| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Octagon is Chuck's Best! Began the Ninja-Mania of the 1980s.,
By
This review is from: The Octagon (DVD)
Ever wonder where all the ninja movies of the 1980s came from? They all came about as a result of The Octagon. It was the first ninja movie made in the U.S. It was a huge hit and it single-handedly created the ninja-mania of the '80s. I am a huge Chuck Norris fan and I rank The Octagon as the VEYR BEST movie he has made to date. Not only did the movie make a ton of money at the box office (his most profitable film to date) but it demonstrates Chuck's best karate skills. Watching this movie, you can really see Chuck's skilled martial arts technique and see what he is capable of doing. YOU SEE WHY THIS GUY WAS UNDEFEATED WORLD KARATE CHAMPION SIX TIMES IN A ROW. This movie doesn't require a bunch of cheesy MTV jump-cut edits to deliver good martial arts action like today's cheesy martial arts movies. Here's an FYI: the more camera edits you have during kicks and punches, the less skilled the actor is at doing them. The Octagon shows that Norris doesn't need camera edits to execute triple spinning-back-kicks. He does them one right after another, all right in front of your eyes, from one camera angle (!!!) This movie also features the great Richard Norton in a hidden role as the main masked ninja heavy that Chuck takes on in the final scene. I am so glad to see that this movie is now out on DVD and with some excellent behind the scenes back-features. Two well-produced over 30-minute long documentaries on The Octagon and American Cinema, as well as trailers and 5.1 and surround sound (!!!) After The Octagon, Chuck went on to make An Eye for an Eye, another great Chuck flick. But, to me, The Octagon will always be No. 1. If you want to see what Chuck Norris is capagle of doing in peak form. What him kick some serious ninja butt in this one - the ORIGINAL NINJA MOVIE!
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A traffic sign or martial arts thriller,
By
This review is from: The Octagon (DVD)
I am conflicted and truly felt cognitive dissonance when I reviewed this movie. Anyone who knows me is aware that I am huge Chuck Norris fan. However, this movie is so totally ludicrous and for the most part moot. So this review was hard for me to write. Nevertheless, I still love Chuck Norris and this movie is entertaining but perhaps for all the wrong reasons.
This movie released in 1980 (more than likely shot in 1979) has this total retro feel to it, which as far as I am concerned is a good thing. However, this movie had so many loop holes in it the Millennium Falcon would have no problem flying through them in order to jump into hyper-drive. I would try to explain the story of this film, yet I didn't understand it myself. What I will say is that Chuck Norris is tormented by flashbacks of his childhood and of ninjas (evil). He discovers that his adopted brother (can we say Lego hair) is the leader of an underground ninja crime movement. These ninjas are training in an octagon, hence the title of the movie. The former is really the best description of the movie I can provide. The movie should have been dubbed in French it might have made more sense to me despite the fact I cannot speak French. As for the fighting, it wasn't bad, usually Chuck Norris fair. Another strange thing in this movie was Chuck Norris' intern-monologue; it has this whispering echo thing going on. For the most part, I didn't understand any of Chuck's thoughts. Then there was the character of A.J.: was he Chuck's friend, business partner, brother, an X-File, I don't know. Then there was this older man played by Lee Van Cleef. He was always accompanied by two other men and they always were able to aid Chuck. Again, I don't know who he was, why he was there and how he knew Chuck. All I knew is that he hated ninjas. I have never met a ninja so I can't share this aversion. Oh you will also see a very young Ernie Hudson in this movie. Chuck also has three different "encounters" or "relationships" with women in this movie. The first woman is sort of ditzy and is accosted by ninjas. The second woman Chuck calls a whore. Finally, the third looks like a girl I use to date. I am not sure if any of this information means anything. In retrospect I look at "The Octagon" in two perspectives. The first perspective is a movie that is so bad it makes one wonder why it was made and what events in one's life resulted in viewing this film. The second perspective is a movie that is just random scenes and the only continuity being the characters and location. Under the assumption the viewer surrenders to the latter, they might really enjoy this movie. Sadly this movie seems very thrown together and didn't know what it wanted to do with itself. The only reason I gave this movie two stars is because after about forty minutes I just started laughing. Once this transpired, I started to lose the oxygen going to my brain and began enjoying the nonsense that is "The Octagon". This behavior continued up forty-eight hours after the movie ended. I will never look at a "stop sign" the same way again.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"Expect the unexpected and trust no one.",
By cookieman108 "cookieman108®" (Inside the jar...) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Octagon (DVD)
The actual title for this film is `The' Octagon (1980)...Amazon seems to have left off the `The' part, and it's a minor distinction, but that's how I've always known this film, as The Octagon, rather than just Octagon (the DVD case has it correctly)...for some reason it annoyed me, but I've since gotten over it...it's just that I can't help get the feeling that in terms of Chuck Norris and these DVD releases of his earlier films, there seems to be something of a lack of respect...mislabeled titles on seller sites, and often, the DVDs themselves are rarely presented in the original aspect ratio...perhaps there is a conspiracy...anyway, The Octagon was co-written by Leigh Chapman, who was not only responsible for the atrocious Octaman (1971)...(is there an `Octa' theme here?), but also wrote the classic exploitation film Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974), which I've been patiently waiting for release to DVD. Directing the film is Eric Karson, whose credits also include Dirt (1979) and Opposing Force (1986) and starring is Chuck Norris (A Force of One) in a role we would become accustom to seeing him in as the reluctant hero (I won't fight unless I have to!). Also appearing is Karen Carlson (The Candidate), Art Hindle (Black Christmas, Porky's), Richard Norton (The Blood of Heroes), Jack Carter (Alligator), Ernie Hudson (The Crow), Tracey Walter (Repo Man, Conan the Destroyer), and Lee Van Cleef (Escape from New York).
