Chuck Norris' cinematic prime came a bit before my youth. For me it was Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude Van Damme movies while Norris I recognized from Missing in Action and The Delta Force reruns on TBS and his hit show Walker, Texas Ranger on CBS. But as a martial arts training youth reading Black Belt magazine, Norris was never far from my eyes. I recall seeing 1992's Sidekicks at the local discount theater and enjoying it. The gold boxed VHS is part of my collection and once when my brother asked for my iPhone upgrade, I said he could have it if he brought Sidekicks to California from our Ohio home. He did. Jim from Cinematic Void screened a trailer for the flick with Silent Rage which of course gave me a hankering to watch the film again. We meet lovable, asthmatic dreamer Barry (Jonathan Brandis, View in Peace) at school, day dreaming during class that he's Chuck Norris' high kicking sidekick in recreations of Missing In Action, a ninja flick, a western, movies I don't think Norris actually ever starred in, The Hitman and more. Barry's computer programmer from Pittsburgh dad Jerry (Beau Bridges) is struggling to stay close to his son after the death of his wife. Local teacher and supporter Noreen (Julia Nickson) thinks she can help, enlisting newly arrived uncle Mr. Lee (Mako) to teach Barry martial arts.
Mako isn't quite as hard a task master as say Bloodsport's Shidoshi Tanaka or sadistic as The Karate Kid's Kreese and puts Barry through paces like running, chins, nunchaku drills and breaking bricks. Soon Barry doesn't even need his inhaler, catches the eye of dreamy classmate Lauren (Danica McKellar) and stands up to karate trained bully Randy (John Buchanan). By the end of the film at a giant karate tournament, Barry meets his hero Chuck Norris in real life as they compete on the same team in an inspiring if wholly unbelievable scenario. But that's the point of Sidekicks, dreams do come true if you believe in them enough and never give up. Directed by Chuck's brother Aaron with a script from Lou Illar and Galen Thompson, Sidekicks is a fun and more or less harmless piece of martial arts action comedy. Known for his R rated fare, Sidekicks opens up Norris' audience to kids and employs some very juvenile yuks as bad guys get blown up with bubble gum and there's lots of kicks, flips, gunfire and throwing stars but no blood or death. There's also a really fake looking yet educational rope climbing scene where Barry seemingly talks to himself in front of the entire class as imaginary Chuck shows him how to use his legs and tells us he hates the word "can't".
Produced via Mark Damon's Vision PDG, Sidekicks like fellow studio project Dark Angel/I Come In Peace before it was shot in and around Houston with Lamar High School standing in for itself along with the convention center and several nice looking parks, one with a waterfall. The film still holds up with solid production values that cover half a dozen day dream sequences, entertaining action and hands down Norris' best supporting cast ever that includes Beau Bridges, Jonathan Brandis, Mako, Julia Nickson, Joe Piscopo (buff and sporting a mullet), McKellar, Richard Moll and Gerrit Graham. Alan Silvestri provides a memorably playful guitar and drum heavy score. Norris carries the story but not directly, mainly popping up in action sequences then dropping a few bits of knowledge and encouragement on Brandis' Barry. For the most part it's an adopted family affair meets coming of age with light romance and a few training scenes with Brandis, Mako, Bridges, Nickson and McKellar.
By the early 90's, Norris had burst into the cinematic scene with low budget karate hits like Breaker! Breaker!, Good Guys Wear Black and A Force of One. Cannon Films backed the bearded badass with healthy budgets and paydays for Missing in Action, Invasion U.S.A. and Hero and the Terror to diminishing box office returns. Sidekicks was partially funded by local Houston mattress icon Jim McIngvale who
invested $9 million for production and a further $7 million for
advertising. Sidekicks would open in limited release on April 9th with a grassroots wide release following on April 30th. Taking a page from future President Bill Clinton, the producers booked Norris on a trail of personal appearances at theaters and on local news, meeting fans and signing autographs. The gambit paid off as Sidekicks grossed a respectable $17 million at the U.S. box office, his highest take since 1986's The Delta Force. Norris' theatrical days were numbered as 1994's Hellbound and '96's Top Dog would close out his starring vehicle days. On the small screen however, Norris would appear on 196 episodes of Walker between 1993 and 2001.
Director Aaron Norris would stick close to brother Chuck, mainly working on Walker and popping up as a stuntman in last year's Ant-Man. Sidekicks is co-writer Illar's only credit while Thompson would work with Norris on several projects before his death in 2011. Familiar face Mako starred opposite the likes of Steve McQueen, Arnold and Sean Connery in his 160 acting credits before passing in 2006. Working as an actor since he was 5, Jonathan Brandis became a teen magazine cover staple after appearances in It, Lady Bugs, The Never Ending Story II and Starquest: DSV. But transitioning from an androgynous teen heart throb to leading man proved more difficult. As work dried up, Brandis was said to have become depressed and at only 27, committed suicide in his Hollywood apartment building. Nunchuk in Peace, Brandis, I always enjoyed your work.
