Missing in Action (1984)

An Exercise In Nonsense

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

This is not a bad action flick starring Chuck Norris as Col. Braddock, a Vietnam vet, who goes back to the country to rescue MIAs the Vietnamese government denies are being held captive.The movie starts off a little slow with the mediocre acting, but picks up steam when we get to see Norris in action, decking Communist soldiers left and right and attempts to get information from a general about the missing MIAs. Braddock going on his mission in foreign lands, dodging assassins while he tries to rescue the MIAs were pretty exciting and suspenseful.Overall, not the best action flick out there. Acting could have been better, but it's still pretty action-packed.Grade B-

Chuck's first main franchise and one of his classic actioners. Only two years after the release of 'First Blood' you can see where this idea main have spawned from eh. In fact a script by James Cameron intended for the Rambo franchise was the inspiration for this very film so there. But since then this film itself has been copied many times, the ever popular one man army with a big gun.The mission, Chuck only just got back from Nam where he was held prisoner by some nasty Vietnamese. Once back in the States he realises there are still US POW's MIA back in Nam, so what does he do?. Well he packs up and goes back into the danger zone to find them of course. Isn't there a chance he might get killed or recaptured you say? pfft! Chuck Norris laughs in the face of danger, he tweaks the nipples of fear, he curses politely at those who stand against him.So I'll leave the extremely obvious Rambo similarities aside and just give my views on the action. Well it takes time to get there that's for damn sure, a long time. There is much build up and deliberation as Chuck works out what he's gonna do and how he will do it. Takes him ages to find his old army buddy for a start, not sure why that guy was such a big secret with the locals but there you go.Once we do hit the action its...well OK I guess. Dare I say its identical to 'Delta Force' in the sense that you never see any blood, violence, squib hits (not many) etc...I've mentioned before how Chuck's films tend to be like A-Team episodes haven't I, well its deja vu again. Now I'm not saying its bad because its not, its reasonable fun watching Norris run around gunning men down, but its hella tame.What I love about this film is the horrendous editing and feeble accuracy by everyone involved shooting a gun. So many times you get a shot of someone firing a machine gun (bad guys), just standing there and firing continuously at an enemy yet they never hit a thing!. You don't see any bullet hits, no sound of bullet hits, no ricochets nothing, they just stand there firing blankly and never running out of ammo, its quite amusing. All the while the other person is doing the exact same thing haha both firing continuously at each other yet nothing is happening around them, doesn't matter how close they are or how well hidden they are, classic.It really is a low rent Rambo, gotta say it, Rambo minus any blood, violence and real tension. Norris just waltzes in and terminates everyone without even bothering to aim much, whilst the enemy couldn't hit a barn door right in front of their face, glorious!. Bottom line that's what you watch it for, the classic hokey action which so many films homage and have spoofed ('Hot Shots 2').Chuck wins the day, was it ever in question? no, he doesn't even get a scratch bless him. The explosions are grand, chop-socky fighting and the action sequences are as corny as a corn on the cob...but its still fun to watch I can't deny. The minute I saw Chuck rise from beneath the murky river waters brandishing his huge M60 machine gun clad in those classic army fatigues with head band...I knew it had all been worth while.7/10

