I rate "Lone Wolf McQuade" as being one of the best vehicles for Chuck Norris. An ideal villain was found in the form of David "Grasshopper" Carradine and the two of them raise the film a good deal. I liked the scene when Carradine gives a martial arts demonstration inside the ring, in front of the general public. He showboats for all it's worth but Mr. Norris doesn't look all that impressed.......... There is plenty of incident to keep one watching but the ending was unnecessarily downbeat.

The archetypical renegade Texas Ranger wages war against a drug kingpin with automatic weapons, his wits and martial arts after a gun battle leaves his partner dead. All of this inevitably culminates a martial arts showdown between the drug lord and the ranger, and involving the woman they both love. Lone Wolf McQuade is packed with terrific perfomances by both Norris and Carradine and their fight scene was just beautiful, the soundtrack was pure joy to my ears and the action just beautiful looking. Definitely a 80's Spaghetti Western Classic. (A+)

"The Lone wolf McQuade" is one of Norris most known movies and also one of his best. Norris character in "Expendables 2" is referred to as being a "Lone Wolf". Also the famous TV show with Norris "Walker Texas ranger " was obviously inspired by this movie . The producers of this movie sued CBS for copyright infringement. CBS was later on issued a retro-active license by Orion.This movie is a homage and a tribute to Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns and has often been compared and likened to those movies. Even the pretty good music by Francesco De Masi seems to borrow from Ennio Morricone score from "Once Upon a Time in the West".As the title suggest Norris plays a Dirty Harry type of cop – independent , incorruptible, brave, often in conflict with his bosses. The movie makes one difference compared to Harry Callahan – the creators gave Norris quite nice love story here. It shows us that McQuade is tough on the outside , but soft on the inside.From what I've remember McQuade has got a wolf instead of dog. He likes beer , but only one kind of beer. He won't drink anything else. He's divorced , yet he's a friend with his ex-wife and daughter. He's got a sidekick who is a total rookie. He's stubborn and not always plays by rules , so he gets suspended quite often by his bosses. And it's good that he's portrayed here as human who can be hurt emotionally or physically , because that makes the movie much more interesting if Norris was just a killing machine.According to the producers, had Bruce Lee been alive at the time, he would have been offered the part that eventually went to David Carradine . Had Lee taken the part, the producers would have billed the film as "the rematch of the century". That would been awesome.Still , David Carradine is not bad as the villain Also he's a worthy kung fu opponent for Chuck. As we know a villain is very important in action movie . Barbara Carrera is good as the love interest .A fun action western from the 80's. After "Delta force" it's Norris best movie. I give it 6/10.

Back in the 1980s Chuck Norris made a career out of starring in approximately 40 million low-budget action movies. Most of these were produced by the notorious Cannon Group, but thankfully Lone Wolf McQuade was exempt from that rule. With a price tag that wouldn't even cover the catering budget of the typical Hollywood film, and a PG rating, Lone Wolf McQuade actually manages to be very good for what it is.Chuck is the titular McQuade, a grubby, rugged (grubbed?) Texas Ranger with hair covering 90% of his body who lives in a dirty shack out in the desert and spends what little free time he has blasting at target dummies. His wife and daughter have moved on, tired of his dedication to the job. Make no mistake, McQuade is one honest-to-God, genuine, straight-up tough guy. He's too good for the job, angering his long-suffering Captain who teams him with a cheeky, young upstart Highway Patrolman. McQuade doesn't take to kindly to this and just as he chases his new partner out of his dirty shack his daughter (Dana Kimmel, the cutie-pie lead from Friday the 13th Part 3) is caught-up in a gun-running plot operated by the evil Rawley Wilkes (David Carradine, who looks so much like Chuck they could be brothers, minus the body hair).It's basically an A-Team plot (the clip credits don't help distract from this) but everything is overblown so much it truly would have been an awesome film to watch in a crowded cinema back in 1983. Even the score, by some guy I had never heard of, was brilliant, echoing Spaghetti westerns of the 60 and 70s. Everything that can be exaggerated gets the treatment. But it's important to note that this is not a ridiculous film in the vein of Commando. Lone Wolf McQuade takes itself seriously as a western and somehow, through sheer masculinity and a devil-may-care attitude it works.Apparently Chuck liked the character so much he wanted to make a TV show out of it but MGM wouldn't budge so Walker, Texas Ranger was created instead. It's a shame that it had to turn out that way as a TV show would have been a nice legacy for the movie. As it is, it's one of Chuck's best. I went in with expectations so low they could ooze underneath the bathroom door. McQuade may be a lone wolf, but he's also a dark horse.