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Fans of
Walker, Texas Ranger, martial-arts veteran Chuck Norris's small-screen alter ego, get their fill of danger, uplift, and karate moves in
Team Cherokee, a feature-length version of a two-part story line. As Cordell Walker, Norris strides stoically through a typical series plot casting the Rangers as avenging angels foiling racism, greed, and their foes' Miranda rights in the name of fair play, set against the backdrop of NASCAR racing. As always, Walker and his buffed comrades solve plot lapses or flat dialogue with flying kicks, whirling elbows, and a soft-boiled idealism that synthesizes liberal tolerance, good-old-boy camaraderie, and a weakness for collarless shirts.
A string of track victories by a Native American team of car racers goads the ruthless, redneck circuit champs to resort to intimidation, sabotage, and commercially sanctioned road rage at triple-digit speeds. As in most Walker episodes, our hero's involvement stems not from a formal assignment but from personal connections, in this case a lifelong friendship with Team Cherokee's manager. Race footage, brawls, and periodic time-outs for wooden repartee and plot exposition at avuncular C.J.'s bar advance the story past the near-fatal crash that sidelines the team's star driver, leaving the ride free for Walker's triumphant debut as a racer. Naturally, there's a climactic dustup with the villainous rival team.
Team Cherokee preserves a formula that invokes bursts of piety amid one of network television's most relentless (if bloodless) barrages of violence. Both good guys and bad are proudly reduced to stereotypes, achieving a kind of surreal neutrality: a jaw-dropping gag about the Cherokees' "reservations" is cancelled out by an equally ham-fisted caricature of the racist team's owner. Ultimately, these are cartoons, as stylized as Norris's craggy rendition of the title theme, promising "the eyes of the ranger are upon you." --Sam Sutherland
![Walker:Texas Ranger-One Riot One Ranger [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5107QP9QX1L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
VHS ~ Clarence Gilyard Jr.
DVD ~ Chuck Norris
DVD ~ Chuck Norris
DVD ~ Chuck Norris
