Every Chuck Norris Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

From Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone to Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal, there were plenty of musclebound stars who dominated the action-hero market of the '80s and '90s Hollywood. Only one action star was deemed cool enough to have an entire genre of jokes based on him. "Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried," "There is no chin behind Chuck Norris' beard. There is only another fist," "Chuck Norris does not own a stove, oven, or microwave, because revenge is a dish best served cold," and hundreds of other Chuck Norris jokes have essentially superseded his movie career at this point and made him more myth than man.

Chuck Norris, born Carlos Ray Norris, used his background as a martial-arts world champion to bring legitimacy to his fight scenes after breaking into the film industry in the 1970s. When looking back at the totality of Norris' filmography, it might come as a surprise to find that most of his movies were total duds, though there are a couple of highlights amongst the chaff. Let's examine every Chuck Norris movie and determine which are worth checking out and which are worth skipping by ranking them from worst to best. Rotten Tomatoes scores determine the ranking, and cameos are excluded, such as his memorable appearance as himself in "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story."

"Hero and the Terror" is on the same abysmal footing as "Top Dog," with a straight-up goose-egg 0% score from Rotten Tomatoes critics. This late '80s action thriller has Chuck Norris starring as a hero cop hunting down a serial killer known as the "Terror," played by 6-foot-6 former heavy-weight boxer Jack O'Halloran, who recently escaped from prison. The two have a history, as it was Norris who initially took him down and got him sent to prison three years prior. For the second time, Norris' character is the only one who can stop his murderous rampage.

Even die-hard Chuck Norris fans were disappointed by "Hero and the Terror" as it made the unwise decision to shift focus away from the potential action scenes and onto familial conflict instead. Norris' character is about to become a father, and much of the movie's runtime is devoted to the relationship drama between him and his pregnant girlfriend. Roger Ebert wasn't quite as harsh on the film as many critics were but he still gave it a negative review, writing "this thriller is not aided by side trips into [Norris'] love life. It is honorable of Norris to try to expand and develop his screen character, but good intentions are not enough."

1990's "Delta Force 2," sometimes subtitled as "Delta Force 2: The Columbian Connection," was a direct follow-up to the first "Delta Force" film from four years prior. Chuck Norris reprises his lead role as military man Scott McCoy, who received a promotion between movies from Major to Colonel. Just like the first movie, McCoy leads the titular Delta Force on a deadly mission, this time to South America where they face off against a Columbian drug kingpin, played by Billy Drago, and attempt to rescue the DEA agents he has taken captive.

Menahem Golan, who directed the first "Delta Force" movie, did not return for the sequel. Taking his place in the director's chair was Aaron Norris, who is the real-life little brother of Chuck Norris. Aaron Norris produced and directed several of his brother's projects, including the long-running television series "Walker, Texas Ranger." "Delta Force 2" certainly doesn't find the Norris brothers in top form. Another sequel followed the next year, "Delta Force 3: The Killing Game," but neither Norris brother was involved this time. With Chuck Norris no longer in the lead role, even fewer people watched this straight-to-video trilogy capper.

The original "The Delta Force" fared better with critics than either of its sequels, but not that much better. This 1986 action movie was made by Cannon Films, the company behind many of Chuck Norris' movies and one of the defining voices of the '80s action B-movie industry, as chronicled in the documentary "Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films."

The story of the film finds Chuck Norris coming out of retirement and returning to the titular Delta Force to stop a group of terrorists who have hijacked a commercial airliner packed with passengers. The cast assembled for this action B-movie is far stronger than average and featured four Oscar-winning actors: Lee Marvin, Martin Balsam, Shelley Winters, and George Kennedy, plus two more Oscar nominees with Robert Vaughn and Robert Forster. Even though the film's script is undoubtedly cheesy, this talented cast helps to elevate the material, though Robert Forster's role is more than a bit questionable from a modern vantage point as he dons brownface to play the main villain, a Lebanese terrorist named Abdul Rafia.

While most critics panned "The Delta Force," Roger Ebert was in the minority and found himself on Chuck Norris' side for once, giving the movie a three-star rating. He even singled out Robert Forster's villain role as a highlight, calling his performance "frighteningly good" and writing that "he makes the threat real and keeps 'The Delta Force' from becoming just an action comic book."

"Invasion U.S.A." is a 1985 action movie made during the heyday of Cannon Films, which was defined by over-the-top excess. Chuck Norris stars as an ex-CIA agent who is tasked with single-handedly stopping a Russian invasion of U.S. soil. This film finds the machismo surrounding Norris' screen person reaching its apex as he easily goes toe-to-toe against the invading force of hundreds of terrorists while hardly even breaking a sweat.

