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Review: Missing in Action (1984)
Though it was originally intended to be a sequel, Chuck Norris stars in what Cannon is hoping to be a franchise. Missing in Action was first set to be released next year. It makes for a rather odd way to commemorate the decade marking the end of a certain conflict in Southeast Asia. I’m not sure what veterans will say but I don’t think that they’ll regard this low-budget actioner produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus as anything other than a jingoistic fantasy.
Some years after the end of the Vietnam War, Colonel James Braddock (Norris) is haunted by the horrors he lived through. Having escaped from a POW camp and living stateside, Braddock deems the only way to exorcise those demons is by returning to Vietnam. As a conference is called in Hanoi for the Vietnamese to refute any talk of MIAs still being held captive as POWs. He accompanies a senator (David Tress) and the senator’s aide (Lenore Kasdorf).
In Hanoi, the Americans attend a conference where General Tran (James Hong) berates and belittles Braddock. The former POW makes no secret of his disdain for the general. Braddock attempts to find some answers but in doing so prompts him to leave—rather hastily and involuntarily—without them.
Braddock travels to Thailand where he finds an old army buddy (M. Emmet Walsh), a black market profiteer who frequents brothels when he isn’t peddling contraband wares. Braddock convinces his old friend to get him back to Vietnam where he is certain that there are still some POWs being held. With a plan in place and Vietnamese agents on their tails attempting to retire the former POW permanently, Braddock commences his operation.
While Joseph Zito’s film isn’t bad, it certainly doesn’t seem like the way to remind the public of the upcoming tenth anniversary of the fall of Saigon. The next film, originally meant to be the first will be released next year. That might offer clarity to those wondering why in the credits there is mention of the script being based on characters created by Arthur Silver, Larry Levinson, and Steve Bing.
All the film seems to do is show Norris’ limited acting and ease with an assortment of artillery, like the heavy machine gun he is seen wielding in the poster. But this isn’t a film meant to do anything other than serve as a venture to make a buck, not offer up serious drama like Michael Cimino and Hal Ashby sought to provide in 1978 with The Deer Hunter and Coming Home, respectively. It comes off as being a rather crude carbon copy of last year’s Uncommon Valor. Norris, however is no Gene Hackman.
Robert Baum is Currently a Bryn Mawr, PA-based film afficanado and pop culture junkie.
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