Octagon

The Octagon (1980)

Chuck Norris stars in this one as a former Karate champion named Scott that also just happened to be raised by Ninjas. We know this because of the flashbacks and voiceovers that we hear and see all thru the movie. His brother, whom broke the code and was kicked out of the Ninja club, starts to train assassins for terrorists then Scott gets involved. Well he sort of does. It takes them killing several people and almost an hour of the movie before Chuck starts to kick butt. When he does though he quickly makes his way to the evil Ninja camp with the help of a pretty woman who is sorry she became a Ninja. Some mayhem ensues and then the brother is done away with and the credits roll.

I like Chuck Norris and cheesy ‘80s action flicks, but I just couldn’t get into this one. It is very poorly written and paced. There are several loose ends in the movie that really had me scratching my head. For example they mention several times that Chuck’s character was a former Karate champion and quit when he hurt someone. That man then becomes an assassin (the movie makes a point of mentioning that) but nothing happens from it. Chuck’s character agonizes about fighting his brother again and not wanting to kill him. Though with all the flashbacks we never see him fight the first time. Then when they do have the big showdown they spend a ton of time on Chuck kicking the brother’s minions around. But then the actual fight between the brothers is short and a let down. The pacing of the movie is pretty terrible as well. A lot of time is wasted on a female character that gets a lot of screen time, but really only exists to get killed off and serve as motivation to finally get Chuck’s character to go after his brother. There is also a subplot with an antiterrorism expert that also only serves to slow the movie down. This is an action movie that goes more then 35 minutes with no action at all!

The action sequences are a mixed bag. There is a very short and lame car chase scene that is put together about as bad as anything I’ve ever seen on screen. I also wasn’t fond of some of the shootouts which are hard to follow and really dark. The lighting and camera work is pretty bad. I was also surprised at how bad the sound was in some scenes as well. Where the movie is very strong is when Chuck Norris is kicking some butt. The fight choreography is really well done and these scenes are the highlight of the movie. While he has sort of become the punch line with all the internet fun in his prime there weren’t many better then Chuck Norris.

I don’t expect my action movies to be nominated for a screenwriting Oscar, but I would like it a bit more coherent then what I ended up getting with The Octagon. As much as it pains me this is one Chuck starring vehicle that I would pass on.

1 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer