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The Octagon

The Octagon (1980)

August. 14,1980
|
5
|
R
| Adventure Action Thriller

Scott James, a veteran martial arts expert, is recruited as the protector of the wealthy and beautiful Justine after she becomes the target of a ninja clan. When Scott finds out that his ruthless arch-nemesis, McCarn , is involved with the stealthy and dangerous criminals, he is eager to settle old scores. Soon Scott is facing off against McCarn and the entire ninja horde in an effort to take them all down.

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GrimPrecise
1980/08/14

I'll tell you why so serious

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ChanBot
1980/08/15

i must have seen a different film!!

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Maidexpl
1980/08/16

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

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Arianna Moses
1980/08/17

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

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Harry Lags
1980/08/18

The Octagon's premise is simple. Chuck Norris vs Ninjas. That's really about it. Norris is Scott James, a man haunted by memories of his growing up and rivalry with his former martial art brother Seikura, who now heads a Ninja training camp and is teaching international terrorists the ways of the Ninja. James must stop the organization and face off, once and for all, with his former brother.There's little in the way of story, and sadly the film takes it's time in getting to the point where Norris finally takes out the Ninja trash. Like a lot of his movies, the lack of much plot means the film moves pretty slowly between the action. When the action does kick in, it's quite impressive. The real standout though is Norris infiltrating the Ninja base in the film's climax. It's classic Norris.The cast are okay. Lee Van Cleef and Richard Norton pop up in small roles, Richard Norton actually has a few different roles here.I would have rated it an 8 out of 10 if there was a bit more action in the middle half of the film. For the most part, only Chuck Norris and ninja fans will get the most out of THE OCTAGON (1980).Overall worth watching..7 out of 10

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Leofwine_draca
1980/08/19

Previously to this film, the only other Chuck Norris movie that I'd viewed from this period had been AN EYE FOR AN EYE. This was a fast-paced action movie, with lots of martial arts and even the added bonus of having Christopher Lee as a villain. I automatically assumed this film was a typical early '80s Chuck Norris movie, and that others from the period would be the same. As I had enjoyed it a lot, I immediately bought this two-for-one tape containing THE OCTAGONand A FORCE OF ONE. I sat down, looking forward to a fun night's viewing...and the rest is outlined below. I can only hope that A FORCE OF ONE is more enjoyable.THE OCTAGON is a very dumb, poorly-made action movie. Among the worst I've ever watched, at least up until the action climax. I consider myself as having a high tolerance for rubbish of this variety, but even I have to draw a line somewhere. Maybe it's just the transfer I have, but THE OCTAGON suffers from poor picture quality (so it's difficult to see what's going on) and terrible sound volume. You know, when you can't hear what they're saying but when you turn it up a loud action scene comes on blaring out and you have to turn it down again.The confusing plot starts off with a murder occurring for no apparent reason, with Norris conveniently hanging around to fight off the assailants. The screen is 90% black here, so it's impossible to make out much of what's going on. We learn about a secret training centre in the woods, run by an old Chinese guy and another man who really, really wants to be Bruce Lee. One guy who tries to leave dies when a shuriken is thrown through his neck. This doesn't have much to do with the rest of the plot, though.Unfortunately for us, Norris meets and falls in with a female.. reporter? I can't even remember who or what she is as she serves no purpose. Also hanging around is a barely-used Lee Van Cleef, complete with an earring, who runs a squad of vigilante killers. Van Cleef doesn't even appear in many of this film's action sequences, and his role is a completely extraneous one. Eventually, after what seems like an eternity, Norris goes undercover to infiltrate the ninjas. He then travels to their base and takes all of them on, causing a revolt at the same time.Well what this movie has is cheap-looking sets, stupid music, and poor acting from the entire cast. Van Cleef looks to be slumming it, Carlson is clumsy and irritating as the female lead, and Norris is his usual wooden self (never thought I'd see an actor who makes Steven Seagal look animated). A character (Norris' partner) who has been hiding around in the background for the entire movie suddenly decides to take justice into his own hands at the end and gets slaughtered. The action throughout the film is fairly typical, nothing to get excited about. It's not even that violent. It's worth watching out for one hilarious scene which has a ninja killer abseiling down a brick wall getting shot and falling to the bottom. The way they filmed it makes it a priceless moment and had me in stitches.Now, the only worthwhile part of this movie is the last twenty minutes, so if you have the misfortune to rent or buy this, fast-forward until here. The ending sees Norris infiltrating the enemy base and fighting a hundred or so ninjas. It's great, it really is. One guy gets kicked in a fire but still tries to fight Norris, burning all the while. They all use these fancy weapons but none of them are a match for Norris' deadly hands and feet. Eventually he has to fight the Bruce Lee-wannabe leader, who just happens to be his estranged brother too. You can guess what happens. In these last twenty minutes, the body count is quite high and there's a lot of action, death, and explosions to enjoy. Sadly these cannot make up for the monumental dullness that the rest of the film has to offer. Avoid it like the plague.

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shmucking
1980/08/20

Has a more complicated plot than most of his films, with more subplots than usual gradually merging together, and an effective inter-cutting between Norris and the Ninja training camp. Particularly effective are the initial scenes with Norris and Karen Carlson. They have a good rapport and her getting him to come back to her house has a mysterious, intriguing quality. Carol Bagdasarian is particularly beautiful, too. The main criticisms are that the women all seem to immediately fall in love with Norris, and he also is way too quick in winning all the Ninjas that he's fighting towards the end. However, Lee Van Cleef brings a certain authority to his scenes, and Norris delivers a better performance than usual. One of his better films.

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qormi
1980/08/21

This film was laughably bad. Chuck Norris narrated his thoughts as in an echo chamber. Why? His sidekick, A.J., had the worst 70's hair imaginable. His hair resembled topiary. Instead of a haircut, I'm sure he got pruned. The plot was actually so simplistic, it seemed complicated. It seemed that I was always missing something because I subconsciously couldn't handle the fact that this movie was indeed that bad. Norris was more wooden than Sequoia National Park. In one scene, Norris is lying on a cot next to a beautiful woman who is lying on her own separate cot. Norris says nothing in the well lit room. His shirt is off and he looks like a monkey with piles of reddish, stringy hair all over his arms, chest, and back. He's obviously two chromosomes away from an orangutan. He lifts up his arms, revealing massive armpit hair. At this juncture, the woman disrobes, walks to his cot, and climbs on top of him.Everything about this film was ludicrous. The crazy ninja training camp, which looked like a scene from "Hot Shots! Part Deux", the mysterious woman who got killed by blow gun dart, the pointless car chase, Lee Van Cleef's nonsensical character....this movie is classic garbage. A monument to ineptitude.

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