Leofwine_draca Previously to this film, the only other Chuck Norris movie that I'd viewed from this period had been AN EYE FOR AN EYE. This was a fast-paced action movie, with lots of martial arts and even the added bonus of having Christopher Lee as a villain. I automatically assumed this film was a typical early '80s Chuck Norris movie, and that others from the period would be the same. As I had enjoyed it a lot, I immediately bought this two-for-one tape containing THE OCTAGONand A FORCE OF ONE. I sat down, looking forward to a fun night's viewing...and the rest is outlined below. I can only hope that A FORCE OF ONE is more enjoyable.THE OCTAGON is a very dumb, poorly-made action movie. Among the worst I've ever watched, at least up until the action climax. I consider myself as having a high tolerance for rubbish of this variety, but even I have to draw a line somewhere. Maybe it's just the transfer I have, but THE OCTAGON suffers from poor picture quality (so it's difficult to see what's going on) and terrible sound volume. You know, when you can't hear what they're saying but when you turn it up a loud action scene comes on blaring out and you have to turn it down again.The confusing plot starts off with a murder occurring for no apparent reason, with Norris conveniently hanging around to fight off the assailants. The screen is 90% black here, so it's impossible to make out much of what's going on. We learn about a secret training centre in the woods, run by an old Chinese guy and another man who really, really wants to be Bruce Lee. One guy who tries to leave dies when a shuriken is thrown through his neck. This doesn't have much to do with the rest of the plot, though.Unfortunately for us, Norris meets and falls in with a female.. reporter? I can't even remember who or what she is as she serves no purpose. Also hanging around is a barely-used Lee Van Cleef, complete with an earring, who runs a squad of vigilante killers. Van Cleef doesn't even appear in many of this film's action sequences, and his role is a completely extraneous one. Eventually, after what seems like an eternity, Norris goes undercover to infiltrate the ninjas. He then travels to their base and takes all of them on, causing a revolt at the same time.Well what this movie has is cheap-looking sets, stupid music, and poor acting from the entire cast. Van Cleef looks to be slumming it, Carlson is clumsy and irritating as the female lead, and Norris is his usual wooden self (never thought I'd see an actor who makes Steven Seagal look animated). A character (Norris' partner) who has been hiding around in the background for the entire movie suddenly decides to take justice into his own hands at the end and gets slaughtered. The action throughout the film is fairly typical, nothing to get excited about. It's not even that violent. It's worth watching out for one hilarious scene which has a ninja killer abseiling down a brick wall getting shot and falling to the bottom. The way they filmed it makes it a priceless moment and had me in stitches.Now, the only worthwhile part of this movie is the last twenty minutes, so if you have the misfortune to rent or buy this, fast-forward until here. The ending sees Norris infiltrating the enemy base and fighting a hundred or so ninjas. It's great, it really is. One guy gets kicked in a fire but still tries to fight Norris, burning all the while. They all use these fancy weapons but none of them are a match for Norris' deadly hands and feet. Eventually he has to fight the Bruce Lee-wannabe leader, who just happens to be his estranged brother too. You can guess what happens. In these last twenty minutes, the body count is quite high and there's a lot of action, death, and explosions to enjoy. Sadly these cannot make up for the monumental dullness that the rest of the film has to offer. Avoid it like the plague.

