Forced Vengeance (1982)

What do you do when Shout Factory ships you a Chuck Norris movie you have never seen two weeks early? You karate kick your way to the Blu-ray player, that is what.

Norris plays Josh Randall—the head of security for a mid-level casino in Hong Kong. When Josh’s friend and casino owner is killed by a mob syndicate trying to push its way in, Randall sets out for revenge. The syndicate has eyes everywhere and there is no place for Josh to hide his friends.

The head of the outfit, Raimondi, wanted to buy out the casino, but when they held out it was easier to just kill everyone. Raimondi sends assassins out to take out Norris and whoever is left that might know about the casino hit. Josh (Norris) eventually goes and finds his old army buddy LeRoy. LeRoy is played by master stuntman Bob Minor. Minor would have a role in Commando but also do stunt work in Escape From New York, Beastmaster, and Maniac Cop 2.

Director James Fargo ( The Enforcer) does a reasonably straight-ahead martial arts revenge film but then spatters in some much-welcomed style over substance moments in the fight choreography. One scene in particular where Josh fights a goon in black silhouette against a massive neon sign is fantastic and elevates what would just be another scene of Chuck kicking someone’s ass. There are even moments of comedic humor where a henchman pulls out nunchucks against Josh and Josh just presents a gun to the fight. The henchman wraps the nunchucks around his neck and walks off. Only to bring back two more guys, and instead of blasting, Josh shoots a railing above bearing weight and takes out all three. It’s a classic Indiana Jones-style moment. There are some great, flashy sequences here and there.

But for all these moments of action and humor, there are quite a few early eighties tropes to push boundaries as well. Josh’s friend LeRoy has a 17-year-old girlfriend. Then one of the syndicate’s biggest heavies raps Josh’s girlfriend to death. This doesn’t really enhance the plot, as Josh is already out for revenge. It is almost like they threw it in there just to make sure we know how bad they are. Alas, this makes Josh want vengeance even harder, which is fine because this is a Chuck Norris movie. Why not vengeance harder? But we already had the murder of his friends as the catalyst for the plot in the beginning, and the rape comes late in the film.

Maybe that is why the film has decent ratings but didn’t find an audience on release. I mean, it is tough to have comedic moments and then have a character raped to death shortly after. It changes tonally too quickly in that respect.

One thing I do want to point out as being one of the most stellar elements of the film is the score. At least the first half of the film, anyway. Some seriously dark and brooding synth lines sound like something straight out of an Italian Giallo. To me, they actually enhance the first half of the film. Maybe as a precursor to the ominous happenings in the last half. Oddly enough, however, the film’s last half has a much more classic 80s upbeat action-adventure feel. As I said, I am unsure what they wanted to go for with the film’s tone. The early score of the film hits hard, though.

The bottom line here is that Chuck kicks major ass. I am not sure Chuck has had a film where he dispensed his foes in so many different ways. When he can’t kick them into oblivion, he uses knives and guns to end the battle. Not super common for Chuck. The fight sequence with Raimondi is solid and is a classic hero vs the villain brawl at the end. We even get a blood-splattered face smash and a glass throat cut at the end. Revenge is definitely a dish better served cold.

Shout Factory has this new Blu-Ray set for release in early January. I pre-ordered it a month ago and for some reason, they sent it to me almost 3 weeks early—a total score in my book. The picture looks drastically improved from the stills from the last DVD I have seen. A welcome addition to your Chuck Norris collection and I would say one of his better efforts.