Col. James Braddock (Chuck) spent several years in a North Vietnamese POW camp. After escaping, he's now home, but he's a troubled man. He's invited by the American government to go back to Vietnam to investigate/talk about the phenomenon of soldiers still Missing In Action. Tensions flare, thanks to the evil General Trau (Hong). Braddock, being the badass that he is, decides to go off on his own into the jungle (actually with Tuck (Walsh), an old army buddy), and rescue any remaining POW's himself. While in the midst of their mission, they face an endless stream of baddies trying to stop them. It'll take all the firepower and skill Braddock has to defeat the enemy and save the missing men. Can he do it? This is classic Cannon all the way, and they really hit paydirt with this one. Thanks to the high-quality cinematography, the rousing, triumphant score, and the longer running time, Missing In Action has that big-screen feel. While the pace, at least for the first half of the movie, may seem a bit on the slow side to modern viewers, that's just the way things worked back then. It's a pre-ADD generation action movie. And we're all the better for it. It's ultimately a rewarding experience, and Cannon (as well as moviegoers) obviously thought so too, as this spawned two sequels to date (maybe we haven't seen the last of Braddock...?). Surely this film was at the forefront of the exploding hut/guy falling out of a guard tower/mindless shooting jungle movie back in the golden age of the 80's. Along with the Rambo series, not to mention countless Direct-To-Video items, these movies capitalized on the craze for patriotic movies with plenty of violence that were so in vogue in the Reagan 80's. To hammer the point home even more, stock footage of Reagan is actually IN Missing In Action 2. If you even THINK about communism, Braddock, Rambo, or any number of other heroes will mow you down with a machine gun that's taller than they are. So there. Take that you stupid commies.As for the cast and crew, Chuck Norris here started to take tentative steps toward his Texas-based clothing style that would manifest itself most fully during the Walker: Texas Ranger years. His hair and beard are at their reddest and most impressive here, and when he wears his sunglasses, you really can't even see his face. M. Emmet Walsh is always a welcome sight to see, and he plays a similar character in Red Scorpion (1988), which was also directed by Joseph Zito. As good as Walsh is, we also felt the role could have been played by Nick Nolte. Lenore Kasdorf of L.A. Bounty (1989) fame is onboard, as well as James Hong, who's been in pretty much everything. For our purposes here, he was in the same year's Cannon vehicle, the great Ninja III (1984), and much later was in Talons Of the Eagle (1992). Willie Williams, whose entire movie career seems to have been in Vietnam (or Nam-like) Jungle movies such as Final Mission (1984), Savage Justice (1988), Saigon Commandos (1988) and, not coincidentally, P.O.W. The Escape (1986), continues his tradition with the movie at hand today.Also it has been said that none other than Van Damme appears in an uncredited role as "Car Driver", but we didn't see him, so we can't necessarily confirm that that's actually true. But he's also credited with stunts, along with Aaron Norris, who would go on to direct the second sequel, Braddock, as well as Dean Ferrandini, who would go on to direct Overkill (1996). The next year after this, Zito would direct the ultimate Chuck movie, Invasion U.S.A. (1985) This is a nice trial run for that masterpiece.If there was going to be a movie version of the 80's Nintendo game Jackal, this could be it. It's a shoot-em-up where the hero must save the hostages. But here the hero is outspoken on the M.I.A. issue and is Chuck Norris. I guess those are the only two differences.Missing In Action is undoubtedly a classic and is completely worth seeing. In our eyes, however, the series would improve even more in the subsequent two outings, so watch out for those as well.

There were two main prevailing themes in 1980's Hollywood action cinema. One was the still prominent cold war, and secondly was the repositioning of the Vietnam war, where the domination of American warfare was scarred by its defeat. Missing in Action takes the latter theme, with Chuck Norris's Col. James Braddock, only a year out of a POW camp. Taken to Vietnam to either apologise for his war crimes during the war, or to get an apology for being held prisoner (it's not ultimately clear - unless I had already lost interest within the first reel), Braddock leaves his guarded hotel to get information from General Trau (James Hong) about other soldiers missing-in-action. Their presence is inevitably denied as unfounded.Action cinema certainly took liberties with the Vietnam defeat, giving the war an almost revisionist interpretation. By stating within the context of the film (the basic plot would be retraced a year later in Rambo: First Blood Part 2 (1985)), that Vietnam still hold many Vietnam vets imprisoned, Hollywood cinema is essentially stating that their defeat is justified as this race is barbaric and inhumane. Braddock eventually teams up with ex-soldier friend - and comic sidekick - Jack Tucker (M. Emmet Walsh) in Singapore. They somehow have thousands of dollars to spend on high-end military equipment, designed specifically for the needs of their eventual plan.Without humour, and with no tongue in any way near the cheek, the one- man army of Norris saves a bunch of POW's, bringing the inhumanity of the Vietnam government into disrepute. Missing in Action is a generic piece of action cinema, with a low-rent action hero. This prisoner-of- war rescue was so ubiquitous to the "war" film elements, and a way in which to recover America's damaged collective consciousness. Gung-ho had to return. As with all the action stars of the decade, the hard body was an important component to their raison-d'etre, and Norris can be horrifically spotted aimlessly walking around bland rooms, his shirt either open or completely off, revealing his gorilla-like torso.It dawned on me whilst watching this trash-action, that Chuck Norris was an action hero out-of-place. He appeared to me to be more of a 1970's television hero, such as Lee Majors or Gil Gerard. Then I remembered that he ending his career in the world of television, with the long running series, Walker: Texas Ranger (1993 - 2001). Fundamentally Chuck Norris has become a bigger cult than his "acting" output, but aside from the gratuitous chest-baring, I found his presence in this throw away action film quite endearing. Norris seems to take these cinematic films of explosions very seriously, a relic of the '70's next to the wisecracking, tongue-in-check machismo of the bigger (both in box-office and girth) '80's stars of the genre.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com