On Saturday night it was off to Hollywood for a Dammaged Goods co-presentation of 1982's Silent Rage, the Chuck Norris anomaly that pits the karate kicking tough guy against a Frankenstein-esque turned 80's slasher villain. Stopping off at favorite spot Boardner's, it was surprisingly packed for 5:30 PM on a Saturday. Turns out George, a former actor who was a bartender there, passed away and it was a memorial service for him. He was in Smokey and the Bandit which played on the bar TV's. After some snacks and whiskey gingers, it was over to The Egyptian to set up for Silent Rage where David J Moore had a plethora of lobby cards and posters featuring Norris, Stallone, Schwarzenegger and more. When Cinematic Void programmer Jim reached out to me to co-present, I contacted writer Joseph Fraley who agreed to participate. From there, producer Anthony B. Unger caught wind of the evening and attended with his family and someone passed along contact info for director Michael Miller. While Miller was unable to attend, I had a terrific chat with the amiable filmmaker who started in Chicago with Harold Ramis and Brian Doyle-Murray before moving to Los Angeles and catching the eye of Roger Corman. 1976's Jackson County Jail starred a young a Tommy Lee Jones and was a bit of a breakthrough for Miller.
Following service in the Air Force and countless wins in karate tournaments, Chuck Norris appeared opposite Bruce Lee in The Way of the Dragon in 1972 before starring in hits like Breaker! Breaker!, Good Guys Wear Black and The Octagon. Silent Rage was said to be his first studio film for Columbia and shot around Dallas. Producer Unger recalls the studio stating they wanted an action picture for Easter and Silent Rage was it. So it was a great coincidence that we were screening the film on Easter weekend 30 some years later. Writer Joseph Fraley had studied Shotokan karate in the 60's when martial arts hadn't made a big splash in the states before serving in Vietnam. He met Norris and hit it off, with the future cinematic tough guy frequently making peanut butter and jelly sammiches with the crusts cut off for Fraley's young son. Fraley wrote Good Guys Wear Black and years later was telling Norris about some studies of reptiles who regrow limbs and how that would be interesting for a villain in a film. That simple idea lead to Silent Rage in the era of supernatural villains in Halloween, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street.
We gave out a signed VHS of Good Guys Wear Black to kick things off. Jim programmed a great pre-show featuring Chuck Norris and the Karate Kommando's clips, PSA's and trailers for Fraley's Good Guys, Unger's Don't Look Now and Norris' awesome flick Sidekicks (View in Peace Mako and Jonathan Brandis). I hadn't seen Silent Rage in it's entirety ever so the screening would more or less be new to me. We meet Brian Libby as John Kirby, a disturbed young man under treatment of Dr. Tom Halman (Ron Silver) and Dr. Spires (Steven Keats) in a long shot through a house. Kirby cracks and kills a young mother before tussling with Sheriff Dan Stevens (Norris) and getting shot down. But Spires injects Kirby with an untested serum that heals wounds nearly immediately but renders Kirby a mute killer who goes after Halman and his sister Alison (Toni), who happens to be an ex of Stevens. Stephen Furst shows up as Stevens' portly police co-hort and provides comic relief. Norris' films always have a nice sense of humor and Rage continues the trend with Chuck being pretty easy going and a smooth talker with the lady, complete with a hilarious detour to a sex scene and relationship building sequence. There's also a giant bar room fight scene where Norris dispatches a dozen goons with karate kicks, spinning backfists and a broken window.
It was during the big fight sequence that reels had to be changed in the Spielberg so programmer and co-host Grant put on a ridiculous one man fight scene where he punched, threw and flipped himself all over the place culminating in Jim show slugging him with a piece of wood. It definitely made the night even more memorable as the crowd was enthusiastic and having fun. After the film, I shared some quick bites from Miller who remembers the film fondly and is proud of the uncut opening sequence that was his nod to Francis Ford Coppola and Akira Kurosawa. Unger and Fraley joined Jim for Q&A where they discussed how the film came together. While Fraley was close friends with Norris, both Unger and Miller found him charming and professional along with being a heck of a martial artist. The film shot in Dallas with the help of production manager Paul Lewis who kept things on track. Unger joked that Walker, Texas Ranger would borrow several elements from Rage and Fraley recalled that the film was number one at the box office two weeks in a row. A sequel was discussed but never materialized. Unger recalled the film wasn't expensive or cheap and they did not skimp on crew. Most of Furst's dialog was improvised and Unger and Miller would both work with the funnyman on other projects.
Unger and Fraley talked about how important karate was to Chuck's image and Columbia's original marketing materials emphasized action and showed him in a black gi even though he never dons one in the movie. Miller had mentioned he surrounded Norris with strong New York actors with Unger and Fraley both paying tribute to the deceased Ron Silver. Silver was great in the film, intense yet sympathetic with a bit of an Al Pacino thing going on. It was a fun night with great guests and a fantastic audience. After the film I got to hear about Christmas parties at Charlie Bronson's house. I can't even imagine.
This Saturday, March 26th, our friends at Cinematic Void are putting on a 35mm presentation of Chuck Norris VS the boogeyman in action slasher flick Silent Rage! Void is The Egyptian Theatre's cult classic film club celebrating B-movie goodness held in The Spielberg Screening Room. Dammaged Goods is co-presenting and we're putting on quite the show! #ActionMovieBro David J. Moore will be on hand with copies of his book World Gone Wild along with tons of genre movie posters on display and for sale. Moore will be donating a couple of lobby cards as prizes for the evening while I'm kicking in VHS copies of Rage and Good Guys Wear Black. Why Black, Chuck Norris' first starring vehicle you ask? Because they were both written by one Joseph Fraley who will be in attendance! Fraley was chummy with Norris in the 80's and the last time they saw each other was at Charlie Bronson's Christmas party! Will have to hear more about that on Saturday. We're also excited to have producer Anthony B. Unger (Julius Caesar, Don't Look Now, Force 10 from Navarone) lined up for post film Q&A!