After a somewhat decent showing at the box office and a weak reception from critics, "Invasion U.S.A." found an entire second life upon its home video release. On VHS and DVD, "Invasion U.S.A." was the number two home video release for MGM for decades. "Invasion U.S.A." is also notable for getting both Chuck Norris and his brother Aaron Norris involved in the script and story of the film, becoming the first writer credits for each of them.

With fun schlocky action (like Richard Lynch blowing up suburban homes with a bazooka), odd filmmaking choices from director Joseph Zito, and a fairly nonsensical plot, "Invasion U.S.A." might be the kind of movie that you can get more entertainment value from by laughing at it rather than with it. The fine folks at Red Letter Media could attest to this as they covered it in an episode of their Best of the Worst series, which centers around enjoyably bad movies.

"The Cutter" was the final starring role of Chuck Norris' movie career. After this 2005 release, Norris entered semi-retirement for several years until returning to the silver screen for a supporting role in 2012's "The Expendables 2," and he has made a few small television appearances in the years since, often playing a fictional version of himself. As a poorly received and little-seen straight-to-video release, "The Cutter" unfortunately ended Norris' action-star career with a whimper rather than a bang.

Norris stars as a private detective who assembles a crack team to attempt to rescue a diamond cutter from a criminal for the second time after botching the first rescue attempt. The initial premise sounds simple enough, but the plot is pushed into outright absurdity when it introduces a pair of mythical diamonds into the mix and reveals its villain and the titular diamond cutter to be a WWII Nazi and a Holocaust concentration camp survivor, respectively.

Since the movie was released straight to video, it wasn't reviewed by many critics. The few who did cover it didn't have nice things to say. David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews criticized "The Cutter" for lacking even the bare minimum requirement of entertaining fight scenes for Chuck Norris fans, leaving the film as little more than a boring slog to get through.

"Slaughter in San Francisco" was Chuck Norris' first major role in a movie after his noteworthy supporting villain role in "The Way of the Dragon." Though the movie was set in the titular city of San Francisco, California, "Slaughter in San Francisco" is actually a Chinese production and was originally titled "Yellow-Faced Tiger." The title was changed later on to capitalize on Chuck Norris' subsequent fame, as his character's name in the film is Chuck Slaughter.

Chuck Norris is cast in the role of the villain who poses a serious threat to the Asian martial-artist protagonist. The good guy is Officer Don Wong, who shares his first and last name with the actor who played him, Don Wong, in one of his first roles before going on to be a part of far more successful movies like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Norris plays the drug kingpin of San Francisco who has the entire police department under his thumb.

The film was directed by Hong Kong action veteran Wei Lo. Although Bruce Lee directed "The Way of the Dragon" himself, Wei Lo directed a number of Bruce Lee's other movies, including "The Big Boss" and "Fist of Fury," so casting Norris in another kung-fu villain role made perfect sense. Unfortunately, "Slaughter in San Francisco" didn't have the same sort of breakthrough power as "The Way of the Dragon." The film hasn't been covered by any Rotten Tomatoes critics, and hundreds of audience ratings have left it with a measly rotten score.

After co-starring in two Chinese martial arts movies, "The Way of the Dragon" and "Slaughter in San Francisco," Chuck Norris' first American production was 1977's "Breaker! Breaker!" Norris stars as a big-rig truck driver who takes on the entire community of a small desert town in order to save his kidnapped brother. George Murdock and Don Gentry co-star as the two main villains, the corrupt judge who runs the town and the brutal cop who enforces his will.

As odd as it sounds in retrospect, "trucker movies" comprised an entire booming subgenre unto itself for a period of time, mainly in the 1970s. "Breaker! Breaker!" is a quintessential example of that forgotten genre, for better or for worse.

Critic Jedadiah Leland pointed to Chuck Norris' performance as one of the main issues with the movie, writing "Chuck has never exactly been a great actor but, in 'Breaker! Breaker!,' his inexperience in front of the camera is especially noticeable." Similar cold sentiments were shared by most on Rotten Tomatoes, but the film does have a niche fanbase out there ready to defend it. The general public might not have liked it, but the movie was a hit amongst truck drivers, the movie's target audience. "Breaker! Breaker!" frequently lands on lists of the best trucker movies as assembled by actual truck drivers, such as Trucker Jobs USA and Knight Transportation's best of lists.

