Missing in Action ** (1984, Chuck Norris, M Emmet Walsh, David Tress) – Classic Movie Review 10,312

Director Joseph Zito’s 1984 Missing in Action stars Chuck Norris, who chucks himself back into Asian action as Vietnam vet Colonel James Braddock to find men missing in action.

Norris is supposed to be an American colonel who was a prisoner-of-war in North Vietnam for seven years and has escaped home to the States 10 years earlier. He goes to Thailand, meets old Army buddy Tuck (M Emmet Walsh) and they launch a mission deep in the jungle to free American PoWs from General Tran (James Hong).

Missing in Action is a popular downmarket action thriller, some way behind the similar Uncommon Valor (1983) and First Blood (1982), with flag-waving rightist politics, typical of its Reaganite era. Norris and Walsh are good value.

It was shot in the Philippines and produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus for their Cannon Group company. It was a welcome hit for them. Costing $2,550,000, it grossed $22,812,411.

It is followed by Missing in Action 2: The Beginning and Braddock: Missing in Action III.

Also in the cast are M Emmet Walsh, Lenore Kasdorf, James Hong, Ernie Ortega, Pierrino Mascarino, Erich Anderson, Joseph Carberry and David Tress.

Braddock watches a cartoon of Spider-man on TV. Cannon Group had just acquired the rights to make a Spider-man film from Marvel and Zito was to make a $20 million film in 1986 but Cannon ran out of money.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,312

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