{"id":2319,"date":"2024-08-16T02:44:25","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T02:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2319"},"modified":"2024-10-14T14:29:39","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T18:29:39","slug":"missing-in-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/16\/missing-in-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing in Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Missing in Action <\/strong>(1984)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cannon\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 101 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong violence, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Joseph Zito\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: James Bruner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jay Chattaway\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Joao Fernandes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 16, 1984 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $22.8M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Precious 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 <\/strong>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\u2019s POW rescue flick coming to theaters the next summer. It\u2019s a pretty good flick.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Colonel 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 \u201cwar crimes\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Braddock, 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The first hour or so of Missing in Action <\/strong>is mainly set-up sprinkled with a bit of action. There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Things pick up once an extremely well-armed Braddock sets off on his mission. That\u2019s when Missing in Action <\/strong>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\u2019re 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\u2019t hit or even scratch Braddock, not even once. On the other hand, he hits everything and everybody he aims at. He\u2019s so invincible; he can even emerge from underwater with his machine gun still working perfectly. I know, we\u2019re not supposed to ask these questions of B-movies. I just think it\u2019s funny that every single enemy soldier is a terrible shot.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Missing in Action<\/strong> is a decent action movie that should have been great. If director Joseph Zito (Friday the 13th<\/sup>: 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\u2019s not what you call a traditional film actor; he\u2019s 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 \u201cwitnesses\u201d 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 \u201ckilling a**holes like you\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0On the other hand, Ortega doesn\u2019t 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\u2019s role is basically thankless. All she gets to do is provide a false alibi for Norris\u2019 character when the police come bursting into her hotel room to find them in bed together.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The action scenes are plentiful and well done. It has a lot of shooting, fighting and explosions. Isn\u2019t that what really counts with a movie like Missing in Action<\/strong>? It\u2019s flawed, but I like it. How can I not like a movie where one man fights the Vietnam War again? In \u201984, the wounds inflicted on our nation by that unjust war weren\u2019t yet healed. Movies like Missing in Action<\/strong> serve as a catharsis of sorts. It\u2019s pure jingoistic fantasy, but it\u2019s cool to watch Norris heroically right a terrible wrong.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Missing in Action (1984)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cannon\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 101 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong violence, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Joseph Zito\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: James Bruner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jay Chattaway\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Joao Fernandes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 16, 1984 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Chuck Norris, M. Emmett Walsh, Lenore Kasdorf, David Tress, James Hong, Ernie Ortega, Pierrino Mascarino, E. Erich Anderson, Joseph Carberry, Avi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kick-ass-actioners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Missing-in-Action-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2319"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3323,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319\/revisions\/3323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}