Directed by Michael Miller, Silent Rage finds real life Air Force veteran and karate champion turned cinematic tough guy Chuck Norris as Sheriff Dan Stevens who goes up against a mute maniacal murderer who has been subjected to years of medical experimentation and has the ability to self heal. So essentially you have Chuck Norris fighting Halloween's Michael Myers as Quentin Tarantino put it. Ron Silver (Timecop) and Frank Darabont favorite Brian Libby co-star in this 1982 flick that promises chills and lots of roundhouse kicks. Seating is limited and tickets and info HERE. So after you see the hopefully glorious but CGI filled Batman V Superman on digital print, come check out some real reel action on 35mm film!
After a nice morning workout it was time to finish up one of Chuck Norris' greatest flicks and successes, 1986's The Delta Force. A full on Cannon production as co-studio head Menahem Golan directed the flick and co-wrote with regular Norris and company collaborator James Bruner. Inspired by the 1985 Trans World Airlines hijacking where Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad members took control of Flight 847 and demanded the release of 700 Shi'ite Muslims from Israeli custody. Passengers of Jewish descent were separated from the others, traveling military personnel were beaten, U.S. Navy Diver Robert Stethem was killed and it took two weeks and intervention from then U.S. President Ronald Reagan along with Lebanese officials to free the remaining hostages. The hijackers original demands were met when Israel released over 700 prisoners. Many of the original perpetrators remain at large while one was arrested in 1987, sentenced to life in prison but paroled in 2005.
In the film, events more or less unfold as they did in reality for the first half. We meet Captain Scott McCoy (Norris) during the disastrous Operation Eagle Claw where poor planning and communication, unexpected conditions and inefficient training ended with the deaths of eight Delta Force members and the failure of rescuing hostages in Iran. Tired of the bureaucrats planning and his men dying, McCoy resigns after rescuing his teammate Pete Peterson (William Wallace) from an exploded helicopter. Cut to five years later and New World Revolution terrorist Abdul (Robert Forster) and one accomplice hijack a plane waving guns and grenades. Passengers with Jewish sounding names are separated, three military divers are beaten and the hostages come to grips with the possibility of dying. Meanwhile the smartass and crusty Colonel Nick Alexander (Lee Marvin) is given the greenlight to make up for Eagle Claw and get the hostages free. McCoy gets the call and rejoins his crew which includes Bobby (the always great Steve James) and Pete. It's a good thing McCoy came voluntarily because Alexander had a Presidential decree ordering him back to service.
While the events that inspired the film are harrowing, frustrating and sad, the film derived is a fantastic time in the 80's vein of action film that no longer exists. In actuality, The Delta Force is a bit of a odd case as it's part docudrama, part deeply cast disaster movie and part ridiculously entertaining action movie. Joining Norris, Marvin, Forster and James are familiar faces from the 60's and 70's like Rat Packer Joey Bishop, 12 Angry Men's Martin Balsam, The Inglorious Bastards' Bo Svenson, The Magnificent Seven's Robert Vaughn and The Poseidon Adventure's Shelley Winters. There's plenty of human drama in the first hour as families are separated, there's flashbacks to the Holocaust, the young Navy diver is killed and dumped on the runway and the Jewish hostages are taken while the women and children are released. This all builds up for a cathartic second hour where the commandos are given the go ahead and resources to bring the hostages home.
After landing in Beirut, the movie veers from history and gives us the
story many viewers would like to have seen. Basically, the Delta Force
commandos roll in on dune-buggy's and motorbikes to take out the bad
guys with extreme prejudice. Like this is how America kicks ass, extreme
prejudice. Working with Mossad intelligence, McCoy and Pete infiltrate the terrorist hive where their local contact is taken by Abdul and plunges to his death. His sacrifice doesn't go wasted as Chuck and his buddies do the Damme thing and show up to get the job done. There's three sites where hostages are being held and rolling in under the cover of darkness with blue lights on their vehicles and U.S. flag patches on their shoulders, it's finally showtime. By this point the action takes us by air, land and sea and into the streets. You get a pretty destructive car chase with Chuck hanging out the side firing his Uzi and several jeeps and cars being flipped and exploded. Then there's the mass hostage rescue where McCoy and Bobby blow out the floor from beneath, emerge and waste the terrorists using machine guns and night vision goggles. Plenty of baddies get riddled with squibs and tumble down stairs, Steve James gives a strong thumbs up and Chuck wastes a dude hiding under a bed then delivers "sleep tight, sucker". Outside, the main force attacks with missile equipped motorcycles and dune buggy's mounted with M-60's in a hail of explosions and property damage.
The physical stunts and destruction are pretty incredible. McCoy uses a bazooka to blow up some bad guys then takes a zip line down the building because Marvin's Alexander is in a hurry. Gunfire and squibs destroy rooms and bodies, motorcycles ramp and fly all over the place, flames burn right next to actors, every other car explodes, Norris and James fire bazookas near simultaneously then shake hands and the final big stunt involves Chuck Norris' double chasing a moving airplane, riding on on the seat of a motorcycle, grabbing a rope and climbing up...it's just terrific stuff set to Alan Silvestri's exciting and way overused yet effective electronic score. Then when McCoy catches up to Abdul, it's payback time to the max as Chuck flies in through a window on his motorbike and proceeds to thrash Abdul with punches, karate kicks and Judo throws all over the house through furniture, out a window, smashes his arm in a car door then blows him up with a rocket from his bike. Phew!
