Una magnum per McQuade

If Dirty Harry were a Texas Ranger, he'd look a helluva lot like J.J. McQuade. Ranger Chuck is your Dirty Harry of Texas Rangers. And McQuade takes the Dirty part seriously, speaking of which, McQuade isn't very friendly much of the time. His best pals are his fists, feet, his guns, and his trusty pet wolf.

LONE WOLF MCQUADE has a nice modern-day Western feel to it. A lot of that is helped by the excellent score by Francesco De Masi. Being from the 1980s, it naturally has everything, including: fists, kicks, guns, Uzis, rocket launchers, a crossbow, grenades, and a contest between a bulldozer and an armored car.

Chuck usually hits the bad guys before they even finish swinging their fists. At one point, it takes three bad guys to wrestle him down, and that's AFTER he's been shot! When he gets mad, he kicks a post and brings down an entire porch. When a bad guy's getting away, Chuck just chases him down and jumps on his truck and then hangs on until the driver crashes due to Chuck being on his hood. He also runs across rooftops, Even when beaten and buried in his truck, he finds a beer, drinks half of it, and pours the other half over his face to freshen up...before starting the truck with its supercharger and breaking free. This is great stuff.

There's something about Chucks acting that elevates him a above the level of a Seagal or a Van Damme; it's like he doesn't have to try as hard to be cool. David Carradine has a weird, low-key acting style, but it works here for his evil villain role. Barbara Carrera is hot, playing the woman who has to choose between the two.

Lone Wolf McQuade is an enjoyable movie with a lot of nice moments. It's competently directed and has a lot of great names in the cast. It's hard to ask for more than that.

Excellent movie...overall 9 out of 10.