A Force of One (1979)

Former karate champ Chuck Norris continued his ascendance to B-movie stardom with this lifeless martial-arts saga, which tries to compensate for its myriad shortcomings by showcasing long scenes of Norris in action. Karate aficionados may find this picture more satisfying than the actor’s previous flick, Good Guys Wear Black (1978), but, as always, catering to a niche audience is the easiest way to alienate everyone else. Accordingly, viewers hoping for things like believable acting, intriguing drama, and passable writing should direct their attention elsewhere. Model-turned-actress Jennifer O’Neill stars as Mandy Rust, the lone female on a San Diego police unit tasked with investigating narcotics activity in the city. When two cops from the unit are murdered via karate, Mandy persuades her boss (Clu Gulager) that everyone on the unit needs martial-arts training. Then she recruits title contender Matt Logan (Norris), who runs a local dojo, for the job. Predictably, Matt gets drawn into the investigation, suffers a horrific personal loss that makes him vengeful, and helps the police take down the drug kingpin who ordered the hits on the cops. There’s also a twist involving a corrupt detective, a quasi-romance between Mandy and Matt, and a touchy-feely subplot concerning Matt’s guardianship of a plucky teenager. It’s all very rote, with nary an original idea in evidence, and the storytelling is turgid in the extreme. Scenes plod along aimlessly, and the only thing flatter than the writing is the acting. Norris is awful, since he had not yet learned to emulate Clint Eastwood’s less-is-more approach, so his line deliveries sound awkward and his “emoting” is pathetic. O’Neill is almost as bad, a delicate beauty preening her way through the absurd role of a tough street cop. Gulager borders on camp with his twitchy take on the clichéd role of a put-upon top cop, and Ron O’Neal (of Superflyfame), who plays one of the officers on the drug unit, waffles between distracted indifference and silly swagger. In short, if you want to see an in-his-prime Norris deliver lightning-fast punches and walloping roundhouse kicks, A Force of One will satisfy for needs. Beyond that? Not so much.

A Force of One: LAME

Spring Has Sprung

The magnificent bowl of the Stove! I'm a tiny dot near the center of the picture.

Its true, we have actually had five consecutive days of blue bird weather here. Its jaw dropping, really. Tomorrow is the last official day of EMT class where we will be engaged in practicals all morning and then taking the state written exam in the afternoon. I'm so psyched!!!!!

The week has been sprinting past me while at the same time thumbing its nose at my futile attempts to grab hold of it's shirt tails and be dragged along for the last few days that remain of my spring break.



Since the weather has been popping off sunny like gangbusters I have made it my quest to try and get out snowboarding as much as humanly possible. Turns out that 'as much as humanly possible' for me equals about three times in the span of four days. My knees are screaming at me like some queen of the harpes monster and I find myself taking 'old persons' naps that last as long as normal sleeping routines. Its cool though, I need the exercise, and the down time in between mountainous romps.
I did have a particularly nice day up on the Stove on Wednesday. I had the good fortune to hit the bowl and do some lines I hadn't had a chance to do yet. The chute was particularly nice and even though the snow was a bit crusty up top, the sunshine and the exposure more than made up for it.


The avalanche danger has been ridiculous for a few days. We had almost a foot and half of snow in the city, which means almost 3 feet in the mountains. All of this followed immediately by sunny days, slightly warmer temps, and lots of wind loading (I even noticed some hoar crystals one day).


This is a new drop I hadn't tried before. The runway to the drop sucked but the landing was pretty deep and fluffy.




My fave.

Today is my second rest day, and it looks like we will be heading out climbing today! Psyched!! There is still a lot of work that needs to be done on the Whale Wall and we almost have all of the permits and paperwork in place to start bolting. I just applied to a deckhand position for the summer so I'm feeling good about my options for work and play. I have one more day left in my break to get up and shred so now all I need is some fresh powder in the mountains and its a go.
I hope everyone else is having a good spring break, or soon will be. Look forward to hearing all about your adventures!