Missing in Action/Review

From The Grindhouse Cinema Database

< Missing in Action

As I told you before in my review of Invasion U.S.A., the chill of The Cold War started again in 80's movies. Usually, it involved a plot about the US Army fighting the Communists (who are depicted as bad guys). Let's take a look at Cannon Films' Missing in Action, another Rambo rip-off starring Chuck Norris.

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Although it was released before Rambo: First Blood Part II, the filmmakers stole the plot from James Cameron's original script for Rambo and used the famous Cannon method of filmmaking: make it cheaper, shoot it faster, and don't give a damn about the plot. The result is an action film that was actually supposed to be a sequel, but because it was so cool they had to release it first.

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The plot, well, what do you expect? Colonel James Braddock (Norris) was held for several years in a Vietnamese POW camp then he escaped. A few years later he visits Vietnam again with US officials to ask the country officials about MIA American soldiers. Since the officials accuse him of being a "war criminal" and deny the existence of any American POWs, he decides to find them himself with some help from Tuck his old friend.

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This film has anything and everything you want from classic low-budget Cannon action films such as explosions, shootouts, car chases, and most importantly the patriotic theme of the story. There's one scene where Braddock shoots at the Vietnamese army in slow-motion with patriotic music playing in the background. Now, that's what you call an "Ameri-gasm".

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There's one specific thing I'd like to point out about this film: the "Thailand" setting only loosely resembles the real one. I know there were lots of strip clubs in the 80's but there are lots of errors here. For example, the Thai text that was written on the taxi ("มาลี") doesn't mean taxi, it means flower! OR the fact that all cars in this film have a left-sided steering wheel while in real life all cars in Thailand have right-sided steering. Before you call me out for nit-picking, I know this film was shot in the Philippines so the landscape and the language are totally different from the country I live in. I do think that it's pretty fun to see my country depicted in weird and funny ways like that.

In closing, Missing in Action is a Cannon Film so it's definitely entertaining, although Norris' Invasion U.S.A. is much more fun.


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Nuttawut Permpithak hails from Thailand. He spends his free time watching exploitation films (or any films from the past) writing articles, taking photos and reviewing films for GCDb.

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