Chuck Norris stars as an unorthodox Texas Ranger in this precursor to Walker, Texas Ranger by 10 years. However, in this film, he has a couple lame sidekicks: Robert Beltran and Leon Isaac Kennedy, unlike the series, which was much better. This was Norris' best film in his career at the time it came out in 1983. For once he plays a character instead of just himself. There's able support from L.Q. Jones as Norris' buddy. Dana Kimmell of Friday the 13th fame appears as Norris' daughter. Barbara Carrera appears as the ambiguous love interest and David Carradine is the martial arts villain. There has been some criticism of Carradine's fighting skills in the movie as being hopelessly phony. Carradine is known to have studied for years with a private martial arts tutor both before and after this movie came out. His style is very different from Norris' karate style. Carradine's style was similar to the one he used on the Kung Fu series before. In any event, I thought the much ballyhooed fight at the end was too short, but worth seeing. The acting in here was average at best and the plot and story development was entirely predictable. However, there's enough action and footwork in here to make this enjoyable from merely an action point of view. The soundtrack, which mimics a Sergio Leone score, is fun and brings some class to the proceedings. Norris' driving his Dodge Ram Charger out of a grave has got to be seen to be believed. A sequel was talked about at the time, but never went anywhere. **1/2 of 4 stars.
Review of Lone Wolf McQuade
