Customer Reviews

Breaker! Breaker!

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This 1977 90 minute film shows us a youthful Chuck Norris who is almost unrecognizable today, with long bleached blond hair. He is introduced to us in a vignette where he arm wrestles an obviously strong man and wins, showing us that Norris is a very powerful man. In another scene, we are shown the very close relationship that Norris has with his younger brother, and we also see that Norris is a truck driver, and other truck drivers have great respect for him and like him.

All goes well until the day his young brother takes his first truck load. While driving, a policeman, later shown to be a cop of a bad town, stops him and tells him that he needs to drive through a town, because the road he planned to take is closed. The boy is arrested and fined a considerable amount of money. The town and its drunken leader earn money by taking exorbitant illegal fines and producing and selling moonshine. The boy reacts badly, makes foolish remarks, is beat up, and hidden in a barn.

Norris goes in search of his brother and the film shows how he needs to fight with bare hands more than a dozen people, some with guns and knives. The ending, which I will not disclose, has good people do things that seem to me to be illegal, but it adds to the excitement of the film.

Chuck Norris made his starring Debut in this slightly hokey action film about a trucker who's brother gets caught in a one horse speedtrap of a town called Texas City. The DVD was mastered well with both wide and full screen versions. My only complaint is a lack of a trailer and the misprint of the time on my copy of the disk. How they lost 20 minutes of movie on the case is a mystery to me, as the movie really is 85 minutes, not 65.

Very good movie lots of truckin action and other stuff like that also lots of talk on CBs. Chuck Norris does a good job as a trucker and others do to.

The best thing you can say about this movie is that it's not bad for Chuck Norris' first leading role. He hadn't developed much of a screen presence yet and was basically just trying to get through the acting scenes so he could karate-up the bad guys. This film tries to capitalize on the CB and trucker craze of the 70's and starts off with an underpowered but spirited little "Convoy" knock off...er...homage over the opening credits.

The action is pretty simple and straightforward but you have to remember that audiences back then were less sophisticated in regards to martial arts action than audiences are today. For years in Hollywood it was considered unsporting or dirty pool to fight a man in any way but pure fisticuffs. Seeing a man, especially a Westerner, kick another dude to pieces was pretty new to moviegoers back then and it was definitely enough to WOW the crowds.

Chuck's character isn't really well defined here. We know he's a trucker who helps take care of his kid brother. We know he's an arm wrestling champ of some sort and we know he teaches martial arts and meditation, while wearing some very 70's clothes, to some guys who look like 70's porn stars. We also know that he shouldn't wear those tight 70's jeans. I suspect years of high kicks have developed Chuck's gluteus to the point that he rivals 227's Jackee' in the bodonkadonk department. But you can see the beginnings of Chuck's later screen character, the solid decent guy who just wants to live his life and do right by himself and his family and friends.

George Murdock does a good over-the-top job as the corrupt judge. The rest of the cast seem less like actors and more like people who happened to be standing nearby when the director yelled "Action".

The writing is pretty unsophisticated and leaves several key plotlines unresolved.
Overall it just seems unfinished, unpolished, like it was made by film students as a class project. It does have it's good points though, like some decent action and some goofy 70's clothes and attitude, and the final scene where the ad hoc "Legion of Truckers" comes to Chuck's rescue is fun and probably where the production spent most of its money. It's a must for die hard Norris fans of course because you can see your hero's very beginnings and how far he's come (or not). For anyone else it's a so-so martial arts actioner.

This short (65 minutes) movie features Chuck Norris as a truck drivin' guy who just happens to be an expert in karate. Chuck is J.D. Dawes, a good name for a trucker if there ever was one, and he comes home to find his kid brother riding dirt bikes in the obligatory two-brothers-bonding scene. Well, before you know it, little brother is off on a haul, alone of course, gonna pick up some frozen TV dinners for delivery. Gee, I hope something doesn't happen to him along the way.

Meanwhile a group of ne'er-do-wells, led by corrupt judge Trimmings (George Murdock, actually pretty good to watch) have founded Texas City, California. Among Texas City's many fine civic industries are crooked cops, a corrupt judicial system, kidnapping, moonshine and selling pilfered automobiles for scrap metal. At the town meetings, they give reports on all the fine progress their new little town is making. All is well until they kidnap Chuck Norris' little brother using false charges. I reckon they're gonna get their tails whipped.

(Apparently the residents of Texas City had never seen a Chuck Norris film - too bad for them, eh? They messed with the wrong guy's little brother driving a semi-truck of frozen TV dinners).

The acting runs from decent to horrible, depending upon where you are in the film. The cinematography is OK, especially for a low-budget film like this one. In one scene, Chuck pulls up in the semi-truck with the set lights brightly reflecting off the grill/front of the truck. As he moves out of frame, you can actually see them dim the set lights, fading on the truck. Then, there's a bit of high school acting from a "concerned" lady who speaks with Chuck. Aye carumba.

