User Reviews

Texas Ranger J.J. McQuade (Chuck) is notorious around his precinct, and his El Paso stomping grounds, for being a loner, a rebel, and a man with the dignity of a quiet badass. Despite the typical protestations from his Captain, Tyler (Armstrong), McQuade, nicknamed "Lone Wolf" for obvious reasons, always gets the job done. And when there's trouble in Texas, he's the man everyone calls to sort it out. His buddy Dakota (Jones) certainly knows that, as do his ex-wife and daughter. But shortly after he reluctantly accepts a young new partner, Kayo (Beltran), Lone Wolf faces his biggest challenge to date in the form of one Rawley Wilkes (Carradine), a malevolent Martial Arts master who also just happens to be a gun runner. There's also a love triangle kind of thing involving a woman named Lola (Carrera) between the two alpha males. After Wilkes sends his goons after Lone Wolf's people, the stage is set for the ultimate showdown: McQuade vs. Wilkes! Also Leon Isaac Kennedy plays an FBI agent named Jackson and William Sanderson plays a underworld character named Snow. Who will triumph in this big, Texas-sized battle? Find out today! It's easy to see, in retrospect, how the TV show Walker: Texas Ranger got started. The pitch to Chuck was probably "let's turn Lone Wolf McQuade into a weekly show". But the awesome title LONE WOLF MCQUADE (why aren't there cool movie titles like that these days?) should be enough to signal to viewers what they're getting into. Chuck displays his usual deadpan likability, and there's something about the guy you just can't help but love. If previous year's movie Silent Rage (1982) is anything to go by, he was slowly becoming less wooden and was honing his acting skills, as well as his Martial Arts ability. As the laconic ex-Military man who only drinks Pearl brand beer (and has many other uses for it as well, including as balm for his wounds) - when he's not drinking Coke, of course, you truly root for him. It was naive and typical for Lola to think she could change Lone Wolf. Change him? Don't even try! The movie is filled with fun stunts and fights (thanks in part to John Barrett and Kane Hodder who, among others, did stunts) and has a nice modern-day Western feel to it. A lot of that is helped by the excellent score by Francesco De Masi. There's also some pleasant humor at just the right times. David Carradine is suitably evil as the Karate man who smokes, Armstrong is the WYC (White Yelling Chief), William Sanderson almost steals the movie as Snow, and Leon Isaac Kennedy and L.Q. Jones provide quality support. Director Steve Carver is known, at least to us, for later directing the movie that unleashed the word "Butthorn" on the world, Bulletproof (1988), as well as the lackluster Dudikoff vehicle River of Death (1989). H. Kaye Dyal got a writing credit here, and he would later go on to direct the Frank Zagarino opuses Trained to Kill (1989) and the great Project Eliminator (1991). And Aaron Norris plays "Punk". So there's plenty of talent to go around, much of which would continue to infiltrate the DTV and/or action movie world for years to come. Lone Wolf McQuade is an ideal starting point.

Lone Wolf McQuade is an enjoyable movie with a lot of nice moments. It's competently directed and has a lot of great names in the cast. It's hard to ask for more than that. We liked it.

Lone Wolf McQuade is set in Texas where renegade Ranger J.J. McQuade (Chuck Norris) lives & works by his own rules, McQuade has a problem with authority & his rough tactics means McQuade is unpopular with the media. His captain dumps rookie cop Kayo (Robert Beltram) on McQuade as a partner which McQuade is less than happy about. While with her boyfriend McQuade's daughter Sally (Dana Kimmell) witnesses the hijacking of an army convoy carrying a huge cache of weapons & ammunition, her boyfriend is murdered & Sally is left for dead & McQuade is now angry. The FED's are called in but McQuade decides to take the law into his own hands to protect the state of Texas & his own family as the weapons & ammunition are to be sold off to every terrorist & criminal organisation going...

