Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

bkoganbing Chuck Norris fans and martial art film fans in general will love The Octagon. He seems to be going for a record number of casualties in dispensing bad guys in this one.As seems to be usual for occidental actors in these films Norris was adopted by a ninja master who raised him as his own and after his blood kin disgraced him in competition with young Norris kicked him out.Now the ninja school is being used to train mercenaries and terrorists and the rules there are mighty strict. Counter terrorism honcho Lee Van Cleef wants to put them out of business. But Norris has to have and gets a personal reason for getting the job done.A little bit of Eugene O'Neill's self analysis and introspection dialog is done by Norris in voice overs. Believe me it worked a lot better in Strange Interlude.Enough action for any martial arts fan here.

Harry Lags The Octagon's premise is simple. Chuck Norris vs Ninjas. That's really about it. Norris is Scott James, a man haunted by memories of his growing up and rivalry with his former martial art brother Seikura, who now heads a Ninja training camp and is teaching international terrorists the ways of the Ninja. James must stop the organization and face off, once and for all, with his former brother.There's little in the way of story, and sadly the film takes it's time in getting to the point where Norris finally takes out the Ninja trash. Like a lot of his movies, the lack of much plot means the film moves pretty slowly between the action. When the action does kick in, it's quite impressive. The real standout though is Norris infiltrating the Ninja base in the film's climax. It's classic Norris.The cast are okay. Lee Van Cleef and Richard Norton pop up in small roles, Richard Norton actually has a few different roles here.I would have rated it an 8 out of 10 if there was a bit more action in the middle half of the film. For the most part, only Chuck Norris and ninja fans will get the most out of THE OCTAGON (1980).Overall worth watching..7 out of 10

Comeuppance Reviews Scott James (Chuck) is a man who looks spiffy on the outside (he wears a pretty sweet tuxedo) but seems to have a lot of turmoil on the inside. Not only is he constantly flashing back to his childhood and his initial Martial Arts training (the young Scott is played by Mike Norris), but the voices in his head are overpowering and seem to tell him important things. All this is going to come in handy when Scott James faces off against perhaps the ultimate foe: terrorist ninjas. Yes, terrorist ninjas. While protecting a woman named Justine (Carlson) from said TerNin's - which he does with the help of mentor McCarn (Van Cleef) - he realizes the true depth of what he's up against. The nefarious group trains in an octagon-shaped facility, and their organization is named...The Octagon. Will Scott James triumph over these squares? Find out today! While The Octagon contains no cage fighting, or Punchfighting of any kind, it is in fact a reasonable Chuck movie. It's not bad, but it's not great either. By today's standards, the pace might be too slow for some viewers, and at 104 minutes it's certainly on the long side. But what else would you expect from director Karson, who later was responsible for Van Damme dud Black Eagle (1988)? But the cast perhaps makes up for it. Besides the aforementioned Norrises, and of course the legendary Lee Van Cleef, we have Tadashi Yamashita of Sword of Heaven (1985) fame, whose hair steals his own performance out from under him. The great Gerald Okamura has a brief role as a member of The Octagon, as does John Fujioka, and John Barrett does stunts as well as a small role. There's even a young Ernie Hudson on board as a fighter. As is usual for a Chuck movie, Aaron Norris was stunt coordinator, and besides doing stunts, Richard Norton has a nice appearance as a baddie who gets in a fight with Chuck.Norton's hair and mustache combo look awesome, and his blonde bowl haircut is so bright, it actually lights an entire dark scene all on its own. But back to Chuck, this movie definitely belongs to the era in his acting career where his performances were noticeably, obviously wooden. Or, WoodChuck for short. But beyond the fact that this is a WoodChuck movie, at least you can hear his thoughts, which is enlightening. There's a passing mention that Scott James was a Vietnam vet, and the baddies' training camp is seems like a dry run for the later American Ninja (1985) - which would also reunite Norton, Yamashita and Fujioka.

qormi This film was laughably bad. Chuck Norris narrated his thoughts as in an echo chamber. Why? His sidekick, A.J., had the worst 70's hair imaginable. His hair resembled topiary. Instead of a haircut, I'm sure he got pruned. The plot was actually so simplistic, it seemed complicated. It seemed that I was always missing something because I subconsciously couldn't handle the fact that this movie was indeed that bad. Norris was more wooden than Sequoia National Park. In one scene, Norris is lying on a cot next to a beautiful woman who is lying on her own separate cot. Norris says nothing in the well lit room. His shirt is off and he looks like a monkey with piles of reddish, stringy hair all over his arms, chest, and back. He's obviously two chromosomes away from an orangutan. He lifts up his arms, revealing massive armpit hair. At this juncture, the woman disrobes, walks to his cot, and climbs on top of him.Everything about this film was ludicrous. The crazy ninja training camp, which looked like a scene from "Hot Shots! Part Deux", the mysterious woman who got killed by blow gun dart, the pointless car chase, Lee Van Cleef's nonsensical character....this movie is classic garbage. A monument to ineptitude.