Even going by early 80s revenge film standards, Steve Carver's An Eye for an Eye has a brutal first act. After seeing his partner brutally gunned down in an ambush, undercover San Francisco narcotics cop Sean Kane (Chuck Norris) overhears his reporter friend Linda Chan get murdered over the telephone. Apparently, Linda managed to get damning evidence against the drug gang responsible for the ambush. In the wake of so much tragedy, Kane teams up with Linda's father, James Chan (Mako Iwamatsu) to bring justice against those responsible. This being a Chuck Norris film, James is also Kane's martial arts teacher. But much to my surprise, Kane isn't a very competent martial artist. He is clumsy and unrefined. I know that this doesn't denote a lack of skill on Chuck Norris' part. After all, this film was made nine years after he starred opposite of Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon (1972). Making Kane a sub-par martial artist was an interesting character choice. The film also contained a decent twist where the man that we thought was the villain turned out to be a hero and the cooperative, concerned ally turns out to be the main antagonist. At least, that latter twist would have been surprising if he hadn't been played by Christopher Lee. But I applaud the filmmaker's effort in trying to make it work.
6/10
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