Very disappointing...

That was an excellent one.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Three years ago, Danny O'Brien had single-handedly captured killer Simon Moon, also known as The Terror, and was called Hero by the people of L.A. Now Simon has escaped and has started killing women again by holding their heads and making them look to the right quickly, and O'Brien is the only man who can stop him....If you like Chuck Norris in romantic/disturbed mode, and the films of Cannon, you are in for a treat with this one.Norris plays the every man cop who has a wonderful line of knitwear, and has visions so bad about catching his nemesis, he stares really angrily at kitchen appliances.When Non from Superman II escapes from his cell by using the power of dental floss and and sediment, and so it's up to Norris to don his uniform consisting of denim once more, and put The Terror to sleep once more.Steve James pops up to do the strangest workout in cinema history, by running around an empty cinema screen, but luckily, The Terror makes this insanity stop by making him look to the right ever so quickly.If you are looking for Norris in full on martial arts mode, you won't fine anything here, other than him kicking the bloke from The Taking Of Beverly Hills into the ocean.But it's a well made thriller, Norris does a good job of looking perplexed, and The Terror is almost supernatural in his strength.There are plenty of laughs, intentional and unintentional, and I'm sure it's the only film where you see Chuck faint.If you are a fan of the man and the cannon Group, this is a must...

Chuck Norris plays cop Danny O'Brien, who finds that a one time serial killing enemy of his has apparently come back from the dead and started killing again.It's all very cheesy and in truth it's a low grade Norris vehicle. Norris is going through the motions, even portraying a character more softer at heart than what he usually played in the decade. The villain played by Jack O'Halloran is something of a lumbering oak and not very threatening, and once again Norris fans are short changed as per quotient of martial artistry. The big face off at the finale is at least well constructed, thus saving the pic from total stinker status. 4/10

Hero and the Terror (1988)** (out of 4)Danny O'Brien (Chuck Norris) brings down a serial killer labeled by the media as The Terror (Jack O'Halloran), which gets his labeled as Hero. Three years after the event O'Brien is still suffering nightmares and struggling to put his life together but things get a lot worse when The Terror escapes from a mental hospital.HERO AND THE TERROR is a Cannon film that tried to show their star Norris in a new light. The "added" stuff here includes seeing Norris struggle with coming to terms with the killer but there's a very large subplot dealing with his pregnant girlfriend and their upcoming child. The melodrama in the picture actually takes up the majority of the running time, which is too bad because there's a fairly interesting killer here to work with.I never fault any actor trying to go out of the norm and do something different. It's funny that Cannon would have Norris doing some more than kicking butt in this film and especially when you consider that their other star Charles Bronson was trying something new this year too with MESSENGER OF DEATH. Both films have the stars offering up a new thing but it really doesn't work too well here. Norris actually gives a good performance and proves that he can handle the drama but all of this really waters down the story dealing with the serial killer and in the end, this is a Cannon movie after all.The opening sequence actually manages to build up some nice suspense and there's some great one liners coming from Norris. The first forty five minutes or so are actually very entertaining but the film eventually runs out of gas and struggles to get to the conclusion. I think there are several long sequences that just didn't go anywhere including a search of a theater that drags on to the point where you're ready to take a nap. O'Halloran is effective in the role of the killer and it's too bad that there wasn't more of him.HERO AND THE TERROR is a decent movie but not a complete winner.

Cop Danny O'Brien (Chuck Norris) starts having nightmares about his heroic arrest of serial killer Simon Moon (Jack O'Halloran) from three years prior. This is bad news because it is messing up his relationship with his pregnant psychiatrist girlfriend Kay (Brynn Thayer). Oh, and it also sucks because Moon has escaped from prison and started killing again while hiding out inside a recently remodeled movie theater in downtown Los Angeles. Norris only did a few films in his career that fell under the horror category (this, SILENT RAGE, HELLBOUND); if SILENT RAGE was his take on FRANKENSTEIN, then HERO AND THE TERROR is Chuck's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Of course, I'm a sucker for any horror movie set in a theater, so I still enjoyed this on a revisit even if it isn't very good. Moon has all the personality of Andrew from HELL NIGHT (1981) and the same "heavy on the corpses and candles" home design sensibilities as Jason circa Friday THE 13th PART 2 (1981). Novelist Michael Blodgett adapted his own book for this along with co-writer Dennis Shryack, who has some good horror credits with THE CAR (1977) and MURDER BY PHONE (1982). The plot is pretty flimsy and the drama between Norris and his crazy seeming fiancé is really rough. Their birthday dinner scene is really odd to the point I was screaming for Norris to ditch this crazy chick. Also, the idea that Norris is the only one who believes the killer is in the theater after three mysterious deaths is laughable. Still, there are some memorable bits including a final showdown that fulfills my wildest theater setting fantasies. Co-starring Steve James as Norris' partner and Ron O'Neal as The Mayor.