"Hellbound" marks a minor foray into the horror genre for Chuck Norris, but he didn't leave the familiar action genre behind completely. The blending of the two genres didn't receive the smoothest execution, and the film remains lopsided in favor of numerous action sequences with little mind paid to the horror component. While plenty of Norris' movies were rather goofy, they mostly remained grounded in some version of the real world, but "Hellbound" was a departure into the supernatural.

Chuck Norris and Calvin Levels play a pair of cops who make the journey from Chicago to Israel as a part of a murder investigation. While there, they find out that the fate of the world rests on their shoulders as Prosatanos, a soldier of Satan played by Christopher Neame, is returning to power after centuries of entombment. "Hellbound" was another Norris family collaboration with Chuck's brother Aaron directing and his son Eric serving as the stunt coordinator.

As covered in the book "Missing in Action: The Films of Chuck Norris" written by David C. Hayes, "Hellbound" was the final movie produced by the Cannon Group, who had made almost all of Norris' movies throughout the 1980s. The Cannon Group filed for bankruptcy immediately after making "Hellbound," bringing their storied legacy to an abrupt end.

"The Bells of Innocence" is a horror film from 2003, which is about when Chuck Norris' movie star career was winding down to a close. Chuck Norris co-stars with his son Mike Norris, who also produced and wrote the story for "The Bells of Innocence." Chuck's granddaughter, Gabby Di Ciolli, is also on the cast, making this another Norris family affair.

The story follows a group of friends who survive a plane crash and find themselves trapped in Ceres, which is a strange town cut off from the rest of society, where supernatural evils are brewing. The friends find Chuck Norris living in this town as the only non-evil resident, and they must help prepare for a holy war against the forces of Satan.

Though the packaging, marketing materials, and basic plot description don't make it clear, "The Bells of Innocence" is a secret Christian movie with an extremely on-the-nose message about conversion and salvation. Partway through the film, Chuck Norris' character is revealed to have been sent to the town by God for the explicit purpose of spreading the word of Jesus Christ to non-believers, and restoring Mike Norris' faith in Christianity becomes a main plot point. Even Christian movie outlets found the film to be a mess, such as the faith-based Box Office Revolution, which gave it a one-point-five score out of a possible ten.

"Braddock: Missing in Action III" finds Chuck Norris donning the army fatigues of Colonel James Braddock for the third and final time. While the first two "Missing in Action" movies were shot and released back-to-back, the conclusion to the trilogy came a couple of years later. General audiences on Rotten Tomatoes enjoyed this third outing more than the first movie, but not as much as the middle movie in the trilogy.

While "Missing in Action 2" served as a prequel to the first movie, "Braddock" picks up a few years after the events of the original "Missing in Action." The main character has long since returned home from the war, but he finds himself heading back to Vietnam to rescue the local woman he fell in love with and the child they had together. These two important characters come out of nowhere as they were not established in the earlier movies, but "Braddock" needed a reason to return to the Vietnam setting of the first two movies.

Lance Hool, the director of "Missing in Action 2," did not return for "Braddock." Taking his place in the director's chair was Chuck's brother, Aaron Norris. This was Aaron's first outing as a director, and he would go on to direct many of his brother's future films. In addition to starring in the film, Chuck Norris also co-wrote the screenplay with James Bruner, who also wrote the original "Missing in Action" and many of Chuck Norris' other movies.

"Forest Warrior" is an action, adventure, comedy from 1996 with a worthwhile pro-environmentalism message, but with a supremely cheesy and cliched execution. This was Chuck Norris' direct follow-up to "Top Dog" and furthered the same goal of rebranding Chuck as a family-friendly movie star. It even had the same screenwriter as "Top Dog," Ron Swanson (not the Ron Swanson from "Parks and Rec"). With a PG rating and a group of children teaming up with Chuck to stop evil deforesting lumberjacks, "Forest Warrior" is aimed squarely at young audiences.

Though "Forest Warrior" is mostly a mediocre kid's movie, it does contain one of the quintessential Chuck Norris moments, which is when he stops a running chainsaw with his bare hand. That sounds like it would surely be the craziest moment of the entire movie, but not quite. The movie ends — spoiler alert — with Chuck Norris magically transforming into a grizzly bear. He also shapeshifts into an eagle earlier on in the film.

Critics were baffled by "Forest Warrior" and some found themselves recommending it for curiosity alone. The Action Elite called the movie "a must-see for all the wrong reasons" and labeled it "appalling in nearly every way."