Comeuppance Reviews Scott James (Chuck) is a man who looks spiffy on the outside (he wears a pretty sweet tuxedo) but seems to have a lot of turmoil on the inside. Not only is he constantly flashing back to his childhood and his initial Martial Arts training (the young Scott is played by Mike Norris), but the voices in his head are overpowering and seem to tell him important things. All this is going to come in handy when Scott James faces off against perhaps the ultimate foe: terrorist ninjas. Yes, terrorist ninjas. While protecting a woman named Justine (Carlson) from said TerNin's - which he does with the help of mentor McCarn (Van Cleef) - he realizes the true depth of what he's up against. The nefarious group trains in an octagon-shaped facility, and their organization is named...The Octagon. Will Scott James triumph over these squares? Find out today! While The Octagon contains no cage fighting, or Punchfighting of any kind, it is in fact a reasonable Chuck movie. It's not bad, but it's not great either. By today's standards, the pace might be too slow for some viewers, and at 104 minutes it's certainly on the long side. But what else would you expect from director Karson, who later was responsible for Van Damme dud Black Eagle (1988)? But the cast perhaps makes up for it. Besides the aforementioned Norrises, and of course the legendary Lee Van Cleef, we have Tadashi Yamashita of Sword of Heaven (1985) fame, whose hair steals his own performance out from under him. The great Gerald Okamura has a brief role as a member of The Octagon, as does John Fujioka, and John Barrett does stunts as well as a small role. There's even a young Ernie Hudson on board as a fighter. As is usual for a Chuck movie, Aaron Norris was stunt coordinator, and besides doing stunts, Richard Norton has a nice appearance as a baddie who gets in a fight with Chuck.Norton's hair and mustache combo look awesome, and his blonde bowl haircut is so bright, it actually lights an entire dark scene all on its own. But back to Chuck, this movie definitely belongs to the era in his acting career where his performances were noticeably, obviously wooden. Or, WoodChuck for short. But beyond the fact that this is a WoodChuck movie, at least you can hear his thoughts, which is enlightening. There's a passing mention that Scott James was a Vietnam vet, and the baddies' training camp is seems like a dry run for the later American Ninja (1985) - which would also reunite Norton, Yamashita and Fujioka.

TOMASBBloodhound If ever there was an action movie that seemed to have all the right pieces and couldn't fit them together, The Octagon is it. Chuck Norris, in the prime of his fighting days, plays some type of Karate exhibitionist/merc/counter terrorist who is recruited by a wealthy woman to defeat an army of ninjas being trained at a secret camp. But there is more going on here than is even necessary. The needlessly convoluted plot has too many supporting characters butting in and causing the final conflict to feel almost anti-climatic. This is a shame because though it is under-lit, the action is still very rousing.Maybe it was also the forced plot line of having the man in charge of training the ninjas also be Chuck's long lost brother? Or why was Lee Van Cleef's character needed? Maybe the most unneeded character was that of Art Hindle who supposedly plays Chuck's partner at the karate dojo. I don't recall him doing much other than talking tough and getting taken prisoner at the end. Hindle himself admits during the DVD commentary of Black Christmas that this film embarrasses him to this day.The acting is pretty much non-existent, but I've often been able to overlook that when it comes to action films. If something is billed as an action, then I expect the fight scenes, stunts, and explosions to win me over more than anything else. Most of the action here takes place over an hour into the film, and the screenplay seems to be going around in circles more often than moving forward. Also laughable is Chuck's recurring inner monologue that echoes as we hear him ponder details made to sound compelling but are often ponderous and go nowhere. Maybe they just thought it sounded cool as he whispers things like, "Ninjas...ninjas...ninjas.... has to be....be...be.... But they don't exist....exist....exist..." It gets tedious. Anyway, the final 15-20 minutes are exciting if not at least interesting. So, I'll be a good sport and give it 5 of 10 stars.The Hound.

meader82 I'm definitely a sucker for 70's and 80's martial arts and action flicks (particlarly the output of Cannon films) and this blends both of them into one pretty awesome movie. Being a Chuck Norris fan certainly doesn't hurt either. The acting is kind of rough in spots and the dialogue lays the cheese on pretty thick but that is part of the attraction to this type of movie. The fight sequences are excellent, which is pretty much the only reason someone would watch this movie anyway. The costumes are very cool as well, of particular notice is Kyo's outfit, which is some of the coolest ninja garb I've ever seen. He looks like he stepped off the set of a live action G.I. Joe movie, which is meant to be a compliment. Overall, this movie is a major guilty pleasure of mine and any movie featuring Lee Van Cleef as a bounty hunter can't be too bad.