A Force of One

I saw this when it opened back in '79. I actually saw Bill Wallace fight the week before and Chuck Norris was in his corner. I had just started studying karate about a year earlier so I was psyched about seeing it. I have to disagree with a few people's opinions about this movie. While no one would EVER confuse this with Academy Awards material; for what it is, it's not bad at all. In fact, it can be downright enjoyable! As for the fights, a lot of people have been putting them down, especially the ring fights. I thought that they were, for the most part, outstanding. You have to remember that back when this was filmed, the concept of "fighting the camera" to bring the audience into the fight was a relatively new concept and was very effective for its time. Granted, it's been WAY overused since then, but remember that this was 1979. So just keep in mind it's time and limitations and I think that you can really have a blast with this one. I do.

Matt Logan (Chuck) is a Martial Arts expert who runs a Dojo, teaching children by day and fighting in the ring by night. His life is consumed by Karate, which is exactly why the San Diego police department seek out his expert counsel. It seems that a ruthless assassin is out on the streets, ruthlessly killing cops who get too close to the center of a drug operation.Soon Logan becomes personally involved and is searching for the killer himself.

A Force of One is pretty typical early Chuck: the pace is on the slow side but it does provide plenty of Chuck fights and the movie as a whole isn't bad.Then there's Bill "super foot" Wallace. You kind of know what to expect from someone nicknamed "super foot." Wallace is good at kicking. At acting, not so much.The action is good. Norris designed the fights himself, giving them a more authentic feel.

In all, A Force of One is a decent, harmless, and enjoyable-enough Chuck Norris film.

Overall 7 out of 10

In all fairness, being a Chuck Norris vehicle, this isn't a bad film. It's quite a well made product, devoid of Chuck's sub standard acting, surpassed by the rest of the interestingly chosen cast, Neill exceptionally good as s female cop, and Gulager as a weary lieutenant, who unfortunately we don't see enough off in this. It has a cool start off as we dolly with a skateboarding teen (a drug courier) down the city streets of day, two cops trailing him, on their own accord as they want they collar. Instead they walk straight into death as a faceless karate assassin kills them in pretty painful ways. Bring on Chuckie who again, is not really acting, but can bring heart and reality into this role, like others.... unintentionally, I presume. As you can guess, woman cop Neill falls for him. The batch of Gulager's crew undergo karate training, to take on these powerful forces, but when the faceless villain, messes with Chuckie's teen friend, who's like a son, with great potential for the martial arts, it's now a fight to the death. Although it does lack action in long spaces of time, where it tends to sag here and there, as not living up to Chuckie's action quota, here we actually got a real Chuckie movie, and this is one of his I've always liked. The deadly showdown awaits too.

Like my previous Chuck Norris film review, I also saw this one at a local drive in with a couple of neighbors. I can't remember too much of it, but do remember that it was entertaining in regards to a corrupt police investigation of some kind, something involving drugs, and, of course, martial arts.

It was one of Chucks better flicks, and he showed some chops in the acting department, but I can't say that the film stuck with me all that much. Regardless, it was somewhat impressive. Ironically enough the one thing I remember about going to see this film was the preview for "The Villain", a western spoof.

There's not much in the way of plot in this thing, but it has a decent enough emotional story. If you're into martial arts, and want to see Chuck Norris early in his career, give this film a try. Not a bad watch.

Enjoy.

Chuck Norris exciting vehicle with lots of action , thrills , suspense and spectacular kick-boxing fights . One time the Vietnam war is over , a Karate teacher named Matt Logan (Chuck Norris) keeps a new occupation as trainer , previous life as leader of a Vietnam commando named ¨The Black Tigers¨ (at his former film titled ¨Good guys wear black¨ by Ted Post) . A police lieutenant (Clu Gulager) attempts to resolve why his squad members (Jennifer O'Neill , Pepe Serna, Ron O'Neal, among others) are being mysteriously killed . Then Norris using his skills as fighter to help combat drug trafficking and discover as the undercover narcotic agents are being eliminated one-by-one .

This stirring picture is plenty of action-packed , excitement , tense and cheesy sub-plot to boot with wild stunts . The story displays a plethora of martial-arts struggles and especially Thailand fighting . The movie featured three members of the Norris family in acting roles , these were Aaron Norris , Mike Norris and Chuck Norris . Here Norris cleans up the nasty fighters by means of punches , kicks , bounds and leaps with fights certainly slick . Mediocre screenplay in spite of being written by Ernest Tidyman (French Connection , Shaft). It's violent , frenetic and hectic and not particularly literary but worthy entry in Kung-Fu genre , although runs out energy surprisingly early. Average Norris-thriller , exciting and tense at times with fine work from Clint Ritchie, James Withmore Jr and Clu Gulager as a brilliant chief named Dune . And , of course , Karate expert Chuck Norris who saves the day with lots of visceral violence , he's a nice wrestler who possesses incredible strength . The motion picture was regularly directed by Paul Aaron , in his second theatrical feature film and he replaced filmmaker Ted Post . The film belongs Norris's early period , as during the 70s when he made low-average budget as ¨Breaker,Breaker¨, ¨Slaughter in San Francisco ¨, after that , in the 80s and 90s he acted in better movies as ¨Code of silence¨, ¨Delta Force¨ , ¨Silent rage¨ ,¨Octagon¨ ,¨Forced vengeance¨, ¨Delta Force I,II¨ , ¨An eye for an eye¨ among others , with successful box office at cinemas and video-rentals . In the 90s and 2000s with exception of ¨Walker Texas Ranger¨, the Norris star had gone down . Action addicts will give this one a passing grade , all others need not apply . If you're a previous Norris fans , you'll like it but contains enough action and violence for enthusiasts of the Karate genre . This is a must see if you're a die-hard Chuck Norris fan .