Le Temple d'or

No matter how bad a movie may be to most people someone is going to like it, and I like this one. Not the greatest film ever made by a long shot, for me it has a certain charm to it. I think Chuck Norris and Louis Gossett Jr both do great jobs and work well and complement each other. The story has them going after a bunch of gold. Along the way they run into many obstacles. This movie for me has a nice combination of action and humor, and it is definitely more fun if you don't take it too seriously. Despite the fact it is rated so low though I saw it is worth a look...but you may want to read the other reviews here first.

I've always been a fan of Chuck Norris and this is my favorite of his films. Someone once said he is the only truly sucessful terrible actor since Audie Murphy, but they need to see this film. He delivers a wonderful comedic performance and he and Louis Gossett Jr. are the best buddy team since Newman and Redford. The camradarie between them is awesome and its a shame they never made another film together. This film is the best treasure hunt film since Sierra Madre with Humphrey Bogart. Melody Anderson is delightful as the mystery woman and she and Norris have several hilarious exchanges. Of course, there are several karate fight scenes excellently staged. It sort of reminds you of Raiders of The Lost Ark because it throws things at you so fast you don't know when to duck and you enjoy every second of it. One of my favorites and I hope future generations realize what a great film it truly is like they did with Citizen Kane.

I actually think this movie is Norris's best effort to date. I enjoyed it. The interplay between him and Gossett was good stuff and it didn't have much of the martial arts nonsense I hate so much. I give it a 9 out of 10. I liked the story and to me, Chuck was funny. He's a far better actor than Seagal, but then, who isn't? It's kind of a pity Chuck didn't continue along the lines of this movie and went in other directions. None of which, in my opinion, were as entertaining. As a rule, I never watch any movies made by Martial arts people turned "actors" but I made an exception for this one and was pleasantly surprised. Not a classic by any means, but worth watching.

I personally love this movie. I think the interaction between Norris and Gossett is hilarious. Quite a few of the fight scenes are really funny, while still showing good action. One of the best things about this movie is that Chuck Norris isn't perfect in it. His character fights very well, {the karate sequences are excellent} but he can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and isn't particularly bright.

For those that hadn't figured it out, this is intentional. I found the imperfect Chuck to be a delightful part of this movie. I thought it was a great spoof of the treasure hunter movies. and it's tongue in cheek approach was very refreshing.

"Firewalker" is more than a bit of a mess. Like most movies from the Cannon studio, it's not low budget enough to dip into Ed Wood land, but not well done enough to rise to a major studio production. The sets are cheap and the story is not much more than a vaguely connected series of scenes referencing better films--but I think the filmmakers were well aware of these and other shortcomings and set a self effacing, tongue in cheek tone from the start. Though as sloppy and slapdash as most of director J. Lee Thompson's other 80's efforts, "Firewalker" shows Thompson turning these attributes to his advantage and giving us a breezy, goofy, self-aware-yet-totally-clueless, low budget pop culture gem. I don't think anyone was under the impression that they were making the next "Raiders of the Lost Ark," they just wanted to give us some old fashioned fun. I mean, an Academy Award winner costarring with CHUCK NORRIS? How could it not be great in its own way? And while we're on the subject, this is one of the few films where you couldn't call Norris "Old Stone Face." In this film Chuck gives one of his liveliest, most natural performances ever--almost charming. Too bad he didn't work with Thompson more often.