Product Description

International superstar Chuck Norris stars in this pulse-pounding revenge thriller that pulls out all the stops for explosive, edge-of-your-seat excitement. Crackling with unbridled energy and suspense, it's an electrifying adventure that's as fast and hard-hitting as its unstoppable hero.Police detective Sean Kane (Norris) is any criminal's worst nightmare: a cop who's just as lethal with his lightning-quick martial arts moves as he is with his service revolver. But when his partner is brutally murdered, Kane quits the force and goes beyond the law to seek vengeance against the ruthless Morgan Canfield (Christopher Lee), a powerful and well-connected drug lord who destroys any man who stands in his way. But Kane has never been more ready for a fight. He's bold, ferocious and has an ace up his sleeve: his mentor, Chan (Mako), a martial arts wizard who will join him in a thrilling, no-holds-barred final assault against Canfield and his criminal empire.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37670 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-11-20
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.com
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

Customer Reviews

Good early Norris effort...bad MGM release
I've always had a soft spot for Norris action vehicles and overall I viewed An Eye for an Eye (one of his earlier efforts) to be one of his best.

I was never really big on Norris's late 70's action films (Good Guys Wear Black, A Force of One, and the abysmal Breaker! Breaker!) as they were shoddily made and had stiff directing. The Octagon was step up in quality that would continue into An Eye for An Eye, a film I like even better. The plot is pretty typical. Norris has his partner killed and he leaves the force. Not soon after his news reporter friend is murdered. He teams up with her father (that great Mako) to investigate and find her killers. There are corrupt cops, drug running two/faced execs, and a really cool henchman called the professor. Actually this film reminds me of another Norris vehicle called Forced Vengeance which would be released a year later.

Of course there's great action highlighted by a fight topped off with a helicopter with machine guns. This film is just of much higher quality compared to Norris's early efforts. The story is better as well as the directing.

Though of course this isn't art, it is presented very poorly by MGM on DVD. I have the re-release of this film by MGM that I bought a number of years ago and the picture on DVD is barely better than my VHS. The picture is just terrible. I'm not sure why either as MGM has always been good with good picture quality. Hell, even Norris's terrible film Breaker! Breaker has way better picture quality than this! As a matter of fact, this is probably the worst looking Norris movie on DVD, which it should not be. It's like MGM didn't even digitally master it before slapping it onto DVD.

Even with its poor picture quality, I highly recommend it to early 80's action film fans. One of Norris's most overlooked films.

This is an excellent Chuck Norris film! I feel his best!
I feel An Eye for An Eye was Chuck's best out of all of his martial art films. The story was excellent and sad in the beginning of the film. The film picks up when Norris displays his spectacular skills on a group of Triad Drug villians. The cast is excellent with good performances from Richard Roundtree and Christopher Lee. Excellent Martial Art fight scenes including Norris facing off with Professor Toru Tanaka. This man is mean and huge. An excellent martial arts film.

Corny, but fun...
I want to give this movie 4 stars. Mainly because it has Mako, and Prof. Toru Tanaka. But without Chuck's 'stache...I can't. In all seriousness though. this movie is actually one of my favorites by Chuck. It's got a touch of the dectective story to it. The acting is better than usual in a chuck Norris flick. And, most importantly, the fight scenes are good.

I can't speak for anyone else, but when it comes to martial arts films, one thing matters above all else and that's fight scene choreography. Of course different eras and styles have different standards. As far as American martial arts, Chuck is still the standard in my opinion...all due respect to Billy Blanks, Cynthia Rothrock, et al. This title, along with a few others, show Chuck's prowess as a martial artist in a way that later became lost in an array of spinning back fists, round house kicks and cheesy scripts (can anyone say, "The President's Man"?).

Overal this movie is fun, with some good fight scenes and a memorable performance by the Professor. Definately worth a view!!