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Breaker! Breaker!
USA 1977
produced by Don Hulette, Samuel Schulman (executive), Bernard Tabakin (executive) for Paragon Films, Worldwide Productions
directed by Don Hulette
starring Chuck Norris, George Murdock, Terry O'Connor, Don Gentry, John Di Fusco, Ron Cedillos, Michael Augenstein, Dan Vandegrift, Douglas Stevenson, Paul Kawecki, Larry Feder, Jack Nance, David Bezar, Miranda Garrison, Amelia Laurenson, Ray Saniger, Dee Cooper, Deborah Shore, The Great John L., David Stephen Essex
written by Terry Chambers, music by Don Hulette
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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Trucker and martial arts teacher J.D.'s (Chuck Norris) trucker brother
Billy (Michael Augenbstein) has gone missing on his first solo run in a
Californian town called Texas City that's ruled autocratically by its
judge, Trimmings (George Murdock). J.D. decides to check out the town,
which has been rumoured to be a vicious speed trap for truckers for years,
and investigate, but he's met with open hostility almost immediately, and
soon has to find out Trimmings and his cronies wonb't even shy away from
murder just to protect their own interests. But J.D. is someone who knows
how to fight back ... J.D. receives unexpected support from Trimmings'
widowed daughter-in-law (Terry O'Connor) and the village idiot (John Di
Fusco), who turns out to be as righteous as he's simple-minded, but even
these two can't perform miracles, and eventually, J.D. lands in jail and
the judge convicts him to death ... and all the townfolks are already
looking forward to a nice necktie party - when J.D.'s trucker friends
learn about this, and they use their vehicles to not only save J.D. but
also to flatten Texas City in the process. And in the finale, J.D. doesn't
only find his brother, who's still alive after all, he's also allowed to
fight and kill many of the main villains of the piece. Chuck
Norris' breakthrough American movie is ... well, not as bad as much of his
later work might suggest: It's nicely filmed, features a great finale
(after all, what's better than trucks flattening a small town), and is by
far not as cynical as Norris's movies and action cinema in general have
turned from the 1980's onwards. That all said, the film is not without
its shortcomings though: It suffers from a way too long buildup before the
story actually sets in, which seems to serve nothing but establish Norris
as a tough guy, Chuck Norris as such is not much of an actor, and Norris's
fight scenes are rather poorly shot, don't really focus on his martial
arts skills at all. Still, definitely one of the better Chuck Norris
flicks - even if that isn't saying awfully much.
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