Lone Wolf McQuade: The spaghetti western of Chuck Norris movies, with Chuck here as proto-Walker, maverick Texas Ranger J.J. McQuade, fighting for justice in the American southwest against banditos culled directly from Peckinpah westerns, through the medium of his booted feet, sawed-off shotgun, his pet wolf, and his super-charged Ford Bronco that apparently never has its lights off. He, his ex-wife, and daughter all live in El Paso, though his wife and daughter are planning a move to Las Cruces (which they make sound like the end of the earth, as opposed to say, 25 miles away). In the course of dealing desert justice, he runs afoul of arms dealer/martial artist Rawley Wilkes (played by Keith Carradine), who is robbing federal arms shipments at the behest of his evil midget partner, Falcon (no, I’m not making that up). McQuade is saddled with a new partner, Kayo (a very young Robert Beltran) and an obligatory distracting love interest who is more than she appears (played by Barbara Carrere). This film is trying so hard to be a Sergio Leone homage, it’s hard not to give it some kudos for commitment. The supporting cast is fun include the always watchable L.Q. Jones and William Sanderson, but the acting is by and large, fairly terrible. Norris is as wooden as usual. Throw in some anemic fight scenes, including a much hallooed one between Norris and Carradine (which looks like a joke compared to contemporary fight scenes) and you’ve got the makings of a fairly ho-hum action picture. Not nearly as much as fun as say, “Invasion USA”, which gets belly laughs just for being awful. Woodchuck sez, “For serious Norris fans only.”
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