{"id":4327,"date":"2024-10-05T18:59:41","date_gmt":"2024-10-05T18:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4327"},"modified":"2024-10-12T20:51:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T20:51:01","slug":"breaker-breaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/05\/breaker-breaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaker! Breaker!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Breaker! Breaker! <\/strong>(1977)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American International\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 86 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence, language, mild sexual content, drunkenness)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Don Hulette\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Terry Chambers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Don Hulette\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Mario DiLeo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 6, 1977 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Chuck Norris, George Murdock, Terry O’Connor, Don Gentry, John Di Fusco, Ron Cedillos, Michael Augenstein, Dan Vandegrift, Jack Nance, David Bezar, Douglas Stevenson, Paul Kawecki, Larry Feder, Miranda Garrison, Amelia Laurenson.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $12M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Movies don’t get much more dated than Breaker! Breaker!<\/strong>, a simple-minded but enjoyable little actioner that brings together two popular trends of the late 70s, CB radio and martial arts. Throw in a fleet of 18-wheelers in the climax and you have a Saturday matinee flick from \u201977. Chuck Norris (A Force of One) plays J.D. Dawes, a kung fu trucker whose younger brother Billy (Augenstein) goes missing while making his first solo run. He falls prey to a speed trap set up by the corrupt police department of Texas City, CA. They haul him in front of town leader Judge Trimmings (Murdock, Thunder and Lightning) on false charges. When he\u2019s found guilty, he tries to make a run for it only to be cornered by two brutal deputies, Strode (Gentry) and Boles (Cedillos).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Acting on a tip, J.D. goes to Texas City to look for his brother. Naturally, he\u2019s not given a warm welcome by the uncooperative locals. The local diner owner won\u2019t even let him use the phone. The deputies try to strong-arm him but J.D. handles it in the only style befitting Norris. The only friendly he meets is waitress Arlene (O\u2019Connor), the widow of Trimmings\u2019 late son. There\u2019s some bad blood there. It isn\u2019t long before they get a little PG romance going. And so it goes. J.D. goes around asking questions. The judge, not wanting his illegal doings exposed, orders his guys to take care of J.D.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A movie with a title like Breaker! Breaker!<\/strong> isn\u2019t likely to be deep. Did you expect otherwise? It\u2019s exactly what it looks like, a dopey B-movie with a flimsy plot, bad acting, idiotic dialogue and dim-witted characters. It also has big trucks, kung fu action, redneck baddies and CB lingo- e.g. \u201c10-4, good buddy\u201d and \u201cBreaker, breaker\u201d. Directed by Don Hulette, it\u2019s a low-budget production that was shot in 11 days for $250,000. It\u2019s mainly notable for being Norris\u2019 first starring role. There\u2019s not a lot to say about his performance or any of the others either. He does what he does best only he doesn\u2019t do it as often as one would like. Either way, he\u2019s still upstaged by the fleet of trucks that come to his rescue.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While the ending is certainly cool on a basic level, it\u2019s not a satisfactory conclusion. At a certain point, it just stops, shows the aftermath and goes to the end credits. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s too much to ask for a more conclusive conclusion, not even from a silly, inconsequential action flick like this one.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Oddly enough, I like Breaker! Breaker!<\/strong> I probably would have loved it if I was still 10. It\u2019s tailor-made for young boys that love anything on wheels. Me, I like it for the fight scenes. They\u2019re not among the best ever filmed, but it\u2019s always fun to see Norris in action. PLUS, it predates CGI which means Norris did all his own fighting and stunts. I highly doubt 21st<\/sup> century kids would like it. A lot of it, especially those ancient CB radios, will seem alien. That\u2019s the charm of this film. For those of a certain age, it\u2019s fun to sit back and laugh at how dated it is. I half-expected to see an expiration date in the closing credits. It\u2019s not high art or even good cinema; it\u2019s simply dumb B-movie fun and makes no apologies for it. Can I get a 10-4, good buddy? Over and out!\"\"<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breaker! Breaker! (1977)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American International\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 86 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence, language, mild sexual content, drunkenness)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Don Hulette\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Terry Chambers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Don Hulette\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Mario DiLeo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 6, 1977 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Chuck Norris, George Murdock, Terry O’Connor, Don Gentry, John Di Fusco, Ron Cedillos, Michael Augenstein, Dan Vandegrift, Jack Nance, David […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Breaker-Breaker-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4327"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4601,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327\/revisions\/4601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}