P.O.W. the Escape (1986)    Cannon/Action    RT: 90 minutes    Rated R (violence, language, brief nudity)    Director: Gideon Amir    Screenplay: Malcolm Barbour, James Bruner, Avi Kleinberger, John Langley and Jeremy Lipp    Music: David Storrs    Cinematography: Yehiel Ne’eman    Release date: April 4, 1986 (US)    Cast: David Carradine, Charles R. Floyd, Steve James, Phil Brock, Mako, Daniel Demorest, Tony Pierce, Steve Freedman, James Acheson, Rudy Daniels, Ken Metcalfe, Kenneth Weaver, Michael James, Irma Alegre.    Box Office: $2.4M (US)

Rating: ***

 Here’s a real blast from the past! I haven’t seen the Cannon actioner P.O.W. the Escape since the 80s. It was made in the wake of the success of the P.O.W rescue flicks Rambo: First Blood Part II and Missing in Action. Playing the Sylvester Stallone/Chuck Norris role is David Carradine, the laconic star of Death Race 2000, Circle of Iron, Q and Lone Wolf McQuade (opposite Norris). Like his tough guy predecessors, he racks up quite a body count in his flight to freedom.

 Col. James Cooper (Carradine), whose motto is “everybody goes home”, is assigned to lead a special mission to liberate American prisoners of war from a North Vietnamese prison camp in the end days of the war. When he and his squad arrive at the site, there aren’t any POWs, just enemy soldiers waiting to ambush them. After a fierce battle, Cooper is captured and taken to a camp run by Captain Vinh (Mako, Conan the Barbarian) where he’s faced with a difficult choice. He either helps Vinh escape to the US or be taken to Hanoi to answer for his “war crimes”. He reluctantly agrees to the former on the condition that all the other POWs are freed as well. En route to the American sector, Cooper and the POWs escape with the intention of making it to a rendezvous point where choppers will be waiting.

 I didn’t see P.O.W. the Escape at the movies. It didn’t open in Philadelphia. If it did, I would have been there opening weekend- most likely, with my father, a fellow action fan. I rented it from West Coast Video circa December of that year. I liked it well enough. I saw it again on cable in spring ’87. That is the last time I recall watching it. I figured it was time to check it out again. It’s still pretty good for what it is. It’s damn good for a Cannon movie, that’s for sure!

 The late, great Steve James, Michael Dudikoff’s sidekick in the American Ninja movies, plays a bad ass POW named Johnston. He’s the guy who’s with Cooper all the way. So is Adams (Brock, The Allnighter), a bespectacled smart guy whose main goal when he gets stateside is meeting a girl with “mammary glands the size of Buicks”. Sparks (Floyd in his only role), on the other hand, hates Cooper from the start. He’s only looking out for number one, himself. He proves this time and time again, especially as it pertains to a chest of stolen gold in Vinh’s possession. These are the only other characters with which you need concern yourself.

 Directed by Gideon Amir (producer of Missing in Action and American Ninja), P.O.W. the Escape has some decent action scenes. HOWEVER, I have call out the first sequence on something that makes absolutely no sense. When Cooper and the other soldiers show up at the camp, they go in gung ho-style with guns blazing away. It goes on for a few minutes until somebody realizes the camp is empty. Shouldn’t they have done some recon first, look for signs of life? If they had, they’d know there were no POWS on site and they could potentially be walking into a trap. I’ve never been in the military, so maybe I don’t understand how such things work. I’m simply going by common sense. Then again, common sense doesn’t always factor into action movies, does it?

 I’ve always liked Carradine. He has a quiet kind of cool about him that he always brings to his characters. Cooper would much prefer to go in quietly and extricate the POWs. The brass wants something entirely different. They want a show of force on their part so Cooper is ordered to mount a full-scale invasion with helicopters, machine guns and explosions. Through it all, Cooper keeps his cool, even when he’s gunning down enemy soldiers by the dozen. James was always a great co-star. When you saw his name in the opening credits, you knew to expect total bad assery. Mako makes a good villain. He’s a sadistic creep with dreams of joining his family in Miami before he’s made to answer for his own criminal actions. Don’t worry, with somebody like David Carradine on his back, it’s certain he’ll be made to answer anyway…. with his life!

 There’s nothing particularly special about P.O.W. the Escape. It’s a fairly typical example of an 80s action movie right down to the hero that wraps himself in the American flag. It literally happens about 75 minutes in. It has a lot of shooting, explosions and good old-fashioned ass kicking. The Vietnamese bad guys are total stereotypes. It functions exactly as it’s supposed to. You can’t ask for more than that, can you? Well, you could, but you’d be wasting your time.