Good Guys Wear Black

1978 "Chuck Norris is John T. Booker and Booker is fighting back."
5.1| 1h35m| PG| en
Details

The former leader of a commando rescue attempt into Vietnam tries to discover why his squad members are being murdered, one-by-one, after the war is over.

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream on any device, 7-day free trial Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Nonureva Really Surprised!
Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic
Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Comeuppance Reviews John T. Booker (Chuck) is a former Vietnam commando who has blown up his fair share of huts and guard towers when in his prime. Five years after the end of the war, he's living a peaceful life as a teacher and race car enthusiast in Riverside, California. There's even a romance brewing with journalist Margaret (Archer), and all seems well. That is, until members of his former unit start being assassinated one by one. This sends John T. Booker on a quest to find out the truth behind the ruthless murders. He just may find that it's a conspiracy that goes - you guessed it - all the way to the top. Will good guys wear black, or will good guys be DEAD? Find out today… Good Guys Wear Black is a pretty early Chuck movie, and has an old-fashioned, staid vibe to it more suited to the TV movies of the day. We found it boring, talky, and it looks its age, and not in a good way. There isn't even any Martial Arts until an HOUR into the movie. All that being said, there is a standout action setpiece around that point.Chuck is a guy you can't help but like, and, despite the annoyingly minimal character development (what else is new in the world of Chuck), his mustache is looking especially walrus-y this time around. Plus the opening credits sequence sets things up to be a lot cooler than what follows, with snazzy 70's-era computer graphics and nice music. But then it goes into a 'Nam sequence the viewer has trouble seeing, and interest starts to slip. From there it goes to some government yakety-yak, and interest slips even more. If not for Chuck's superstache, this first half would have been a total waste.Interestingly, though, Seagal ripped off Chuck once again - Chuck was first when playing the silent-but-intellectual professor, decades before "Professor Robert Burns". Another thing going against the movie is the unusually fuzzy presentation from Vestron. This seems to be a rare lapse for the normally fine company. The visuals are dull and washed out. Maybe other presentations on other formats are better, we're not sure. If you have another version, write in to let us know. But it all kind of cumulatively adds up against the viewer's enjoyment. It made us aloof to most of the proceedings, and the slow, overlong nature of it all certainly didn't help either.We really wanted to like the movie more, and all it had to do was have Chuck fight more people, and have more scenes like the big action setpiece in the middle. That's ALL it had to do to win us over. But no, there was too much mush clogging things up. So it's all very middle-of-the-road, as way too many Chuck movies are, as things didn't start to pick up for him until later in his career.
Brian T. Whitlock (GOWBTW) This movie is one of my first favorites. Here you have Chuck Norris, a real karate champion, plays John Booker, a war vet who is trying to find out why his comrades are being bumped off. Whoever's doing it is in big trouble. You don't mess with BOOKER! NO NOT EVER!! Many made a big mistake and it cost their own lives in the process. First, one person gets shot during skiing and Booker did the flying side kick to the Booker's assailant's wife. The major assailant put a bomb on the plane that killed his girlfriend after takeoff. And he used that ski pole to attack Booker which was no use to stop him. Then my favorite scene of all is where the same guy whose wife was taken out, gets into the Toyota Celica, and tried to run over Booker. In which he returns delivers the awesome flying dropkick to the windshield killing him. I later found out that the stunt was done by his brother Aaron. Doesn't really matter I enjoyed it all the away. Chuck Norris is the reason I got into the martial arts, and I would like to thank him all the way. He is my idol! 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Nick Marino I don't know what it is about this film, but I can never seem to tire of it. The acting is nothing special, the camera work is dated, and the plot is confusing at times. But this doesn't effect the enjoyment I receive every time I put this DVD on and watch it again. In fact, the story grows more intriguing with every viewing. If you are a Chuck Norris fan, this is an especially fantastic find, since he is at rare form from start to finish. The plot has Norris race around the western US trying to stop an assassin gunning for members of his former CIA Vietnam unit. This may be one of the first films to feature truly "extreme" stunts, including snowmobiling, jumping thru a windshield of a moving car, along with other motorcycle, race car, and skiing related action. Luckily, now you can find the DVD in discount stores easily, and I believe it's worth picking up.
b-man-1 Good Guys Wear Black (1978) was one of Chuck Norris's first starring roles. Norris plays John T. Booker, a C.I.A. who is sent on a mission to rescue American P.O.W.s in Vietnam, but during the mission, he and his men are attacked and find that no Americans were at the Vietnamese camp. After Booker and the remaining soldiers just barely escape, they find out that their team, The Black Tigers, were set up. After a long walk home, the C.I.A.s are turning up dead and John T. Booker is the last one alive, and no one can help him but a lawyer named Margret. This film was made in 1977, but wasn't released until a year or two later. The action is decent, espiecially two scenes, one that takes place at a ski resort, and another at an airport where Chuck Norris fights this Japanese assassin. Overall, a decent 1970's action movie with bad acting and a really bad 70's sounding soundtrack.