Once the hostages are freed and everyone is headed home, the Delta Force hands out cans of Budweiser beer and everyone sings "America, The Beautiful" before coming back to reality as Pete dies from his wounds. With their families waiting, the freed hostages celebrate while Delta Force carries off their dead and heads off to their next mission. I couldn't help but think this would make a great double feature with 1990's Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn starring Navy Seals, another middle eastern terrorist tinged tale of heroism, sacrifice, skill, one liners and showcase of America's ass kicking acumen. Originally set to star Cannon's "two Chucks" Norris and Bronson, the latter fell out over unknown reasons. Probably financial as they both took home up to $5 million a picture. Marvin made his deal within 20 minutes after speaking with Golan and settled for a somewhat paltry $50,000 for 8 weeks of shooting towards the end of his career. Marvin was a much better choice than Bronson at this point as he was still lithe, dignified and trim while Charlie was no longer the granite featured muscleman of his youth.
Opening on Valentine's Day of 1986, The Delta Force grossed nearly $6 million at 1,720 theaters behind Down and Out in Beverly Hills and The Color Purple on it's way to a $17.7 million total. That put it at #50 for the year but would be one of Norris' highest earners alongside Missing in Action, The Octagon, A Force of One and Good Guys Wear Black. 1990's sequel would earn less than half of the original. The Delta Force would be Oscar winner Lee Marvin's final film as he died in 1987. Cool and buff sidekick Steve James would go on to re-team with American Ninja star Michael Dudikoff in Cannon's Avenging Force and Ninja sequel The Confrontation before showing up as Norris' cop buddy in Hero and the Terror. James sadly passed away in 1993. Cannon Films would be on it's last legs as 1987's costly trio of under performers Over the Top, Superman IV and Masters of the Universe along with a crashing bond market spelled doom for the mini-major known for genre and art house films alike.
Did you miss it? I sure did. Tuesday, March 10th was the 75th birthday of one Carlos Ray aka Chuck Norris! The Air Force veteran turned martial arts expert and champion turned movie and TV star turned internet sensation spends his days living in rural Texas, working out on his Total Gym and speaking at conservative events. We know and love him for his awesome 70's and 80's action flicks so let's dive into 1988's Hero and the Terror. This puts us on the tail end of his go-go years with Cannon Films following hits like Missing In Action, Invasion U.S.A. and The Delta Force.
Hero is a weird one, more of a thriller than an action flick as we meet Danny O'Brien (Norris) as he's tracked down the man-brute-child Simon Moon aka The Terror (Jack O'Halloran) and fighting for his life under a pier. Moon nearly chokes and drowns O'Brien to death but trips and dazes himself, which makes arriving back up think The Chuck managed to put the big man down. Thus becoming a hero and a trauma survivor at the same time. Cut to three years later, O'Brien is slowly getting his confidence back and moving in with his pregnant lady Kay (Brynn Thayer). There's an awesomely ludicrous workout scene where Chuck is bench pressing while having flashbacks of Moon's hands wrapped around his throat, intense! American Ninja's Steve James shows up as one of his cop buddies and with another friend scream at O'Brien to complete his reps and joke he's prepping for the Olympics. I should mention that Norris is really pumped up in this one with a smooth hairless chest and a 80's style spaghetti strapped tank top. Competing with Stallone and Arnold perhaps? He rocks sweet sweaters and blazers while tooling around in his Corvette.
Thought dead for the last three years, Moon returns, killing women with his bare hands. His once abandoned lair has been remodeled and scheduled to open as The Wiltern Theatre. Hiding in unmapped cubbies, Moon eludes O'Brien and the police until they figure out there's more to the joint than thought. Alone, O'Brien finds the secret compartment Moon has been bringing his victims back to and faces off against The Terror one last time. Like I said, this was kind of a weird one but very watchable, Chuck doesn't have a ton of fight scenes, just one against some thugs on a bust and the final confrontation with Moon. His usual odd charm and humor is put on display in his scenes with Kay and one where he burns toast, etc. It was nice to see Steve James pop up for a few scenes even if he spoke with a kind of strange nasally, hero voice in this. There's one scene where James is on a stakeout in the theater and decides to get a work out in by running laps listening to Mozart!
After making his name in martial arts and action fare to big box office but few critical accolades, Norris hit both with 1985's Code of Silence. Follow ups Invasion U.S.A., The Delta Force, Firewalker and Missing in Action III would see diminishing returns and be viewed as less challenging and more exploitative fare. Hero and the Terror, based on the novel by Michael Blodgett, adapted by Dennis Shryack and directed by William Tannen was an attempt to broaden Norris' range. His character isn't the silent badass, he's got fears and even sees a therapist. Throw in the pregnant ladyfriend and some delivery room humor and you've got yourself a character similar to but also very departed from Lone Wolf McQuade, Invasion U.S.A. and The Delta Force where it was more about revenge or taking down scumbags cold, hard and fast. After so many years of that, it was time to be strong yet vulnerable. While the flick is easily a Saturday afternoon repeater, it did little to broaden Norris' fanbase. Opening on August 26th, 1988, Hero and the Terror grossed an anemic $1.8 million for the weekend coming in 12th place behind long released fare like A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Die Hard, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Young Guns and Coming to America on it's way to a $5.3 million total.
