Helmed by 'The Enforcer' director James Fargo, 'Forced Vengeance' is a typical early 80s revenge flick starring Chuck Norris as Josh Randall, a guy employed as a casino security guard, and who thinks he has a penchant for narrating his own life and the shenanigans he gets mixed up in.
Josh is a good guy, an ex special ops/vietnam vet dude (what else?) who now lives in Hong Kong and works for a father and son who own a casino. Poor Josh does a good job, but people seem to enjoy messing with and stepping on his precious cowboy hat, and this doesn't make him very happy. There are much roundhouse kicks to the face when this happens. When his employers are killed by rival casino owners (!), Josh goes on a systematic rampage through the streets of HK, and kicks the shit out of the baddies wearing the tightest Chuck Norris action jeans you can buy.
Wow, remind me that I DO NOT want to go to work in the casino security business in Hong Kong, what with the rival owners killing each other all the time. Like I said, this was a typical film for the time (think 'Pray for Death,' 'the Octagon,' 'Enter the Ninja'), and the action is quite brutal with much red paint. Norris totally blows as an actor, but all we really wanna see him do at the end of the day is roundhouse kick people in the face while wearing tight jeans and cowboy boots, and we're not let down here.
Lots of deaths, blood, brutal rape, and slow, sloppy fights- it seems like almost everyone but Chuck dies in this-, but I still found this enjoyable enough to stay awake. Not much to chuckle at really, except for Chuck dressing up in his soldier outfit at the end. Him narrating his own life was a nice touch too. I just wish there was something more redeeming to recommend this for, like Chuck saving a puppy in the rain in slow motion; but alas, no. Maybe the bad fight scene at the end where the baddie is fighting Chuck with the toilet he ripped out of the floor? Hmmm... Okay, there was lots to chuckle at here.
You couldn't make this movie today, really. To quote Dean Devlin, the 80s was like "the wild west for action movies," you could get away with anything; and you're not gonna see stuff like this in a Statham or Bourne movie.
Overall, 'Forced Vengeance' wasn't as boring as some of his other late 70s/early 80s crap, but if you like this type of movie, I'd recommend 'Lone Wolf McQuade' or 'A Force of One' instead, which are the high marks for his early stuff. This was about a year or two before the Cannon (read: golden) years, so viewer beware if you're looking for an 'Invasion USA' or 'Code of Silence' caliber bad action movie.
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