calvinnme Early Chuck Norris action flick offers some enjoyment provided you go in with the right attitude.When two narcotics detectives on the trail of a major drug ring are murdered using martial arts, the rest of their squad is ordered to investigate local karate schools for potential suspects, and to train themselves in case the killer strikes again. This leads them to Chuck Norris, as Matt Logan, champion kickboxer and karate school proprietor with a personal distaste for the drug trade. He agrees to train the cops and of course gets caught up in the rest of the action. One , or more, of the squad is dirty, naturally, and the bodies pile up as the heroes get closer to the truth.Jennifer O'Neill , sporting an ultra short haircut, shares top billing as the detective with the closest contact with Chuck. Other members of the squad include Ron O'Neal, James Whitmore Jr, Pepe Serna, Clint Ritchie and the wonderfully monikered Chu Chu Malave. Also with Clu Gulager as the Lieutenant, Eric Laneuville, Charles Cyphers, G.W. Bailey and real-life karate champion Bill "Superfoot" Wallace.This is the kind of cheap but entertaining movie that Norris excelled at throughout the early 80's, before his films turned more militaristic, the kind that Steven Seagal or Jean Claude Van Damme would make direct to video during the late 90's and early 00's. The kind they don't really make at all anymore. Whether or not that's a bad thing depends on the viewer. To me, it's a bad thing that nobody will take a chance anymore, that everybody goes for that middle of the bell curve.

Leofwine_draca Dull. Monotonous. Routine. Boring. Tedious. Dreary. Mind-numbing. I could go on but you get the picture – this cheap, early Chuck Norris outing is lacking in all of the areas that made the later films he made for Cannon so popular. There is no choreography in the fight sequences, no budget, no semi-decent acting, no proper photography, and hardly any stunts or action to speak of. The quality of the video transfer I watched was appallingly grainy, detracting from any enjoyability factor I would have got from the film otherwise, but any way you look this film is a dud. A mess and a boring mess at that. The plot actually reminded me of those old Santo movies. Norris is basically playing himself as a worldwide karate champion who takes time off from his matches in the ring to help out the local police force, searching for the karate killer who butchered their companions.The clichés are dragged out so slowly that you'll feel like you're trapped in a time warp with this movie. There are the stock characters, from the badly-dressed female love interest to the overacting police lieutenant – although actually Clu Gulager's hilariously mannered performance is one of the funniest things in the whole movie. Aside from Gulager the performances are strictly routine, with Norris himself particularly bad as the wooden lead, not having developed any of the charisma or acting style he possessed in later years.The action is dreadful, both inside the ring and out. It's one of those films where most things happen at night so you can't really make out what's going on. It helps to disguise various shortcomings as well. The best action is saved for the finale in an extended fight/chase, but even this is a bit of a let down as the guys basically slug it out in a pitch black field until one of them makes a mistake and pays for it with his life. No guesses for who ends up surviving in this movie then. Despite some level of realism and an "on the street" aspect in regards to the atmosphere, A FORCE OF ONE is just so boring that I have no option but to regard it as the worst of the karate man's many films.

videorama-759-859391 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.

Jsimpson5 Most people know Chuck Norris for his TV show Walker, Texas Ranger, and some of his later films. A Force of One is an early Chuck Norris film.Basically this film is about police officers who are killed by someone who uses martial arts to defeat the officers. The police decided that the officers need martial arts training, which is taught by Matt Logan (Chuck Norris) who is also a pro kickboxer.What makes this more than just average is that Bill "Superfoot" Wallace is in this film. Wallace was the current Middleweight Kickboxing World Champion during the making of this film.The lines are cheesy and some of the acting is a little wooden but the fight scenes are well made. While this is not the best film that has Chuck Norris in it, it is a good film to watch if you are a fan of his early work.