carrera looks stunning), McQuade his helped by a Hispanic and a black, there is even a dwarf as a crime boss. David Carradine is a strong antagonist, there's some funny lines, the story is solid, and there's plenty of action. A lot of it is silly but its carried off with conviction.

John Milius provided some advice on the script, particularly the opening, and it made me wish he'd worked with more 80s action stars.

Movie review - "Invasion USA" (1985) **

Not one of Chuck Norris' best remembered films despite the delirious ambition of the concept - Chuck helps fight off an invasion of the US by commies. Because it isn't about that, not really - it's about a bunch of commies, led by Richard Lynch (an old nemesis of Norris') who arrives in the US and does this grab bag of terrorist activities: shooting up a boat load of refugees, trying to blow up a shopping center, trying to blow up a bus load of kids, randomly shooting people on the street, shooting a couple making out on a beach. They keep taking out time to try to kill Norris.

It's all hopelessly difuse and unfocused, which is why the film was a disappointment (and set back Norris' career after the breakthrough of Code of Silence). What's the terrorists plan? To unleash terror and... that's it? But Lynch keeps trying to kill Norris - indeed at the end Norris is able to gode Lynch's entire army to attack just to get Norris. It doesn't make sense.

It's a shame because there's some great action - car chases, over the top fights, a glorious battle at the end with National Guardsmen and baddies, and Norris kicks some serious arse. There's good ideas too - Norris starts off retired living in the everglades, the commies are in cahoots with drug smugglers (a promising subplot just thrown away). But its nonsensical - there's no real logic to the character's actions. They needed to focus it all down in terms of time and space - a specific attack.

Movie review - "Way of the Dragon" (1972) *** (warning: spoilers)

Directors of Bruce Lee films who aren't Bruce Lee (eg Robert Clouse, Lo Wei) sometimes get a bad wrap, with critics tending to attribute everything good in the movies to Lee. This was Lee's properly credited directorial debut - but it isn't as good as his first two films with Lo Wei, so Wei obviously bought something to the party.

It's still entertaining, mind, and the fight scenes are excellent - particularly the climactic battle between Lee and Chuck Norris in the Colosseum - but the handling is flabby, the acting campier (check out the black guy among the villains), and there is far too much dopey comedy. (This is all a matter of personal taste of course but Lee wouldn't be the first auteur who went over board on the hyuck factor).

Story wise the movie is weak too - and Lee wrote the script - because the stakes are so small: who cares if the Mob take over Lee's relative's restaurant in Rome? There's not even a good old racial element that could've been used because there are so many Chinese in the mob. (Though I did like the twist that the uncle turns dodgy and kills his own staff with a view to getting all the carnage over and done with.) Still, definitely worth watching.