{"id":8551,"date":"2024-11-19T00:05:55","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T05:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8551"},"modified":"2024-11-19T00:05:55","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T05:05:55","slug":"the-octagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/19\/the-octagon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Octagon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Octagon <\/strong>(1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American Cinema\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 104 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong violence, brief partial nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Eric Karson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul Aaron and Leigh Chapman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dick Halligan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michel Hugo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 22, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Chuck Norris, Karen Carlson, Lee Van Cleef, Art Hindle, Carol Bagdasarian, Tadashi Yamashita, Kim Lankford, Larry D. Mann, Kurt Grayson, Richard Norton, Yuki Shimoda, Redmond Gleeson, Alan Chappuis, Brian Libby, Ken Gibbel, Cheyenne Rivera, Aaron Norris, Jo McDonnell, Jack Carter, John Fujioka, Ernie Hudson.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $18.9M (US)<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0Fact, Chuck Norris is an extraordinarily skilled martial artist. They definitely eclipse his acting skills or lack thereof. Sometimes it\u2019s the only reason to watch some of his movies. That\u2019s definitely true in the case of The Octagon<\/strong>, a muddled mess of an action movie involving ninjas, international terrorists and estranged brothers settling an old score.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It opens with the assassination of a Canadian politician in Paris by terrorists. You\u2019d think this would be crucial to the plot since director Eric Karson (Black Eagle) elected to open with it. It\u2019s not. It\u2019s pretty much forgotten by the 15-minute mark and never brought up again. We meet Norris\u2019 character in the scene that follows. He plays Scott James, a former competitive martial artist who quit competing for reasons I\u2019m not entirely clear on. It\u2019s something to do with the last guy he fought. Anyway, that\u2019s not important either.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Scott\u2019s involvement with the unnamed terrorist organization begins when he meets a dancer named Nancy (Lankford, Malibu Beach) after a performance. After a flirtatious late dinner, he takes her home and she invites him in. I need to stop for a sec and explain that Scott has a running interior dialogue that we hear via voiceover throughout The Octagon<\/strong>. It\u2019s supposed to portray his inner life. Apparently, it also warns him of impending danger. As soon as they enter Nancy\u2019s house, he knows something is wrong. That\u2019s when they\u2019re attacked by ninjas. He beats them down rather easily, but it still doesn\u2019t Nancy from being killed along with her entire family. Why is she killed? From what I can gather, her brother was involved with the terrorists and dishonored them somehow. The penalty for this offense is death for the betrayer\u2019s entire family.<\/p>\n

\u00a0So what about this terrorist organization? Terrorists from various organizations are trained in the ways of the ninja at a secret compound in Central America. One of the leaders is a guy named Seikura (Yamashita, Gymkata) who just happens to be Scott\u2019s half-brother. They were raised and trained by the same Asian man (Fujioka, American Ninja) until Seikura was disowned for insulting the family\u2019s honor. Now he and Scott are mortal enemies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While trying to find out why ninjas are running around hundreds of years after they supposedly ceased to exist, Scott encounters wealthy newspaper owner Justine (Carlson, The Candidate) who tries to enlist his services in killing Seikura for personal reasons. When he turns her down flat, she recruits his best friend A.J. (Hindle, The Brood) instead. At some point, Scott finally grows a conscience and decides to go after the terrorists himself. He tries to infiltrate their organization to no avail. He\u2019s going to have to get Seikura and the others the traditional way, by sneaking into the camp under the cover of darkness and taking them all on single-handedly. Come on, did you really expect The Octagon<\/strong> to end any other way? We\u2019re talking about a Chuck Norris movie here!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Amidst all the ninja nonsense, action vet Lee Van Cleef (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) pops up a few times as McCarn, an old mercenary friend of Scott\u2019s. Although he does lend assistance in one scene, he\u2019s mainly there for expository purposes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The main issue with The Octagon<\/strong> is one of coherence. The plot doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense. It isn\u2019t forthright with crucial information. Sometimes it withholds it altogether. Why was Scott raised by the Asian guy? What happened to his own family? And exactly what happened in the ring that made him quit the game? It has to be important as it still seems to haunt him. The storyline isn\u2019t easy to follow with all the bad guys running around and multiple change-ups of the female lead\/potential love interest. In addition to Nancy and Justine, Scott also gets involved with Aura (Bagdasarian, Charge of the Model T\u2019s), a female terrorist who defects and switches sides. She must have grown a conscience too.<\/p>\n

Some of The Octagon<\/strong> is just plain silly. How come it\u2019s so easy for A.J. to find the secret location of the compound? And if it\u2019s so easy, why hasn\u2019t law enforcement raided the place? The group\u2019s existence isn\u2019t exactly the best kept secret. You\u2019d think that some country\u2019s government would try to shut them down at some point. But why am I even trying to apply logic to The Octagon<\/strong>? It\u2019s merely a dopey martial arts actioner that allows Norris to strut his stuff.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As it nears the end, The Octagon<\/strong> finally gains its footing and becomes a routine revenge tale. That\u2019s when it gets interesting even if it is predictable. You know that Scott will take down a few dozen ninjas before finally facing off against his brother in a fight to the death. You know that the trainees in the compound will help Scott by taking care of the guards. It\u2019s still cool even if the outcome is a foregone conclusion. In addition, it\u2019s always great seeing an old pro like Lee Van Cleef in action.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Norris gives his usual taciturn performance, but I have to say the voiceover is distracting, especially with its whispering echo effect. It\u2019s annoying and makes little sense. It\u2019s as unclear as pretty much everything else in The Octagon<\/strong>. What is clear is that Karson is incapable of assembling a coherent narrative. Part of the blame falls on Paul Aaron and Leigh Chapman for their underwritten screenplay. Certain scenes are great. The fight choreography is right on-point. The problem is the movie doesn\u2019t hold together and work as a whole. The acting isn\u2019t especially great either. It\u2019s hard to say which female lead is worse, Carlson or Lankford? Neither one delivers their lines convincingly. Also, it runs too long at 104 minutes. It\u2019s too bad because I see the makings of a decent martial arts flick here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Oh, I almost forgot to explain the title\u2019s meaning. The Octagon<\/strong> does NOT refer to the group; it refers to an area where students are put to the test by the leaders to see if they have what it takes. Oddly, it doesn\u2019t come up until the last 15 minutes begging the question why the movie is named after it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0ANYWAY, The Octagon<\/strong> is an okay action movie. It has some great fight scenes, but gets taken down a few notches by a dumb, convoluted plot that needs exposition and tightening up.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Octagon (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American Cinema\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 104 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong violence, brief partial nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Eric Karson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul Aaron and Leigh Chapman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dick Halligan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michel Hugo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 22, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Chuck Norris, Karen Carlson, Lee Van Cleef, Art Hindle, Carol Bagdasarian, Tadashi Yamashita, Kim Lankford, Larry D. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-Octagon-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\/8551","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=8551"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8833,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8551\/revisions\/8833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}