Hero and the Terror's weak performance was Norris' worst showing in years. A proposed team up with Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Cowboy and The Cossack was planned but never materialized. A Delta Force sequel would do little to turn the tide and 1991's The Hitman would fare even worse. Norris himself deemed the picture OK and not one of his favorites. Director William Tannen would reteam with Norris nearly 20 years later on entertaining DTV flick The Cutter. Novelist Michael Blodgett would have more success on the cop-canine comedy Turner & Hooch the next year before passing away in 2007. Screenwriter Dennis Shryack had previously written Clint Eastwood vehicles The Gauntlet and Pale Rider as well as Norris' Code of Silence (originally meant for Clint) and would go on to co-write Turner & Hooch and the Peter Weller actioner Fifty/Fifty.
I don't know why it's taken me so long getting around to writing about Invasion U.S.A. from 1985. It's one of Chuck's greatest flicks and I enjoyed the hell out of watching it with some whiskey at my side. Apparently, by the mid 80's, America hadn't been invaded for 200 years. Evil Russian spy guy Mikhail Rostov (Richard Lynch, View In Peace) is looking to change that with the help of a Communist army made up of his fellow countrymen, Cubans and some Arabs. Landing on the beaches of Florida, they kill civilian men, women and children ruthlessly. The C.I.A. tries to recruit former operative Matt Hunter (Norris) to look into the case but he's too busy wrestling and wrangling alligators in the Florida Everglades. The company wouldn't let Hunter kill Rostov when he had the chance so now it's their problem. You see, Hunter once caught Rostov during a thwarted assassination by bazooka attempt and the Red is still plenty pissed and scarred about it. Nightmares of Hunter sticking a gun to his temple and telling him, "It's time to die..." have him waking up in anger and fright before dispatching some dudes to take care of The Chuck. They miss of course but kill his airboat riding, frog eating buddy John (Dehl Berti, View In Peace) so now it's on and Hunter is gonna show those dirty Commies how America kicks ass!
Meanwhile, the mercenary army creates violent havoc on the streets of Miami. Posing as cops they commit terrorist attacks and stoke the fire of social and racial unrest until civilians begin fighting each other. In a key scene the baddies attack a shopping mall during Christmas but Hunter saves the day with his jacked up truck, denim shirt and twin Uzi's. Now with a taste for bloody revenge, Hunter starts offing Rostov's army with extreme "guns, karate, explosion and knife through the hand" prejudice.
Man what a great flick. It's funny, ridiculous, intense, violent and near exploitative. Rostov is a real shitbag, seeing Americans as soft and not realizing how their own safety can be used against them. In an early scene, Rostov shoves a snorting with a steel straw cokehead's head into the table then throws her out the window AND shoots a dealer in the nuts. It was an interesting twist to have him so mentally messed up by Hunter and thus making some bad strategic decisions out of fear. Joseph Zito directs a script by James Bruner, Chuck himself and brother Aaron with that sleazy 80's vibe where people are violently killed via squibs and shots to the head. Chuck's unexpected but welcome dry humor is on display early talking about Social Security and being sick of eating frogs. After friend John is killed, Hunter goes sullen as it's time for Rostov to die. Norris delivers several lines in awesome yet intense whisper giving "I'm not interested or You're beginning to irritate me and Not this time" surprising menace and quotability. All in, Norris whispers "It's time to die" three times throughout the running time and makes good on his words at the end with a frigging bazooka duel!
Hot on the heels of the well received cop thriller Code of Silence, Norris would enter his Cannon Film days for schlock masters Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus with Invasion. Norris was loyal to the Go-Go boys stating that they were there for him when he needed them. Making an estimated $2 million a film in 1985, Invasion U.S.A. is said to have cost a then staggering $16 million clams with $5 going to the mall scene alone shot over 3 nights with thousands of extras that's as harrowing as it is impressive with explosions, squibs and trucks crashing through glass and storefronts on location in Georgia. Opening on September 27th with a healthy $6.8 million weekend take, putting it ahead of flicks like Romancing the Stone sequel The Jewel of the Nile, St. Elmo's Fire, Fright Night and The Breakfast Club and behind action flicks Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Commando, Pale Rider and Rambo II. Although Invasion opened up strong, it would gross less than all of those films on it's way to $17.5 million; putting it ahead of To Live and Die in L.A., Death Wish 3, King Solomon's Mines, Remo Williams, American Ninja and Lifeforce.
From here, Norris would team up with Lee Marvin for hit The Delta Force before facing diminishing returns on Mission in Action III, Hero and the Terror, Delta Force 2 and The Hitman. Director Zito already had successes Mission in Action and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter under his belt and would go on to the big budget Dolph Lundgren vehicle Red Scorpion before seemingly fading away from filmmaking. The character of Matt Hunter would appear in 1986's Avenging Force with Michael Dudikoff taking over the role when Norris passed.