Norris plays Scott James, an ex-martial artist who gets drawn into the world of international terrorism after the death of his would be girlfriend and her family at the hands of a ninja death squad, trained by someone who James has familial ties with...sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? Well, that's the short and skinny of it...the plot is actually much more involved and convoluted (i.e. confusing) as the story is swimming with all kinds of extraneous characters and plot threads including, but not limited to, a publishing heiress threatened by the same death squad, opposing mercenary groups, one lead by Van Cleef (his acts more in the capacity of bodyguards/anti-terrorists, while the other is involved in terrorism), a ninja training camp, and a girl who was once a trainee in the aforementioned camp, but now wants out. Sounds kinda messy, doesn't it? Well it is... Okay, first of all, let me start with the story...it is too long and drawn out, featuring way too many characters and subplots (and let's not forget the numerous flashbacks). All these unnecessary complications only served to drag the pace of the film down, and this is highlighted by the fact there's only one fight scene in the first 50 minutes of the film. Sometimes I gripe about the lack of character development in a film, but here, there was way too much as the writer tries to tie so many characters together with often the loosest of circumstances. When I see a Chuck Norris film, I wanna see some action, and there is some here, but not until much later. Had they cut the number of characters by half (and subsequently the useless plot threads), they could have shaved about 20 to 30 minutes off the bloated run time of 103 minutes, and had a much better film. What was the point of Van Cleef's character? His group was presented as an elite team of bodyguards, but they seemed hardly worth their price, as their clientele would usually end up dead. Hardly good for business, I must say... Something else that annoyed me about this film was Norris' character would regularly have this creepy, whispery, echoic, inner monologue that was often hard to discern, and offered nothing of use, only the fact that he liked to continually state the obvious to himself in his own mind. And the concept of a ninja training camp is cool, but it lost a bit of credibility once I saw the trainees as many of them were hardly what I would deem `ninja' quality, many being overweight, out of shape, and lacking the necessary discipline to even be admitted...I guess secret terrorist organizations have to take what they can get. The real action begins about 15 or 20 minutes before the film ends, as Norris infiltrates the ninja training camp, which is supposedly located somewhere in South America. Chuck takes on a whole load of enemies, using hand to hand combat as well as various weapons. The fight scenes here are excellent, and almost make up for the rest of the film. As far as the acting goes, I think a few did alright, but they were obviously hampered by a lame script, and were probably as confused as I was about what the hell was going on in the film. As I stated before, had they excised about half the characters, gotten rid of a lot of the `touchy feely' junk, spread some more action around, and removed any number of pointless plot threads, I think this could have been an outstanding action flick, rather than a overly long drudge with nearly all the action stacked at the end. To be fair, I'm pretty sure this film did very well when it came out, and a lot of people enjoyed it, but I would hardly call this Chuck's best film. The film is presented in full screen format on this DVD, which is what I was expecting after seeing Trinity Home Entertainment's release of A Force of One (1979), which is also only in full screen format. Why they didn't have access to an original wide screen print I'll never known. I will say the print on this DVD does look very good, and the audio comes through clear available in 5.1 Dolby Digital along with English and Spanish 2.0. There are some extras including The Making of the Octagon (39 minutes). How American Cinema Changed Hollywood Forever (28 minutes), trailers for the film, and an extensive cast and crew biography section. Cookieman108
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
