ScoobyWell
Great visuals, story delivers no surprises
Tacticalin
An absolute waste of money
Dirtylogy
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Harry Lags
Anyone familiar with Romancing the Stone and King Solomon's Mines will feel right at home seeing Chuck Norris in this lightweight adventure. He cracks jokes, laughs, and romances a pretty blonde while being Lou Gossett's best buddy. It's as fun and innocent as action films get. J. Lee Thompson (who did a bunch of films with Charles Bronson like Death Wish 4 and St. Ives) directed this. John Rhys-Davies (from Raiders of the Lost Ark) shows up in a cameo. Gary Chang did the electronic score.These soldiers of misfortune are drawn into a quest for Aztec treasure by Melody Anderson, as a beautiful legal secretary with psychic powers. Pursued by Indians of all sorts, guerrillas of all sorts and just one alligator, the trio seeks gems in the jungles of Central America. Hijinks ensue. High kicks accrue.Norris is still fast on his feet, stomping a Cantina full of Banditos into bean dip. The fight scenes are fine, but only emphasize the plodding pace and the moldy plot.But for Firewalker, he went more for the comedic action-adventure style and I think he succeeded in doing that very well. Because that's the way it should be enjoyed, as the Sunday-Matinée, popcorn-munching, mini-roller-coaster-ride that it is! There are still some slivers of nostalgic fun to be had here, so if you must delve into the past, why not. Don't take it too seriously and you'll do just fine!
ma-cortes
Fun and amusing comedy about a pair of down-and-out fortune hunters cash in on high adventure . As a duo of adventurers , Max Donigan (Chuck Norris) along with his friend Leo (Louis Gosset Jr) set off on a treasure hunt . Both of whom are hired by a gorgeous girl called Patricia (Melody Anderson of Flash Gordon , whose hair perfectly intact throughout) . The girl and mercenaries set out in search for a treasure she's imagined exists . Along the way the way , they kill Native Americans attempting to protect sacred Indian grounds . The trio confront risks , dangers and other obstacles until achieve their objective . All of them try to track down an ancient Aztec/Mayan/Egyptian/ Apache horde of gold as they end up in a Mayan temple of Doom besieged by Coyote (Sonny Landham) .This is an average quality film plenty of adventures , brawls , fun scenes , a few bar fights , humor with tongue in cheek , fantasy and results to be amusing ; however , some moments being boring . Chuck Norris character is a blending between known Indiana Jones and his popular role as a tough , two-fisted man and fellow mercenary played Louis Gosset -not too distant Oscar winner for ¨An official and a gentleman¨- is very well . Both of them have great chemical as a duo of soldiers-of-wacky misfortune who take several dangers that are able to overcome with ease . In a hand , if you enjoy funny stories and have a soft spot for attractive characters and scenarios, you are in for a great one ; in other hand if you don't like Norris kicks , silly humor and bemusing situations , then this one will not be for you and get bored . Passable production , medium budget by Cannon films , Menahem Golan-Yoram Globus , and poorly realized . Producers left room for sequel but as a box office failure was never carried out . This is Aaron Norris' , Chuck Norris' brother, last film as a stunt coordinator , he began his career as a director with his next film, his brother's Braddock: Missing in action 3 (1988) . Anti-climatic musical score by Gary Chang , being composed by means of synthesizer . Atmospheric though dark cinematography by Alex Phillips filmed on location in Durango , Morelos, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico Torreón, Coahuíla, and Churubasco Distrito Federal , Mexico .The fare was regularly directed by J. Lee Thomson . He previously had a nice track record in the English cinema from 1950 until 1961 , directing good Western ( McKenna's gold , White Buffalo) and all king genres as Sci-Fi (Conquest and Battle of planet of apes), terror (reincarnation of Peter Proud, Eye of the devil), adventures (Flame over India ,Kings of the sun, Taras Bulba , Tiger Bay) and Warlike ( Guns of Navarone, Von Braun , Chairman , The passage). His two biggest successes turn out to be ¨Guns of Navarone¨and ¨Cape Fear¨. Thereafter , the filmmaker's career subsided in a morass of slickly realized but middling films. He moved into the field of international spectaculars , at which point his filmmaking seemed to lose its individuality . J. Lee Thomson working from the 50s in England, finished his career making Chuck Norris (Firewalker) and Charles Bronson vehicles (Caboblanco, Evil that men do, Messenger of death, Death Wish 4 : Crackdown, Caboblanco, St Ives). Firewalker rating : Mediocre , but it will appeal to Chuck Norris fans .
