cult film freak: CHUCK NORRIS, CLU GULAGER & JENNIFER O'NEILL 'A FORCE OF ONE'

Year: 1980 Rating: ***1/2

For John Wayne it was Claire Trevor proceeding his own not-yet-famous name in STAGECOACH, Ida Lupino billed before Humphrey Bogart in HIGH SIERRA, and model/actress Jennifer O'Neill (herein a mix of social-worker and would-be love-interest) in A FORCE OF ONE: somewhat referring to Norris's karate-champ character who has to teach a group of detectives how to defend themselves from, well...

The lethal karate-chopping/cop-killing villain's mostly unseen and far too ambiguous, taking out random street cops in-between what's mostly investigative dialogue involving a town overly saturated by drug dealers...

Pepe Serna and Taylor Lacher in A FORCE OF ONE

With method-acting chief Clu Gulager leading worthwhile bickering-cop character-actors Ron O'Neal, James Whitemore Jr., Pepe Serna, Ray Vitte and Taylor Lacher, FORCE feels more like a police-procedural TV-series guest-starring Norris than those lawman serving as backdrop for a genuine Norris vehicle...

Making A FORCE OF ONE an ironic title since Chuck gets lost in the mix, especially since his outright karate-kicking competitor/secret-street-staying Bill Wallace also needed more to do than anticipate the climatic martian-arts battle that should have been more scattered/balanced throughout... what's an otherwise pretty decent ensemble crime melodrama.