The late 1970’s and into the early to middle 1980’s were arguably Chuck Norris’ theatrical heyday.  Rising from small roles in karate movies to become the star of such “B” films as Good Guys Wear Black (1978), The Octagon (1980), Lone Wolf McQuade (1983, a personal favorite, which pitted Mr. Norris against Mr. Kung Fu himself, David Carradine, and obviously served as an inspiration to his later TV series Walker, Texas Ranger), and Missing In Action I and II (1984 and 1985, respectively), Mr. Norris was arguably on a roll.

In 1985 and in conjunction with the also rising Cannon Films Group, Mr. Norris took on the title role of “Matt Hunter” in Invasion U.S.A., a film whose trailer promised it to be one of the biggest Chuck Norris action films yet…

Now, lets be real clear: Invasion U.S.A. was probably green lit because of the previous year’s Red Dawn, a film that featured a similar concept in the invasion of the United States by hostile forces and the people who fight them off (Red Dawn would be remade in 2012 with far less “success”, if you consider the first one that!).

The difference between Red Dawn and Invasion U.S.A. was in the star(s), the people behind the cameras, and the budget.  Red Dawn featured a group of young, up and coming actors (including Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson, Jennifer Grey, etc. etc.), and was directed and co-written by the legendary John Milius (among his credits, the “Indianapolis” dialogue in Jaws, the script for the second Dirty Harry film, Magnum Force, the original Conan film, etc.).

Invasion U.S.A., on the other hand, had an obviously far lower budget and a cast of mostly unknowns (though actor Richard Lynch made a pretty good career for himself playing bad guys during that time).  In the end, all the film really had going for it was Chuck Norris.

But I will give the movie makers this: They were trying to make a “bigger” picture than their obviously low budget allowed them to.

The plot of Invasion U.S.A. is summed up in its name: At the tail end of the Cold War, a devious renegade (?) Russian terrorist named Mikhail Rostov gathers a group of terrorist malcontents and, under cover of darkness, lands and disperses them from South Florida to the rest of the United States, where they begin a series of terrorist acts whose goal is to destabilize and subvert the country.

Before reaching that point, the movie presents a relatively linear story.  We see some Cuban refugees in a boat trying to make it to Florida.  A Coast Guard vessel appears and the captain (Richard Lynch’s Rostov) pretends he’ll bring them in only to open fire and kill everyone on board.  Turns out the boat has a large cargo of cocaine within its hold, drugs which Rostov then uses to buy himself a bunch of weapons which he then gives his group of terrorists and off they go into the U.S.A.

Unfortunately, after those opening minutes of the film, the “story” makes way for a series of scenes showing the terrorists doing something bad and good ol’ Chuck Norris appearing and blasting their heathen commie asses away before they can do their evil.

How does Chuck Norris know where they are or what they’re up to?  Never explained.  The terrorists are about to do their stuff and he just shows up, fires a bunch of bullets, and kills kills kills.  No real logic nor storytelling by this point, just action sequences.

When enough of these showcase scenes are presented, we return (somewhat) to the “story” and see a sad Chuck Norris standing before a carnival ride that has gone up in flames.  Chuck laments the fact that for every terrorist action he stops, a “thousand” more succeed.  He tells his CIA handler that its time to do something to end the invasion once and for all, and this leads us into the film’s climax.

Invasion U.S.A. is, if nothing else, an interesting curio from the mid-1980’s, when these type of low budgeted and violent films were all the rage.  Whatever “shock” value the film had back then is long gone and I suspect much of this film could be shown intact on TV today (with the exception of some language and very, very brief nudity).  I also suspect that today’s audiences may groan at some of too-obvious flag waving.  The terrorists are never more than evil caricatures and their targets are also caricatures of good, decent, salt of the Earth American (the terrorists at one point plan to bomb a church while it is holding mass!  At another point, they try to blow up a school bus loaded with little children singing ‘row row row your boat’!  The heathens!!!).

Still, if you’re from that era and for whatever reason (up to and including dementia) you’re in the mood to relive the type of films they were feeding us back then, you could do worse than spend some time with Chuck fending off the Invasion U.S.A.

Otherwise, I suggest you steer very clear.

Very clear indeed.