2002's "The President's Man: A Line in the Sand" was the direct follow-up to "The President's Man" from two years earlier. Both were made-for-TV movies that aired on CBS and starred Chuck Norris as a secret service agent assigned to protect the President of the United States and carry out special missions. Even though the plot of the first movie revolved around Norris finding a replacement to fill his position so he can retire, he is back on the front lines of another dangerous mission.

The story concerns a terrorist plot to detonate a nuclear weapon within the United States. Chuck Norris' protégé from the first movie returns, but the actor, Dylan Neal, did not. Taking his place in this recasting was Judson Mills, who had earlier acted alongside Chuck Norris in dozens of episodes of "Walker, Texas Ranger." Actor Ralph Waite was another cast member who did not return for the sequel in the important role of the President of the United States. Filling his position as the next POTUS was Robert Urich.

Variety found "The President's Man: A Line in the Sand" to be surprisingly relevant and even prescient in regard to the turbulent political landscape in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Critic Steve Oxman acknowledged the cheesiness while writing "Because it comes a bit too close to reality, 'The President's Man: A Line in the Sand' seems both more comic and more serious than others of its ilk."

"Lone Wolf McQuade" is the first Chuck Norris movie to finally earn a fresh score from general audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, though critics still gave it a marginally rotten score. This 1983 action movie pits Chuck Norris against David Carradine in a deadly showdown full of armed and unarmed combat. Though he was never a competing or classically-trained martial artist, Carradine's experiences performing martial arts on TV and in movies equipped him to hold his own against Norris one-on-one, making him one of the tougher screen adversaries of Norris' career.

Chuck Norris plays the titular role of J.J. McQuade, who is a Texas ranger known for operating as a lone wolf. His preferred operating style is interrupted as he needs to team up with a state trooper and an FBI agent, played by Robert Beltran and Leon Isaac Kennedy, respectively, to stop a drug kingpin and hijacker played by David Carradine. Complicating matters further is Barbara Carrera, who is romantically involved with both Norris and Carradine.

Famed film critic Roger Ebert was a fan of "Lone Wolf McQuade" and gave it an enthusiastic recommendation. He called the plot "essentially meaningless" but praised the film's pacing, style, and exciting action sequences, giving the overall movie three-and-a-half stars out of four.

"Silent Rage" is the first Chuck Norris movie to earn a positive score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but this time, general audiences gave it thousands of rotten ratings. This 1982 movie is mostly a straightforward action flick, but it has a slight sci-fi twist thrown in the mix to switch things up.

Chuck Norris stars in the familiar role of a Texas lawman. As a crazed ax murderer wreaks havoc in his town, Norris is determined to stop him by any means necessary. Surprisingly, Norris manages to catch and kill the criminal early on, but it turns out his death is just the beginning. Rather than being taken to the morgue, the killer's corpse is brought to a hospital where a trio of doctors perform an experimental operation that brings him back to life and makes him virtually indestructible.

With an unkillable maniac as his main adversary, Norris' trademark karate moves aren't quite as effective as usual. The premise leads to a handful of fun, over-the-top moments that combine fiery explosions with roundhouse kicks. Unfortunately, the action scenes are let down by the comically slow pace and bland cinematography that mostly showcases the action in wide master shots. Critic duo Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert reviewed the film on their television program "Sneak Previews." Both found "Silent Rage" to be a mixed bag that could not be recommended, despite having some worthwhile elements.

"Code of Silence" is a 1985 action movie that finds Chuck Norris as a cop fighting on three fronts. While staking out one gang, a second gang launches a lethal snatch-and-grab assault, leaving Chuck stuck in the middle of the burgeoning gang war. He would normally have the backup of his friends on the force, but he has enemies in-house as well. His efforts to weed out corruption in the police department have made him a pariah amongst his own men, leaving him as an archetypical lone wolf to take down his enemies single-handedly.

The film was directed by Andrew Davis, who is a step above most of the directors Norris worked with throughout his career. Davis worked with action stars regularly, including Arnold Schwarzenegger on "Collateral Damage" and Steven Seagal on "Under Siege" and "Above the Law," and he found major success when he directed the Oscar and BAFTA winning "The Fugitive." "Code of Silence" was Davis' first foray into the action genre.

"Code of Silence" was generally well-received by Rotten Tomatoes critics, though general audience ratings were a little less hot on it. Roger Ebert gave the film a strong recommendation, calling it "a slick, energetic movie with good performances and a lot of genuine human interest." The New York Times film critic Janet Maslin was less enthusiastic but still recommended the film, calling it a major leap forward in quality for Chuck Norris' filmography when compared to his earlier work.