Will Sampson and Sonny Landham really put the Native American flavor into Firewalker. While Sampson is the contemporary jeans-clad shaman, Landham dons Aztec ceremonial regalia for quite a stunning show. Add in some native folklore, Aztec mythology, Aztec pictographs and a little bit of shaman mysticism, and you have got an interesting Native American tale.

Leo Porter (Lou Gossett Jr.) and Max Donigan (Chuck Norris) are adrenalin-junkie adventurers who have spent the last decade on expeditions that usually did not pay off. So when Patricia Goodwyn (Melody Anderson) seeks their help in locating a hidden treasure on a Native American reservation, they are eager to work for half of the treasure -- until she tells them that she is being stalked by a red cyclops with long black hair.

The only thing they find on the reservation is a ceremonial dagger from 1526 and some pictographs that send them to the land of the Aztecs and a sacred temple. Patricia selects San Miguel as the location.

They seek out a shaman, Tall Eagle (Sampson), who tells them the legend of the Firewalker and warns them about an evil one known as El Coyote (Landham). He gives Patricia some magical dust for protection.

They go to the jungle, buy information from a Brit named Boggs (Ian Abercrombie), and eventually end up captured by rebels. But luckily for them, the rebel leader is Max's former Marine sergeant, Corky Taylor (John Rhys-Davies). He gives them a vehicle, which Max immediately sinks in the river when Leo disappears.

Max and Patricia go looking for Leo and stumble into the ancient temple, finding a trussed Leo hanging over a pot of boiling water and a crazed El Coyote in need of human sacrifices so he can become the Firewalker.

I love this story. The plots and subplots are excellent. The Firewalker is something that we had not seen, so the movie had merit for originality before they began filming. Then, they added Patricia's visions, which captivate your attention as soon as you catch on. They really did have an exceptionally intriguing skeleton with only the basic outline. There was not much way to mess up this movie.

The casting was excellent -- at least it should have been. Somebody needs to slap the director for allowing Chuck Norris to goof off instead of acting. Or was he acting like a goof to purposely ruin the movie?

I have a lot of respect for Norris. Well, I did before this movie. I understand that he has devoted extensive resources to helping youths. He is obviously a good man. But crappy acting is crappy acting and his acting in this movie reached the highest plateaus of crappiness!

Still, Norris is not completely to blame. The director allowed him to do it.

If you remove Norris from the scenes, Firewalker is an excellent movie with an intriguing plot, interesting characters, and lots of tidbits of native culture. It really is a great movie if you can ignore Norris' shenanigans. This is a case of one actor singlehandedly tearing down what everybody else worked so hard to build.

I hope that somebody decides to do a remake of this movie someday without the buffoon.