Missing in Action (1984) Cannon/Action RT: 101 minutes Rated R (language, strong violence, brief nudity) Director: Joseph Zito Screenplay: James Bruner Music: Jay Chattaway Cinematography: Joao Fernandes Release date: November 16, 1984 (US) Cast: Chuck Norris, M. Emmett Walsh, Lenore Kasdorf, David Tress, James Hong, Ernie Ortega, Pierrino Mascarino, E. Erich Anderson, Joseph Carberry, Avi Kleinberger, Willie Williams, Bella Flores. Box Office: $22.8M (US)
Rating: *** ½
Precious few things in life are certain: death, taxes and Cannon Films never passing up the opportunity to capitalize on hit mainstream movies with their own low-budget versions. Take the Chuck Norris actioner Missing in Action about a troubled Vietnam vet staging his own rescue operation of POWs still being held captive. Sandwiched between Uncommon Valor and Rambo: First Blood Part II, Golan and Globus wanted to strike before the iron got super-hot with Stallone’s POW rescue flick coming to theaters the next summer. It’s a pretty good flick.
Colonel James Braddock (Norris, Lone Wolf McQuade) managed to make it home after years of being an MIA in Vietnam. He still has nightmares about the time he spent in a brutal POW camp run by General Vinh (Ortega, Return of the Dragon). His trauma becomes such a burden; he accepts an invite by the American government to join them on a diplomatic mission to Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) where the issue of MIAs is to be addressed. Naturally, the Vietnamese government represented by General Trau (Hong, Big Trouble in Little China) denies their existence. Furthermore, Trau personally calls out Braddock for his alleged “war crimes”.
Braddock, understanding that talk will get them nowhere, takes matters into his own hands. He forces Trau to reveal the location of a POW camp before killing him. He’s ordered by Vinh to leave Vietnam. Instead of returning home, he goes to Bangkok where he looks up his old Army buddy Tuck (Walsh, Blood Simple), a black marketeer with the necessary connections to help him mount his DIY rescue mission. Expectedly, Braddock is being followed by shadowy government types who try to kill him at every opportunity.
The first hour or so of Missing in Action is mainly set-up sprinkled with a bit of action. There’s a protracted sequence where Braddock sneaks out of hotel and back in, paying a fateful visit to Trau in between. This first hour moves rather slowly. It even takes the time to hint at romance between Braddock and an attractive diplomat, Ann (Kasdorf, Guiding Light), that ultimately goes nowhere.
Things pick up once an extremely well-armed Braddock sets off on his mission. That’s when Missing in Action kicks into one-man army mode with our hero mowing down enemy soldiers by the score as he attempts to locate and liberate POWs. It still has pacing issues, but now we’re getting what we came for. HOWEVER, I do have one burning question. How is it that there is NOT one good shot in the entire Vietnamese army? They don’t hit or even scratch Braddock, not even once. On the other hand, he hits everything and everybody he aims at. He’s so invincible; he can even emerge from underwater with his machine gun still working perfectly. I know, we’re not supposed to ask these questions of B-movies. I just think it’s funny that every single enemy soldier is a terrible shot.
Missing in Action is a decent action movie that should have been great. If director Joseph Zito (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter) tightened it up a bit, it might have been. It has all the right building blocks starting with stalwart, laconic action hero Norris who can silence the most persistent street type with a single menacing glare. He’s not what you call a traditional film actor; he’s more of a tough guy actor. His martial arts skills are incredible. The ever-dependable Hong has a nice turn as a slimy military official with liar written all over his face. You just want to beat the crap out of him when he trots in obviously coerced “witnesses” against Braddock. He gets off one of the best lines when he tells Trau that the $20,000 bounty on his head during the war was for “killing a**holes like you”.
On the other hand, Ortega doesn’t look even remotely Asian. He looks like some random guy from the barrio the makers hired on the spot. The late actor was actually from the Philippines, but never mind. Kasdorf’s role is basically thankless. All she gets to do is provide a false alibi for Norris’ character when the police come bursting into her hotel room to find them in bed together.
The action scenes are plentiful and well done. It has a lot of shooting, fighting and explosions. Isn’t that what really counts with a movie like Missing in Action? It’s flawed, but I like it. How can I not like a movie where one man fights the Vietnam War again? In ’84, the wounds inflicted on our nation by that unjust war weren’t yet healed. Movies like Missing in Action serve as a catharsis of sorts. It’s pure jingoistic fantasy, but it’s cool to watch Norris heroically right a terrible wrong.
