Member ShaOW!linDude Posted January 20, 2016 Member Share Posted January 20, 2016 If you guys think so. I say it's a big leap. And Nicholas Linnear and Saigo weren't step brothers. Cousins, I believe. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Kwok Choi Posted January 20, 2016 Member Share Posted January 20, 2016 25 minutes ago, ShaOW!linDude said: If you guys think so. I say it's a big leap. And Nicholas Linnear and Saigo weren't step brothers. Cousins, I believe. ...............in context of " closest similarities to the book " yes we think so though we are fully aware that The Octagon is definitely not a screen adaptation of Eric Van Lustbader's novel The Ninja. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Tex Killer Posted January 20, 2016 Member Share Posted January 20, 2016 (edited) On 6.4.2008 at 1:02 AM, Chinatown Kid said: Chuck was no doubt a great martial artist and tournament champion legend like Joe Lewis. Definitely but as actor he is far too wooden in dialogue scenes...that has not stopped me enjoying movies he is in, I have still about 10 his flicks. Missing in action trilogy, breaker(I screened this week ago), forced vengeance, eye for an eye, firewalker... Octagon IS bad but in good way, as 12 years old brat when saw 1st time did not know that, just was WOW even as most action was cut from version released here....Now later can say it´s crap with quite high cheese..Honestly was excited to see finally norris vs sai ninja finally... I think trouble with norris movies is besides norris is not that good character actor(same will be said about seven seagal) is lack of choreographers. Chuck can fight like hell and his spinning kick does good damage in movies. Edit:I hope I did not offend any chuck fan but he is not al pacino or even sly stallone when comes to screen energy and that is just how I see it. Edited January 20, 2016 by Tex Killer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Lung Wang Posted January 20, 2016 Member Share Posted January 20, 2016 (edited) 11 hours 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. Well, when it's the cruel/sadistic guy he was raised with, and who always tormented him while growing up, and then he fights the guy to the death over a woman with the same name, etc, etc, and both stories came out in the same year, it looked like plagiarism to me. Thanks for your question, Secret Executioner. Edited January 20, 2016 by Lung Wang 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted June 23, 2021 Member Share Posted June 23, 2021 I like Enter the Ninja more. I've always been curious as to how much this other ninja movie grossed at the U.S. box office. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member dionbrother Posted June 23, 2021 Member Share Posted June 23, 2021 2 hours ago, Cognoscente said: I like Enter the Ninja more. I've always been curious as to how much this other ninja movie grossed at the U.S. box office. Octagon grossed about $20 million in rentals in 1980, making it the most successful R-rated ninja movie released in the US. Chuck's American Cinema productions did great business back then because they four-walled in states(tons of local advertising and saturated drive-in and fleapit booking). They did not open big coast to coast everywhere like today's standard, but they did outstanding business for the time. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted June 23, 2021 Member Share Posted June 23, 2021 I meant Enter the Ninja, 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member dionbrother Posted June 23, 2021 Member Share Posted June 23, 2021 Enter The Ninja box office isn't listed anywhere, or at least the dependable sources. Cannon released it regionally, and it never played my home state. It's not in the top 56 films listed on Box Office Mojo. Other than making one Martial Arts Movies magazine cover and seeing one tv ad on late night television, I don't think the movie started the big ninja movie wave. Didn't see it myself until it played on the Movie Channel in 1982. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/1981/ 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted June 23, 2021 Member Share Posted June 23, 2021 2 hours ago, dionbrother said: Octagon grossed about $20 million in rentals in 1980, making it the most successful R-rated ninja movie released in the US. It's probably just as well that Chuck Norris didn't go through with making American Ninja as originally planned because that only grossed 10 million in the U.S. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member dionbrother Posted June 23, 2021 Member Share Posted June 23, 2021 2 hours ago, Cognoscente said: It's probably just as well that Chuck Norris didn't go through with making American Ninja as originally planned because that only grossed 10 million in the U.S. Chuck was moving away from martial arts movies(big mistake IMHO), and probably considered Cannon's ninja movies to be cartoonishly inferior to his work. If anything, AMERICAN NINJA is way too similar to THE OCTAGON, except with allusions to the GI JOE cartoon that was popular with kids. I really think they should have aimed for a PG-13 with it. Might have been a bigger hit. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted June 23, 2021 Member Share Posted June 23, 2021 I feel sorry for Michael Dudikoff because he could have been a big star. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member CaldoTheKid Posted May 11, 2023 Member Share Posted May 11, 2023 Yeah I like it, although not my favorite Chuck vehicle. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted August 19, 2023 Member Share Posted August 19, 2023 Posted my full-length review of this here: https://abeautifulfilm.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-octagon-1980.html 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member dionbrother Posted September 4, 2023 Member Share Posted September 4, 2023 Rewatched it recently because my son wanted to see Chuck's early movies. Interesting to note that Karen Carlson's role was obviously intended for a British actress, due to her dialogue containing euphemisms like "bloody." The script seems overwritten, but it also may be an issue with Eric Karlson's losing control of the story a bit. I chalk it up to this being his directorial debut. Regardless, it's fascinating watching a real "independent movie" production from the 70s that tried to do something different with the martial arts thriller routine. And bless them for not making it campy like Clouse and Weintraub would have done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member dionbrother Posted September 4, 2023 Member Share Posted September 4, 2023 On 1/20/2016 at 5:33 AM, Kwok Choi said: ...............in context of " closest similarities to the book " yes we think so though we are fully aware that The Octagon is definitely not a screen adaptation of Eric Van Lustbader's novel The Ninja. Since I used to be a big fan of Lustbader(can't really stand his books these days), I don't think one stole from the other. Just a case of parallel thinking in trying to bring fictional ninja concepts to America. The publication of THE NINJA and production of THE OCTAGON really don't line up. Ninjas did appear in some paperback thrillers of the day(like The Destroyer, which Chuck was a fan of and tried to acquire the film rights) before Lustbader's book, and you can probably blame Clavell's Shogun novel for sparking the interest. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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