On the back end of Turner Classic Movies' Underground programming of Miami Connection was another 80's martial arts opus, Forced Vengeance from 1982. The flick opens with a stylized fight scene between the silhouette of Chuck Norris and an unknown attacker in front of a giant neon sign with Chinese characters complete with blaring music but no sound. We have no context whatsoever and it immediately reminded me of future action flicks that would do the same thing, mainly Best of the Best 2 where it adds a little mystique to the credits and Dolph Lundgren's Direct Action where it pads out the runtime. From there we meet Josh Randall (Norris) as he collects a debt from a Los Angeles scum bag and beats up a would be enforcer in the process. There's humor right away as Randall's favorite cowboy hat is stomped on and there's a close up of him curling his fist before dishing up some pain. Cut to Hong Kong, "a slap in the face that feels good" where you "make money as fast as you can" with an opening shot out of Enter the Dragon or reused by Bloodsport. We meet Randall's benevolent, tai chi practicing businessman of Jewish heritage boss Sam (David Opatoshu) and his son David (Frank Michael Liu). The duo run honest casino Lucky Dragon in HK where Randall is head of security.
Unfortunately David has made some bad business decisions and evil casino overlord Stan Raimondi (Michael Cavanugh) is about to swallow up their small potatoes establishment. When Sam refuses to sell, father and son are gunned down leaving Randall the prime suspect and on the run. With Sam and David dead, daughter Joy (Camila Griggs) becomes the sole heir to the Lucky Dragon and target of a citywide manhunt. Randall grabs the young woman and along with his spunky ladyfriend, Claire (Mary Louise Weller) go into hiding with Vietnam buddy LeRoy Nicely (Bob Minor). With the cops and the mob after them, Randall sets off to squash Raimondi's hold on the city.
Cleanly directed by James Fargo, Forced Vengeance is a pretty solid karate thriller with some surprisingly exploitative traits. There's lots of fist and feeticuffs in the Chuck Norris karate tradition: big punches, low knee, high foot roundhouse kicks, a flying sidekick off the side of a building, slow motion jumping off furniture tackle, pulling the slide of a handgun back next to the side of a guy's head to intimidate him and a death by falling glass in the throat. A unique touch was Randall using pressure points to subdue attackers, pressing on forearms and necks. There's also a surprising amount of laughs in Franklin Thompson and Fargo's script. From Randall always drinking a beer, having his cowboy hat damaged and telling his chick to throw a blanket on him so he can nap, Vengeance definitely has a sense of humor and Norris gets to throw out lots of one liners and funny/awesome quips like "Your son made me an offer...before he died" cause Chuck killed him in the last scene, get it?! Or when an Organized Task Force agent tells Randall he's a real litterer, cause of all the dead bodies, ska-doosh!
It's also a product of it's time and has a scuzzy feel with many a lady being slapped, flaming homosexual depictions and a surprisingly brutal end to Claire's life at the hands of a giant Chinese brute. Composer William Goldstein provides a distinctive yet overly melodramatic score with soothing pianos and grating laser sounds alike. The Hong Kong setting is a nice touch and you feel like you're back watching Lee, Roper and Williams leave for Han's Island in Enter the Dragon or planting the seeds for Jean-Claude Van Damme's jokey foot chase through the shadowy narrow corridors in Bloodsport, it's truly a distinct cityscape. Running and fighting his way through the streets, Randall comes across a Bruce Lee imitator with nunchucks and whooping strange noises. You know how movies today seem like rehashes of other movies? Well Forced Vengeance was like watching movies that didn't even exist yet. When a guy slaps a woman and Chuck slaps him, asking, "hurts, don't it?", I went to Tombstone. When the Chinese brute told Chuck his girl was "very good", I thought of Kickboxer. At one point someone mutters, "Randall, Randall, Randall" and Arnold Vosloo from Hard Target popped into my mind. I'm sure many of these were coincidences but it just kept happening!
Even though Norris got a career boost from student, friend and global superstar Steve McQueen, Forced Vengeance owes much of it's crew to another action hero, Clint Eastwood. Director Fargo had previously worked on Clint flicks like Joe Kidd, High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales and Every Which Way But Loose as an Assistant Director before graduating to the helmer's chair himself. Villain Michael Cavanuagh had also appeared in three Eastwood vehicles before starring in Vengeance. Stuntman extraordinaire Bob Minor plays the funny, cool and swole buddy, much like Steve James would later to Michael Dudikoff and Norris in American Ninja and The Hero and the Terror. Released on July 30th, 1982, Forced Vengeance would gross $6.6 million at the box office from 576 theaters ranking it ahead of movies like The Soldier, Megaforce and Eastwood's Honky Tonk Man but way behind action fare Rocky III, First Blood, Firefox, Conan the Barbarian and The Road Warrior. Norris' next film would be a step up, the iconic Lone Wolf McQuade before embarking on his lucrative partnership with Cannon Films.
This week I caught Walker, Texas Ranger as he goes undercover in a prison to expose a fight ring in 1999's 9th episode of the 8th season, Fight or Die! Basically, evil entrepreneur Warden Kyle (Charles Napier) and his vicious lieutenant Traction (Marshall Teauge) run an inmate fight league that's broadcast to the internet from Arkansas' CopperHead prison. Being from Texas, Walker, partner Trivette and Ranger Gage can go in with solid covers as cons and guards to uppercut the top off the whole thing after prisoners and another undercover cop have been killed during the brutal matches. King of the prison circuit is Dirk Savage aka Hammer (Frank Shamrock) who's already bagged 5 bodies inside. There's also mountain of a man Whitelaw Lundgren, (phew, sweet names in this episode) played by The Macho Man Randy Savage (Wrestle In Peace). Walker goes in first and is immediately thrown into solitary confinement so the prison crew can check out his background. The Chuck opens his shirt and starts shadow boxing, doing elbow out push ups (aw come on, Chuck!) and ab crunches for days until it's time to hit D Block where The Pit awaits. Bunked up with fellow fighters Munger and Stout (Richard Norton and Tony Brubaker), Trivette as a guard and Gage as a cocky inmate show up and they begin to piece together their case.