Produced & directed by Steve Carver this is a pretty bad early 80's action film, I am quite surprised by the amount of love for Lone Wolf McQuade although I suspect that a fair amount of it I detect a certain level of sarcasm involved. First of all at nearly 110 minutes long this is very slow going & is quite frankly dull, the build-up is slow & the whole film feels padded with lots of little bits which are unnecessary. The character's are all standard action clichés from the tough no-nonsense play by his own rules cop, he has a mismatched rookie partner forced upon him, his daughter & wife are there for the bad guy's to threaten & to turn things personal, there's a love interest, a craggy police captain who dislikes the hero, a bad guy who stands around & acts menacing but never actually does anything else & the typical army of bad guy's who can't shoot straight. The film plods along, we never find out anything about the bad guy's other then they want to sell weapons, McQuade himself has no real personality & isn't that likable, he never seems to do any sort of work apart from drive around in his truck & practice firing guns. There are lots of random moments here, the bad guy burying McQuade in his truck while still alive, why not just kill him? The bad guy's killing Sally's boyfriend but leaving her alive, again why? The way the bad guy's kill McQuade's mate but leave his partner alive, why? Why stage a daring rescue in broad daylight? A fairly tiresome, predictable & routine feeling mid range budget 80's action film that I thought was pretty poor & only saved by one or two half decent action scenes & some unintentionally funny randomness.

The fights are alright, there's nothing amazing here but it's competent & watchable. There's not much else here apart from a brief scene as McQuade is dragged behind a truck & a couple of explosions. In fact it's a rather bland & forgettable film all round with far too many bland shoot-outs where the bad guy's can't shoot straight & just wait to be shot themselves & I am genuinely surprised that anyone would rate this. Originally rated 'R' in the states it was given a 'PG' on appeal & while there's a few swear words the action is bloodless & feels like the sort of stuff you would see in an A-Team episode. There's a lot of scenic views of the Texan desert which gives it an almost classic Western feel with open plain vistas & the like. The producers of Lone Wolf McQuade sued CBS after they made Walker, Texas Ranger (1993 - 2001) with Chuck Norris for copyright infringement, Orion Pictures eventually issued CBS with a retro active license.

With a reasonable budget of about $5,000,000 this had some money spent on it & it's well made but it's just not very good, shot in El Paso in Texas. Headliners Chuck Norris & David Carradine do OK but are given little material to work with & Carradine is basically wasted while Norris has no on-screen presence. Ex-model Barbara Carrera plays the love interest & isn't very good.

Lone Wolf McQuade is a poor 80's action film, having heard lots of positive things said about it I expected a half decent action film at least but it's a pretty dull, slow moving plot less advert for the Texan desert. Nowhere near the film many make out & nowhere near Norris's best.

Chuck Norris. David Carradine. The battle. I could write you the largest synopsis imaginable, but it's still all about the two legends squaring off in a martial arts contest. Carradine does the honors of playing the stone cold heel who runs an operation smuggling stolen artillery from the military shipping guns and other American weapons to terrorists. Norris is an El Paso Texas Ranger who doesn't necessarily operate using the standard "code of ethics" often not "playing by the rules" in order to catch (or in most cases, kill) criminals. Barbara Carrera is Lola, the woman between them (although, she loves Norris) and Dana Kimmell (Friday the 13th III) is the cutesy daughter of Norris' JJ "Lone Wolf" McQuade. L Q Jones is the retired Texas Ranger and pal of McQuade, Dakota, who pays a heavy price for assisting in the "babysitting" of a drug dealer (character actor William Sanderson, scrawny, nervy, with these glasses which enlarge his eyes to make him more of a cartoonish criminal who squeals like a pig when Dakota uses an AK 47 to get his attention). Robert Beltran is McQuade's "new partner" (yes, quite a cliché, but if you're an action fan this comes with the territory), green as expected, but loyal and actually comes in handy during moments where the one man army act is impossible. R G Armstrong is the boss over the Texas Rangers, always on McQuade about his appearance and style, believing his men should represent their badge with a "squeaky clean" image. Sharon Farrell is McQuade's ex-wife, Molly. Interesting enough, McQuade and Molly get along cordially, even after she tells him of the acceptance of a job offer in another Texas city. Leon Isaac Kennedy is a Fed, Jackson, who offers to help, not hinder, McQuade in his pursuit of the ones responsible for killing his daughter's boyfriend (and another friend; another cliché, the murder of the best friend is here)and soldiers during the artillery heist. What really puts McQuade over the edge, besides being shot at in his own bedroom, is the damned murder of his pet wolf (what is it with action movies and killing canines?). Ultimately, it is about Norris and Carradine engaged in a fight for all the marbles, at the end—after a lengthly shoot out as McQuade, Jackson, & Beltran's Kayo raid the desert compound of Carradine's Rawley Wilkes—as Carrera and a kidnapped Kimmell look on in fear. The music score and opening credits (along with how the director shoots Norris and Carradine) present "Lone Wolf McQuade" in the grand tradition of Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. My only wish would be that McQuade and Wilkes had fought longer or more than once, but seeing them going tooth and nail—before Wilkes sucker punching McQuade's daughter, a definite no-no which gets our hero all riled up—for even a few minutes was worthwhile. As you would expect, Norris encounters plenty of punks to pummel, including many half his size (these big, burly sorts often go down with one punch or kick which I always find amusing), sent to the ground for a nice, long nap after a smack or kick (I have nicknamed Norris' spinning kick the "velocity kick" because it always knocks the recipient unconscious on impact). Carradine seems to be having fun, gnawing on his cigarillo and oozing menace, channeling, it seems, Henry Fonda's cold-blooded killer in "Once Upon a Time in the West".

