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Anyone like The Octagon?


The Dragon

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I'm not the biggest Chuck Norris fan, however, this movie needed more MA action. Well maybe not even more, but longer fight sequences, with all the talent available, I feel the audience was cheated.

Richard Norton as the supreme Ninja deserved to strut a bit more.

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It was not a bad Norris film, but the biggest problem IMO was that the fight scenes were shot in the dark, so it was really hard to see Norris in top form. The film was the debut of John Barrett (American Kickboxer) as an assassin. He was a former student of Norris' and today, he runs his own martial arts school and sometimes still acts.

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Chinatown Kid

I actually thought this was one of Chuck's better movies with a cool theme, but the final fight between Chuck and Tadashi Yamashita was a letdown and way to short. My favorite Norris film would be Code of Silence followed by Lone Wolf McQuade. Although he never looked real impressive in most of his US productions fightwise, his fight with Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon is one of my favorite fight scenes of all time. Chuck was no doubt a great martial artist and tournament champion legend like Joe Lewis. I also have great respect for Chuck not only for his MA accomplishments but also because he's one of the nicest people in the MA.

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Not sure how to comment this flick more than calling it a single-use flick, it didn't hurt to watch it once but I will leave it at that.

I remember that in a documentary about this movie Richard Norton seemed very proud about a certain scene, he said that he would never reveal the secret about how he did.. whatever he did with a Sai or something :confused:

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kingofkungfu2002

I remember Richard Norton saying that he was the guy inside most of the ninja suits in the finale :)

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I watched this movie around 50 times when I was younger, along with Forced Vengence and Lone Wolf McQuade(had these babies on beta!), it's been some years since I've watched it last, I'm sure it's not that great now but it will always be one of those beloved from my youth. I loved how his voice sounded when he was thinking to himself - Youryour your mymymymy brotherbrother brother:D

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TibetanWhiteCrane

I can enjoy movies like that, for the 80's cheese factor! but the fight choreography is atrocious... you gotta admit that!

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One of my favorite Chuck Norris' films! I loved it back when it came out and still appreciate it today, still enjoyable. Chuck was one cool mofo! This film and A Force of One and Code of Silence are my all time favorite Chuck films. I've always enjoyed his films during his heyday.

I agree with Chinatown Kid, he's a great guy outside of films and martial arts as well. A true humanitarian.

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I agree with Chinatown Kid, he's a great guy outside of films and martial arts as well. A true humanitarian.

I love the fact ol' Chuck has a great sense of humor, even with all that internet ribbing he was taking he just rolled with it, even did a Mountian Dew commercial off it.

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c'mon guys you don't watch Chuck movies for good fighting, you watch them for Chuck handing out indiscriminant amounts of whoopass

I've seen most of Chuck's classics, and really the only good fight scene I remember aside from the one vs Bruce was the sequence in Delta Force 2 where Chuck takes out his anger on his platoon.

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Why is it in all the American produced MA films, even with numerous Martial Artists, the action sucked? I mean couldn't they invent at least one scene to please audiences? The one thing I remember so well about The Octagon was the setting in the finale, I thought we were going to see an all-out no holds barred, action fest, instead we got Chuck Norris' famous spin kick, from several different angles, against the same stunt men.:(

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I think up until the success of the US release of Rumble in the Bronx (or just a couple of years before that) "general" American audiences didn't appreciate the kung fu/Hong Kong or Asian fight choreography in American productions at all. As a matter of fact, most kung fu films and its choreography was considered laughable and not taken seriously. Jackie's breakthrough films (Project A/Pirate Patrol and A Police Story) couldn't get theatrical releases. But it was just a matter of time before they caught on and every fight scene had flips and Hong Kong style fights, on tv and the big screen!

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I've actually always liked this film.  The storyline was incredibly similar to Eric Van Lustbader's novel "The Ninja".

I suspect the novel copied the film, rather than the other way around.  The rich blonde woman in this movie

(Karen Carlson) was ultra-annoying, but the brunette (Carol Bagdasarian) was totally gorgeous !

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8 hours ago, Lung Wang said:

I've actually always liked this film.  The storyline was incredibly similar to Eric Van Lustbader's novel "The Ninja".

