Here at JoBlo, we were saddened to hear that the iconic Chuck Norris had passed away. He seemed like one of those larger-than-life guys that was going to be around forever, so to hear that he had died was a gut punch for many of us who grew up in the eighties and were such big fans of his work. Having been born in ’81 myself, Chuck Norris was always an iconic presence. I remember the first movie of his that I ever saw was Firewalker on the Canadian HBO – First Choice – mainly because it was one of the only movies of his from back then that wasn’t R-rated, so it aired on TV in the afternoon. Of course, it was far from his finest work (it’s actually awful), but it was a gateway movie.
It was during the nineties that, as a keen karate student, I started watching all of his movies on cable. Fox, in particular, often aired his movies on Saturday afternoons, which is where I first saw heavily edited versions of Missing in Action, Invasion U.S.A., The Delta Force and others. TBS also kept me well fed with Norris vehicles, with movies like Forced Vengeance, Silent Rage, Hero and the Terror, and others. I also remember a lot of his movies would show up in the cheap bins at department stores when they were re-issued on cheap tapes, so I had copies of Lone Wolf McQuade, Code of Silence and the Delta Force movies recorded at SLP in my library. At the same time, his TV series, Walker: Texas Ranger, was in full swing, but it was never my jam (I find nineties action TV shows haven’t stood the test of time like eighties ones).
Of course, many of his films are undeniably cheesy, but I also stand by a few of them (as outlined in this list), with Code of Silence – to me – being far and away his best movie. But what do you think? Take our poll and let us know!
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