Chuck Norris has never really done it for me when it comes to action movies. No matter what his martial arts skills, he’s not the best actor, and consequently, he found himself stuck in lower-budget action films, much like The Delta Force.

But with all of it’s trappings and tropes, the film has a really strong cast and really does seem to be making the best of its budget and locations.

Robert Forster (I love his work!) is a sinister Middle Eastern terrorist who, alongside a few of the faithful, seized a commercial airliner taking its passengers (among them Martin Balsam, Shelley Winters, and George Kennedy) hostage.

As negotiations get underway, the U.S. prepares to retaliate, General Woodbridge (Robert Vaughn) orders the Delta Force into action. Led by Nick (Lee Marvin) and with Scott (Norris) at his side, the pair lead a team into the Middle East to rescue the hostages and remind the rest of the world not to f*$k with the United States (Go ‘Merica!).

In black outfits that don’t look a lot like uniforms, or military gear, but budget, the team, which includes Steve James, heads to pay the smack down, and there are some solid action beats, and even some good character moments that hint at the possibility of a bigger and stronger film than the one that was delivered.

Sure, by the time this film rolled around some of the stars didn’t have the drawing power that they may have had, but they are good actors in roles that give the film a little depth. If an a-list director and cast had gotten on board with this, this one could have been really big.

As it was, it did well enough to make Golan-Globus the production company enough profit to okay a sequel and brnig back Norris to lead the charge.

The real issues lay with the fact that Golan doesn’t do anything interesting with the film as a director, it’s just a standard film shoot. It does geet elevated by the fact that the film has a score by Alan Silvestri!

Forster is vicious, and Norris throws punches and races around on a kitted out dirt bike blowing things up. It’s nothing exceptional, but I can see how it found its audience in the 80s and this is one that probably did very well on home rentals when it hit Beta and VHS – it may have not looked like really huge action on the big screen but on the home television set, this probably looked pretty good.

I’m not sure I’ll dive into the sequel, but there may be a couple more Chuck Norris films in the near future for me. Any recommendations?