Eye for an Eye [VHS]

This 1981 Chuck Norris movie straddles the transition from the gritty police dramas of the '70s (like The French Connection and Serpico) to the heroic revenge fantasies of the '80s (like Sylvester Stallone's Rambo movies). Norris plays reckless cop Sean Kane; after Kane's partner is killed in suspicious circumstances, Kane turns in his badge. When his partner's newscaster wife gets killed after turning up some crucial evidence, her father, who is Kane's teacher in the martial arts, teams up with Kane to track down the criminals responsible. An Eye for an Eye gets a substantial lift from head villain Christopher Lee's silky, effortless menace, as well as from Richard Roundtree as a hardnosed police captain. The early scenes of tension and suspense are surprisingly textured; the rest of the movie features a lot of impressive high kicks. --Bret Fetzer