I suspect the novel copied the film, rather than the other way around.  The rich blonde woman in this movie

(Karen Carlson) was ultra-annoying, but the brunette (Carol Bagdasarian) was totally gorgeous !

Interesting! I couldn't really enjoy the movie that much because I had read the book which was astonishing!!! and I thought the movie copied the novel not the other way round.

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Secret Executioner

Have this on DVD. Picked it up cause in my mind putting together Chuck Norris and Ninjas couldn't get wrong. Will watch it some time, maybe in a "double feature" with one of them Godfrey Ho Ninja films. :tongueout 

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Lady Jin Szu-Yi

Wasn't bad...I lumped Norris in with Stallone, Arnuld etc. back in the 80s so it's only recently that I can look at this from the martial arts perspective. Think I saw it in 2013. 

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16 hours ago, Secret Executioner said:

Have this on DVD. Picked it up cause in my mind putting together Chuck Norris and Ninjas couldn't get wrong. Will watch it some time, maybe in a "double feature" with one of them Godfrey Ho Ninja films. :tongueout 

 

It also has the bonus of having Lee Van Cleef & Richard Norton in the cast too.

 

 

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ShaOW!linDude

I don't understand the comparisons between The Octagon and Eric Van Lustbader's novel "The Ninja". Neither's plot relates to the other in any way whatsoever. The only commonalities are that both came out in 1980 and have ninjas in them.

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5 hours ago, ShaOW!linDude said:

I don't understand the comparisons between The Octagon and Eric Van Lustbader's novel "The Ninja". Neither's plot relates to the other in any way whatsoever. The only commonalities are that both came out in 1980 and have ninjas in them.

Hi ShaOW!linDude,

Both stories have a non-Japanese hero/protagonist who was raised by a Japanese step-father, the hero was trained in Ninjutsu, he grows up with an evil Japanese step-brother who becomes a Ninja assassin, he also gets romantically involved with a woman named "Justine", and because of her father he gets involved and ends up fighting his former step-brother to the death (in the film, Justine's father was murdered by Ninja assassins, and in the book Justine's father is ABOUT to be murdered by a Ninja assassin). There's also the scene in both stories where he walks into the room and "senses" something's wrong before getting attacked.  Lots of similarities.  Thanks for your question.

Edited by Lung Wang
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2 hours ago, Lung Wang said:

Hi ShaOW!linDude,

Both stories have a non-Japanese hero/protagonist who was raised by a Japanese step-father, the hero was trained in Ninjutsu, he grows up with an evil Japanese step-brother who becomes a Ninja assassin, he also gets romantically involved with a woman named "Justine", and because of her father he gets involved and ends up fighting his former step-brother to the death (in the film, Justine's father was murdered by Ninja assassins, and in the book Justine's father is ABOUT to be murdered by a Ninja assassin). There's also the scene in both stories where he walks into the room and "senses" something's wrong before getting attacked.  Lots of similarities.  Thanks for your question.

 Yep...and I think American Samurai also piggy backed on the " Ninja " novel idea but not as close as The Octagon.

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Secret Executioner
3 hours ago, Lung Wang said:

Hi ShaOW!linDude,

Both stories have a non-Japanese hero/protagonist who was raised by a Japanese step-father, the hero was trained in Ninjutsu, he grows up with an evil Japanese step-brother who becomes a Ninja assassin, he also gets romantically involved with a woman named "Justine", and because of her father he gets involved and ends up fighting his former step-brother to the death (in the film, Justine's father was murdered by Ninja assassins, and in the book Justine's father is ABOUT to be murdered by a Ninja assassin). There's also the scene in both stories where he walks into the room and "senses" something's wrong before getting attacked.  Lots of similarities.  Thanks for your question.

 

So... Any movies with non-Japanese Ninjas fighting evil Ninjas and with relatives (in some way) getting attacked by said evil Ninjas can be compared to the novel ? Shit, there are a ton of movies out there that could work then - starting with the few (hundreds of) Ninja movies Godfrey Ho made.

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41 minutes ago, Secret Executioner said:

 

So... Any movies with non-Japanese Ninjas fighting evil Ninjas and with relatives (in some way) getting attacked by said evil Ninjas can be compared to the novel ? Shit, there are a ton of movies out there that could work then - starting with the few (hundreds of) Ninja movies Godfrey Ho made.

Namely...........

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