Walker and Gage are thrown into the cage to battle it out with cons using Vasoline, slo-mo, jump spinning back kicks and arm bars on their way to a final showdown with Hammer. The Total Gym must work as Chuck is looking pretty solid here pushing 60. When Walker spares Lundgren's life, The Macho Man gives him his respect and some advice, don't take it easy on Hammer! Large businessman King (Cliff Emmich) shows up and talks Warden Kyle into building up Walker and Gage so they can get more views and cash from the internets. When the final fight is reached, it has to be to the death to appease the blood thirsty audience. Hammer throws them for a loop when he wants to fight Gage and Walker on the same night which means someone has to die. Gage goes down after a plethora of flying knees but Walker jumps in and punches, kicks and jiu-jitsu's Hammer. With the authorities alerted and en route, Traction and Kyle figure on killing everybody and covering it with a riot story. Lundgren saves Walker from getting deaded with a shotgun blast and then the inmates and guards melee in a hail of batons and full mount followed by punches to the face!
Oh man what a jacked and stacked episode, in front and behind the camera. Series veteran Michael Preece had already directed blocks of Dallas, McGuyver and Hunter before helming Fight or Die on his way to 70 episodes. Writer Gordon T. Dawson started off in the wardrobe department before graduating to writer, producer and second unit director under Sam Peckinpah on 5 consecutive films like The Wild Bunch and The Getaway. Dawson would pen 25 episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger. Guest villain Charles Napier is known to action fans for his portrayal of Murdock in Rambo: First Blood, Part II and has over 200 acting credits to his name while Marshall Teague played karate fighting henchman Billy in Road House ("I used to f*ck guys like you in prison!") and is a real life badass having served in the military, worked in law enforcement and was a kickboxing champ. Teague would play several different characters on Walker over it's 10 season run and reunite with Chuck on the 2005 flick The Cutter. Frank Shamrock is a pioneer of Mixed Martial Arts and a former UFC champion. Always in great shape, I think he only had a shirt on for one scene in the episode and even that was a hoodie vest left open. What can you say about wrestling legend, Slim Jim spokesman and rapper The Macho Man Randy Savage? He's always fun to watch because remember, he's a chameleon! Richard Norton was a karate champion turned stunt man and actor, appearing in several early Norris films and 11 eppies of Walker while Tony Brubaker has over 250 credits to his name and appeared in among other things, Action Jackson and attended Carl Weathers night! As if that weren't enough, the slimy promoter played by Cliff Emmich looked familiar because he was in Best of the Best 2 in the bar scene with Dae Han (Simon Rhee) talking about Houston.
Speaking of TV reunions, a random episode of Walker, Texas Ranger was Chuck full of them this week. I'm always surprised when people don't know Chuck Norris was a movie star before becoming a TV staple and internet hero. As a Karate Man I was always aware of Norris' show Walker, Texas Ranger but never really watched it regularly while it was on. I knew it was popular, had 2 spin offs and ran for a solid 8 years. Today, reruns are on a couple different channels and I'm catching up. While people claim this is the golden age of television, all I see are a bunch of sad sack looking mother f*ckers, talking heads and story lines that should only take up 1 episode stretched out to 10 and still not resolving jack sh*t. In 5 minutes of one episode of Walker there were Hummers, shootouts, trucks chasing a plane, a fight inside the plane, a guy thrown out of the plane with no parachute, Walker rescuing the guy in midair and then landing with a smile and bro-hug. No wonder I find much of today's television boooooring.
Black Dragons, episode 18 of 2000's final season (weird, I was just talking about episode 18 from The Flash...), is the tale of P.K. Song (Street Fighter & American Dragons' Byron Mann), a vicious heroin dealer who threatens any that would oppose him and assaults Ranger Francis Gage (Judson Mills) when he tries to intervene in a heated argument. Mann is a solid actor with quiet charisma and a scary villainous side honed from playing a ruthless and violent assassin in Dragons and as a violent and ruthless gangster in the Chow Yun-Fat/Mark Wahlberg flick The Corrupter. Turns out P.K.'s father Edward is a diplomat (mutha fudging Mako! View In Peace) so the bad guy has immunity. Mako actually played a completely different role 3 years earlier on the show and co-starred opposite Norris in 1981's An Eye For An Eye and 1992's SIDEKICKS! We learn that P.K. is working for The Black Dragons, a hardcore sect of the Chinese Triad who set up drug smuggling during The Vietnam War and are still bringing product in through Dallas. Does this sound like an awesome TV mash up of Lethal Weapon 1&2 to anyone else?! Then we get a Mortal Kombat connection as Shang TSung himself, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa shows up as P.K.'s drug smuggling boss Master Ko and yoked out Deron McBee (Motaro from MK: Annihilation & Malibu from American Gladiators) as pre-Dog the Bounty Hunter looking local dealer Luke. If that weren't enough, Magnum P.I.'s Larry Manetti shows up as a low level street crook and informant while Enter the Dragon villain and Karate Hall of Famer Bob Wall gets his neck twisted as a security guard. Phew! Oh and the dude who breaks his own neck from Showdown In Little Tokyo plays P.K.'s homeboy driver. Damme!