A hugely disappointing and dull action film from Chuck Norris. While it's certainly better-made than most of his and with a higher budget, this is still a highly clichéd film in which you can predict just what's going to happen, right down to the climatic fight between Norris and Carradine. It's also not nearly violent enough, actually receiving a PG rating in America! Why? I thought we could depend on Norris for plenty of high-kicking martial arts mayhem, broken bones and the like, but this just seems like a family-orientated sell-out for him.

The film kicks off with a western theme, with Norris taking on a gang of cattle-rustlers in slow motion. Incidentally, this film's music score, by a noted Italian composer, Francesco de Mosi (whose roots go back to those Italian peplum adventures of the early '60s), is the biggest selling point, really old fashioned and highly reminiscent of Ennio Morricone's work. Soon we're treated to a string of scenes, involving Norris bonding with his ex-wife and daughter and falling in love with a woman on the other side. He also beats up a few hicks and gets a new partner. Blah, blah, it all predictably ends with lots of explosions and non-violent gun battles.

Norris is as wooden as ever here, his bland face not displaying any emotion for one second. David Carradine is barely seen as the bad guy, but doesn't make much impression, aside from showing us his impressive KUNG FU tricks. Carrera is a boring love interest, and it's only up to the likes of L.Q. Jones, William Sanderson, and R.G. Armstrong to inject some life into their small roles. Oh yeah, and there's an evil dwarf in there too, for some reason or other.

There are a handful of cool scenes in this movie which make it kind of fun at times; we get to see Norris buried underground inside his car, dowse himself with a beer and reverse straight out of the ground! He also gets shot in the stomach but the wound has healed enough in a couple of days that he can take the bandage off and have a fight with no ill effect. Or alternatively sit back and watch Norris try some target practice back at his ranch. The climatic fight between Norris and Carradine is well staged, as are the periodic martial arts that Norris uses, but there's not nearly enough. As this is a family-film, Norris also only beats Carradine up, and then lets him die in an explosion - disappointing or what? I would say this is an amusing film for Norris fans, but a real disappointment for somebody expecting some serious violence or action. There just isn't enough, just long scenes of sentimentalising and dialogue in an overlong film.

Just bought this movie on DVD from the $4.95 bin at my local Walmart. I remember seeing this movie on TV ten or fifteen years ago and thought it was a decent movie then. After just watching again, I would have to say that either my taste has changed or my recollection is clouded because this is a bad movie. Predictable story, acted by bad actors, among cheap special effects. I am not sure whether the obvious mimicking of spaghetti westerns was done for dramatic emphasis or comedic relief. It didn't work as the former and it seemed so out of place as the latter.

There is lots of overblown action in this movie. I don't think Chuck met anyone other than women or other cops that he didn't punch, kick, throw, chop, or shoot.

The acting, well what do you expect from a Chuck Noris movie, there really wasn't any. It was for the most part people reciting their lines, usually with either understated emotion (Chuck Noris) or over stated hysteria.

If you find this movie for rent and are bored with talented actors, exciting action and good story lines, give this one a try. You could do worse, but not much.