So this is how it ended. The 2005 TV movie Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire was meant to be a reboot for Chuck Norris and co. Instead poor ratings turned it into a swansong for Norris’s most famous character, the taciturn tough-but-fair cop who over an eight-year run on TV (1993-2001) had always had a martial-arts roundhouse kick at the ready for anyone who wouldn’t come quietly.
Norris borrowed most of his shtick from Clint Eastwood in his Man with No Name days. Just stand there and look enigmatic is a sound choice if you can’t really act, which Norris can’t. That lack of basic chops – he’s a beat behind even on his opening line – explains why so much of the dramatic heavy lifting in this movie is being done by other people. Norris acts as a link, or as a big gun being kept in reserve for when a decisive takedown is required.
Fans of the show will recognise Sheree Wilson, as Walker’s screen wife, and Judson Mills, as right-hand man Ranger Gage, but much of the investigating, most of the meaty acting scenes and pretty much all of the decisive dramatic turning points are handled by Janine Turner as Ranger Kay Austin. Austin is something of a whizz at forensic pathology. Sparky and likeable, Turner could have fronted the entire show. Maybe there is brand building going on here, with a last-minute spin-off being planned. Turner is certainly wearing enough lipstick.
It’s easy to mock Walker, Texas Ranger. Many people did. Norris became adept at riding the mockery, good-naturedly turning out when some talk show host wanted to take a pop, playing along and shrugging and grinning all the way to the bank. But… actually… this is quite enjoyable, in a whodunit, cops-on-the-case, banter-with-the-guys kind of way.
Though there is way too much story for the running time. One plotline is an everyday bank robbery by petty criminals. Another is the theft of a crucial piece of hi-tech weapons-guidance hardware, which ends up in the hands of a kid unprepared for what’s going to come his way. Another is the charge of rape and murder being levelled at a member of Walker’s team. And finally there’s a TV guy trying to make a name for himself by launching a campaign to abolish the Rangers (a defund-the-police plot strand that would look more prescient if more was done with it).
It’s directed with some flair by Aaron Norris, Chuck’s brother – Chuck’s daughter Danilee and niece Meagan also make appearances – but autograph hunters will probably get most excited to see Selena Gomez in the cast list, as a tween who might know where the kid with the hardware has disappeared to. She’s here and then she’s gone, so don’t over-invest.
As for martial-arts fans, Chuck doesn’t do that much. He’s 65, for god’s sake, and moves like he’s had spinal fusion surgery. But the bad guys – Bruce Locke, Ilram Choi and Arnold Chon – do have the moves and they’re the reason to watch, Chon in particular, a Bond henchman in waiting, though the era of despicable orientals is probably over.
There’s also a good chase sequence – bad guys in a big beast of a car, a kid on a poky little trailbike – that’s well shot by Aaron Norris, more than just a nepo-talent, though he’s directed nothing after this, preferring to focus on stunt co-ordinating and producing.
He makes it an enjoyable, free-flowing, zip-along viewing experience. Though there’s nothing he can do with his brother’s acting or that cliffhanger ending, clearly designed to be resolved in the next of a series of who knows how many spin-off free-standing TV movies. But it was not to be.
Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2025