Walker and partner Jimmy Trivette (Die Hard's Clarence Gilyard, Jr.) along with Gage and female ranger Sydney Cooke (Nia Peeples) figure out P.K.'s racket and dad Edward relents, removing his son's immunity and letting the law do it's thing. Of course much karate fighting is involved and we get not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR final showdowns of hand to hand combat. Norris and Tagawa mix it up in a living room with lots of wrist locks and sweeps while Gage and P.K. duke it out in the grassy back yard with punches and kicks, Trivette and Luke smash up the kitchen while Cooke wrecks some random ass dude who isn't in a bunch of action movies outside in the driveway. We all know that Norris is a badass and a true martial artist but there's a lot of stunt man work in the fight scenes here. Angles from behind are always a dead giveaway as are the super fast high kicks. Byron Mann's double looks shorter and a lot wider taking the falls of the grassy bout. We get lots of kicks of the front, hook and jump spinning back variety and ya know, nobody gets shot too boot.
Chuck Norris. A real American hero. While the 80's and 90's gave us the golden age of the "one-man" army a la Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme; Bruce Lee and later Norris kick started a cottage industry of action films featuring fit, fierce and furious fighters who took on the world and triumphed with their indomitable mix of will and skill. But Norris gets my vote for being the All American Man/Action Hero. Born Carlos Ray in Oklahoma, "Chuck" grew up in California and joined the Air Force where he served in South Korea. There, he took up Tang Soo Do and soon would be practicing martial arts religiously. Upon returning from service, Norris became an undefeated kickboxing champion while opening a chain of karate schools that would eventually be mismanaged. Facing financial straits and having already appeared in films in bit parts and opposite friend Bruce Lee in 1972's Way of the Dragon; Norris took the advice of friend, student and acting superstar Steve McQueen and enrolled in acting classes. But McQueen's biggest suggestion to Norris was to let others do the talking and him do the doing. For Chuck Norris, doing meant kicking ass.
His first headlining film, 1977's Breaker! Breaker! was a low budget flick that combined karate with truckers and CB radios. The film was a hit and Norris wrote his next vehicle, Good Guys Wear Black which he then shopped to producers. It was another box office hit and by the early 1980's, Norris was established as a formidable on screen karate man who didn't take revenge but got even instead, with extreme karate prejudice. He hit a mainstream breakthrough with 1983's Lone Wolf McQuade, the first in our study of What the Chuck?! An Appreciation of the Real American Action Hero. Set near the Mexican border, Lone Wolf McQuade introduces us to badass, non-team playing Texas Ranger J.J. McQuade as he single-handedly takes on a gang of mean motor scooters. He uses guns of all sizes as well as his fists and feet when lethal force isn't necessary. He drinks Pearl beer and only Pearl beer, sports a sweet beard, a huge rodeo style belt buckle, has a pet wolf and drives a super charged Dodge truck. While the new, PR seeking, wuss-ified Rangers respect McQuade's record, they don't appreciate his tactics and want him to cool it with the violent heroics.
The only problem is, a ruthless arms dealer and mean sum'bitch by the name of Rawley Wilkes shows up (a post Kung-Fu David Carradine) and messes with McQuade's daughter and her fiance after an interrupted hijacking of military weapons. The fiance is gunned down, the daughter's car pushed into a ravine and McQuade's mentor is killed. Now, pissed off and out for blood, McQuade teams up with a fresh faced State Trooper and an in the know federal agent to deliver some hard justice, Texas-Mexico style. One blood wet burrito, coming up! Storming Wilkes' hacienda using machine guns, six-shooters and a bulldozer among other things, hero and villain drop their guns and go head to head for a final showdown. Clad in a white and argyle sweater with black slacks, Wilkes uses some fancy, swaying, kung-fu style hand motions while McQuade's military vest with no shirt underneath to reveal a hairy chest goes for a simpler, put up your dukes, karate style. Carradine moves fluidly and throws lots of jump kicks, seemingly getting the better of Chuck until McQuade's daughter tries to intervene and gets back hand punched, in slow motion, which calls down the Texas Thunder and we get Norris trademarks like the jump flying sidekick, front leg hook kick and spinning back kick. McQuade then dodges bullets from a Mac-10 uzi and says bye bye to Wilkes by way of a grenade blowing up the shit out of an ammunition filled shack.
Literally a modern day Spaghetti Western, Lone Wolf McQuade unfolds in long shots, close ups and dramatic music. Directed by Steve Carver with a script from B.J. Nelson and H. Kaye Dyal, Lone Wolf McQuade manages to mix the modern western motif with some light hearted comedy and karate action. Norris' character is a little more well rounded here than his previous, straight karate movies and the bits about his preference for beer, talking trash to just about everyone around him and being a softie in regards to his daughter are nice touches. As is the scene where he's shot and buried in his truck only to wake up, pour a beer on his head, take a sip, spit it out then turbo boost out with his super charged engine.
Produced for an estimated $5 million bucks, Lone Wolf McQuade would gross 3 times as much and be given a 3.5 star review by a younger Roger Ebert. The film and role would be one of Norris' most iconic and given the team up with familiar to martial arts audiences face David Carradine, it's easy to see why. His hit show Walker, Texas Ranger would have been called McQuade, Texas Ranger if anyone had asked MGM for the rights. When Norris popped up in 2012's The Expendables 2 for his meta soaked cameo, he's dubbed "The Lone Wolf".