John Di Fusco as Arney does a decent job as the slow-witted, Gomer-Pyle-lookin' brother of the owner of the auto repair station in Texas City. He becomes a pivotal character because of his good heart. Miranda Garrison is pretty good as the barmaid-floozy, whom the judge hangs out with when he's not busy stealing other people's money. She's kinda got a weirdo-nutty thing going on with her doll collection though. Unfortunately, some of the other extras must have taken some acting lessons from the dolls. Oh and there's a couple of guys who shoot at approaching cars just to keep 'em out. Real nice town, that Texas City, eh?. I'm surprised there wasn't a banjo and a guitar faintly dueling somewhere in the distance.

Like all good stories, what goes around comes around. The calvary is a little bit different this time, but effective nonetheless. And there's a little slow-mo fighting with martial arts (bet that caught ya by surprise) where the director uses a bit of artistic license. If you're a Chuck Norris fan, you'll probably find enough about this film to like and it's PG-13 for language. Other decent Chuck Norris films are "Good Guys Wear Black" and "The Hero and the Terror" and "Code of Silence" is pretty good, though being about Chicago mobsters makes it pretty rough in some spots.

And it must be said, the CB radio craze was in full swing when this movie was produced. Surprisingly, it's not overdone in this film. Bit of trivia: The art direction for "Breaker, Breaker" was done by Thomas Thomas (who also designed the van Chuck drives with a huge eagle on it). I just wondered if he was the guy who came up with the name for the movie.

Well, y'all have yourself an outstanding day, keep the greasy side down, watch out for them four-wheelers and Smokey Bear. We gone, bye-bye!

This film recalls the Westerns of yesteryear. A small town is controlled by a crooked mayor and his corrupt sheriff. Instead of cattle, they are producing an illegal substance, moonshine liquor. But the people in this small town are all in this racket! That is a twist over the classic Westerns, like 'Shane'.

The story starts with a speed trap that catches a truck driver, who protests this rigged justice. This driver then disappears. His older brother shows up to search for him, and runs into trouble. There are plenty of fights, car chases, and action. Chuck Norris outfights dozens of opponents, a preview of his later TV series. If the film is slow moving, that is to benefit a drive-in audience. A sprinkling of characters provides added dimensions to an otherwise simple film. Typically of this genre, the hero is captured and sentenced to death; his fate seems sealed. But a woman on a motorcycle (or her double) finds an abandoned Highway Patrol car (!), and calls for help on the radio. Passing truckers form a convoy to ride to the rescue, like the Cavalry in old Westerns [a distortion of history]. And so the good guys win in the end. Its not a great movie, but its not a bad movie. A larger budget could have improved it. The actor playing the crooked mayor was outstanding.

I love Norris' movies, but this one is just plain terrible. The acting is bad. The editing is idiotic. I mean, after sitting through this turd I finally get to the final fight (and the only good thing about this movie is watching Chuck whooping ass), and they keep switching back and forth between the fight and the stupid horse running around. Who the hell cares about watching the horse?

Dude any Chuck Norris movie rocks! This movie is no exception, I would not dare cross Chuck Norris, For he could come after me, And I would not mess with him if you know what i mean??!!! And I would NOT dare to rate this Under 5 stars due to the abovementioned, that said, this movie is a masterpiece, As it is a Trucker Movie, A Small town gone bad movie(Bad Day at Black Rock Anyone?) and A High Kicking punching Movie! The Truck Scenes are a couple especially towards later on, but the fighting is intense once you get to it. And Come on it's Chuck Norris!

Chuck Norris's brother is hauling freight through a small Texas Town when the local sherif arrests him on a trumped up charge. The town confiscates the load, kidnaps his brother, and puts him in jail.
This causes chuck to go into the town and start opening a king sized can of whoop but. Bad acting, good fight seens, and a poor story line all combine for a pretty good movie. I'd buy this movie just to laugh at the out of date 1960-1970 fasions.
Rich

and it's a shame, these days most direct to video b-movies are not all that great, but back then, they were fun, sure the acting and story are not the best, but it's fun, and really that's what you come for right? fun, good action with some funny scenes in there.

the action may not seem like much next to the jackie chan movies or the post-matrix world and that's a shame, Chucks action always seemed more real, down and dirty, his hits meant something, when he does his big kicks, you know that hurt.

the movie held up better than i thought it would, i saw it again for the first time in years just minutes ago, it has some 70's styles and look, but really it's more of a timeless western feel they have going on, chuck is the stanger coem to clean up "texas city" and save his brother, he faces down the locals, has a great fight or 20, gets the girl and walks off into the sunset.