JoeytheBrit
Chuck Norris and Lou Gossett are a couple of down-on-their-luck adventurers in this pale imitation of comedy-adventure movies like India Jones and Romancing the Stone. After their latest close escape from death they encounter a young lady in a down-at-heel South American bar who persuades them to hunt for some treasure or something. I don't know, I sort of lost interest at this point even though we were only ten or fifteen minutes into the movie. Firewalker is bad in all kinds of ways, none of which combine to make it a complete stinker, but which sort of sap you of the energy required to pick up the remote and switch channels. One thing that struck me as I watched was how chuck Norris managed to remain a fairly bankable action star for so long when even Lou Gossett's performance exposes his lack of acting ability. And how do they build those doors in mountain caves that slide up and down without anyone touching them?
Paul Andrews
Firewalker starts as a woman named Patricia Goodman (Melody Anderson) ask's two adventurers for hire Max Donigan (Chuck Norris) & Leo Porter (Louis Gossett Jr.) to join her on a trip to an Indian reservation where she believes there is a fortune of gold. Using a treasure map she has they travel to the location & find a gold sacrificial knife & clues to where the rest of the treasure is hidden, they decide to team up & set out on an adventure to find the treasure overcoming all sorts of problems & dangers along the way...Directed by J. Lee Thompson one has to say that Firewalker is crap, I thought it was utterly devoid of any action or excitement & the story sucked too. The script by Norman Aladjem, Robert Gosnell & Jeffrey M. Rosenbaum is like a poor man's cross between Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) & Romancing the Stone (1984) with it's mixture of ancient mystic temples & magic along with it's basic adventure to find the gold at the end of a treasure map type story. Obviously meant as a buddy buddy mismatched partner comedy action adventure with a touch of fantasy Firewalker pretty much fails at everything it does, it amazingly unfunny with plenty of dumb dialogue, there's hardly any action in it with a few fights about the sum of it & the mystic elements are also crap & seemingly there purely for the hell of it. I was watching this last night & despite only running for about 100 minutes it felt like it went on forever, the narrative is poor as the trio stumble their way across Central America & unlike an Indiana Jones film where there is plenty of relevant action there's hardly any in Firewalker. The film feels like a travelogue at times such little happens as we follow the protagonists on their (boring) journey through a jungle.Director Thompson is a very experienced action film director & I expected more here, the bad guy is nominal, the action scenes are bland & sluggish & it's as boring as hell. Apart from a few fights there really isn't any action at all, there's no car chases, explosions, anything original or shoot-outs & the violence is also minimum. As a whole it's a surprisingly dull & just downright poor film & I don't know what else I can say about it & it comes as no surprise it was produced by Menahem Golan & Yoran Globus under their Cannon Group & this is just the type of flick for which they have such a bad reputation & why they went bankrupt.Technically the film is bland, I wouldn't have thought Firewalker had a big budget & it's a largely uneventful film. Apparently shot in Mexico. The acting is poor, you would have thought a film starring both Chuck Norris & Louis Gossett Jr. would be good but they both turn in poor performances & isn't in the so bad it's good category but the so bad it's bad category.Firewalker is a really poor action adventure type film that I was extremely disappointed with, I just can't see anything positive in this film at all & I didn't like one little bit. Could have been fun, as it is it's crap.
