Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

An Eye for an Eye (1981) *** (out of 4)After witnessing his partner murdered, Detective Sean Kane (Chuck Norris) flips out and goes after the men who did it. He resigns from his job but after his partner's fiance is also murdered he sets out to bring down the bad guys, which leads him to a drug operation.AN EYE FOR AN EYE is a pretty good Norris movie and I'd argue that it's at the very top of the ones that he has made. The story itself is pretty much your standard revenge tale but where the film really succeeds is with its non-stop action and a pretty stellar cast. The film certainly has some flaws here and there but if you're a fan of 80's action movies then it's a must see for its entertainment value.As I said, the best thing going for the picture was the very good cast. You've got Norris playing the type of role that suits him well. He's certainly believable in the role of a cop and his martial arts skills add most of the fun. You've got Mako in a supporting part and he adds some nice comic touch. Richard Roundtree was a bad muthafuc*er long before Samuel L. Jackson and he's fun here. Then you've got Christopher Lee is a somewhat thankless role but he's still fun to watch. Matt Clark and Rosalind Chao are good in their small roles as well. Then there's Professor Toru Tanaka who plays one of the bad guys and nearly steals the show every time he's on screen.The San Francisco location certainly help the film and we're also given a nice score as well as some good cinematography. Of course, people are coming to a film liek this for the action and there's plenty of that. Countless shoot outs and various other forms of violence certainly make the film quite memorable. Add the cast into all of this and you've got a very entertaining revenge picture.

Back when I had watched THE EXPENDABLES 2 (2012), I acquired about a score of vintage Chuck Norris vehicles; I was familiar with only a few of them, and this was the first opportunity I have had to check one of the others out – albeit in tribute to Sir Christopher Lee.The film is very typical action fare of its era – comparable, for instance, to the contemporaneous flicks Charles Bronson was starring in – but obviously incorporating Norris' brand of martial arts to complement the expected gunplay. The plot, too, is pretty routine: the star, along with his cop partner, gets ambushed (due to a snitch within the Police force) during a raid on some drug dealers – with the latter losing his life in gruesome fashion. Receiving no support from his superior (Richard Roundtree), he gives up his gun and badge – but, needless to say, continues the investigation on his own. This becomes even more personal when his partner's Asian TV reporter wife (engaged in her own expose' of drug trafficking) first contacts Norris that she may have acquired a lead on the villains and then winds up dead herself before she can divulge the information to the hero. Soon, however, he acquires a couple of associates: the dead woman's father (Mako), himself a martial arts expert and who often comments wryly on Norris' own skills; and her co-worker, who just happens to live in the same building, and who eventually goes to live with our protagonist and his dog after her own place is ransacked (at one point even comforting a perspiring Norris in the wake of a nightmare).Lee plays the TV station head, but his mere casting gives away his identity as the head of the smugglers, while Matt Clark is the crooked cop who gets to die violently for his double face. The film, then, is not bad as these things go (aided by a rather good score)…but there were a few instances of unintentional humour (Lee's chief goon is a club-footed giant – played by wrester "Professor" Toru Tanaka – so that his pursuit of the female journalist in a train station, which havoc apparently goes completely unnoticed by the authorities, emerges as awkward, to say the least), misjudged direction (when she calls Norris and is bluntly interrupted, the latter keeps asking her what is going on rather than precipitating to her rescue!; likewise, Roundtree keeps antagonizing Norris when their goals are clearly the same) and outright silliness (Lee, realizing that his operation is jeopardized, exclaims Norris's character name upon seeing him at his mansion, as if he had not been sufficiently set-up as his nemesis all through the picture).

A clean shaven Chuck Norris stars in this enjoyable formula action movie with an admittedly trite story. Chuck plays Sean Kane, a narcotics detective whose partner, Dave Pierce (Terry Kiser), is killed early on. Sean, despite having images of the nightmarish scene in his head, is determined to find and punish those responsible. This, of course, he does after resigning from the police force. Teaming up with his gruff and witty mentor, James Chan (Mako), Sean sets about determining the identity of some dope smugglers.As far as "vengeance for killing my loved ones" cinema goes, "An Eye for an Eye" is agreeable entertainment. An engaging Chuck delivers one of his better performances, and his supporting cast is pretty damn eclectic. His adversary is a smooth and dapper Sir Christopher Lee, as news station owner Morgan Canfield. Lee is cool but is kind of wasted in this part. Richard "Shaft" Roundtree is Chucks' boss, one of those standard issue superior officers who's weary of his employees' methods. The gorgeous and sexy Rosalind Chao is effective as the partners' grieving girlfriend; Maggie Cooper is likewise pleasing to watch as Chucks' love interest. A fine assortment of first rate character actors also helps matters: the briefly seen Kiser of "Weekend at Bernie's" fame, Stuart Pankin as effeminate pimp Nicky LaBelle, Matt Clark as one of Chucks' colleagues, and Mel Novak as the weaselly Montoya. The massive screen villain Professor Toru Tanaka makes quite the impression as a heavy - named The Professor - who, in one uproarious scene, expresses his displeasure by beating up a Volkswagen. J.E. Freeman, Robert Behling, and Nancy Fish have bits. But the show is completely stolen by the hilarious Mako, who endlessly criticizes Chucks' technique and reels off one liners. ("I tried to question him...he preferred to expire.")In the first of his two movies with Chuck, director Steve Carver delivers the expected action with skill and keeps the story moving forward at a good pace. Chuck kicks ass in high style, and has a nice showdown with the Professor, complete with silly sound effects. There's some fine location work in San Francisco and a solid music score by composer William Goldstein."An Eye for an Eye" isn't one of Chucks' best, but it does just fine for a nights' viewing. The sense of humour does help quite a bit.Seven out of 10.

How any Chuck Norris movie can be called "good" is beyond me. First and foremost, Chuck is a poor actor then and now. This movie doesn't have just a bad part, it is a bad part. And I will say, Chuck's later movies were actually better. Maybe because the scripts were better??? 'Cause his acting certainly wasn't. (Sorry, Chuck. You just don't have "it".) I recommend skipping this one unless you are a die-hard fan. (Does Chuck have any??) At least some must exist since this movie got a score above 2. Come on, be realistic, people. One or two "catch phrases" does not a movie make. One or two martial arts favorites also doesn't qualify to make this movie worth seeing. --Again, unless you are a die-hard fan.-- I found this movie trivial and unentertaining. I realize we're not looking for Oscar quality in an early martial arts film (especially an American one from the 1980s), but bad is bad and this movie is BAD.