Review of Firewalker

Chuck Norris and Louis Gossett Jr. star in this pale imitation of Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Melody Anderson is the girl that persuades the would be adventurers to search for hidden treasure. Sonny Landham plays a villain so overzealous that it would be more appropriate to find him in a 1930's serial. J. Lee Thompson directs this mess, as if he already had one foot in the grave at the time. There is no suspense, tension, or drama, and very little humor in this "Raiders" retread. There are only two things the film has going for it. The first is the welcome supporting players that show up like Will Sampson, John Rhys-Davies, and Ian Abercrombie of later Seinfeld fame. The other thing is the quick scene changes that occur. It seems that very few scenes last longer than ten minutes before the location changes. The reason for this might be we are able to point out the many continuity and logic problems otherwise. We have a gun that disappears and then reappears when convenient among the many problems in here. Some of the dialog and acting (especially Norris) is embarrassingly bad. Norris calling Anderson a fruitcake is supposed to generate anything more than a yawn from us? Perhaps the most ridiculous scene has Norris running around in a cornfield wearing a full length cassock in disguise, and if that isn't enough, we get to see him delivering his patented kicks while still wearing it! Norris had already been typecast by the time he played in this: his first comedy. If he would have been better directed, had better actors surrounding him, and had a better script, maybe he would have been more successful. But we could say that about every bad film, couldn't we? 1/2 star of 4.