A Force of One
"Call it anything you want, but whoever did this...is as good as dead." - Matt Logan
release year: 1979
genre: martial arts drama
viewing setting: home DVD 8/7/22 and 7/9/17 and 5/20/13 and 5/3/09 and home VHS, 7/18/04
synopsis: A karate instructor/competitor is asked to help the police figure out who keeps killing their narcotics officers.
impressions: Basic bad-cops-and-drugs plot with some martial arts and murders thrown in. Once again, Chuck Norris fails to leap into action until someone close to him is killed, when he could have prevented it if he'd acted sooner. More interesting is the fact that this movie came before the big martial-arts boom in our society...a time when karate experts were considered strange and suspicious, and their dojos were basically frowned upon. They got referred to as "those karate people" and similar unusual names.
asses kicked by Chuck Norris: 4
body count: 6
something this movie has that no other movie has: a karate killer who targets cops
acting: Chuck Norris did okay, his character showing dedication to his training as well as his family. Jennifer O'Neill (the female lead from Scanners) was good as one of the non-crooked cops. Bill Wallace is a menacing main bad karate guy. Ron O'Neal is one of the senior cops. Clu Galager, as the police chief, sure did mumble a lot.
final word: Good, solid Chuck Norris action.
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