Last Updated on July 23, 2021
MISSING IN ACTION (1984)
Rating: 3 out of 4 /Buy the DVD Here
Tagline: The war’s not over until the last man comes home.
Directed by Joseph Zito
Starring: Chuck Norris, M. Emmet Walsh, David Tress and James Hong
THE PLAN: Ex-P.O.W. James Braddock returns to North Vietnam after 10 years as part of a delegation to investigate if there are still American prisoners being held in the jungle. When he gets guff from the Communists in power, Braddock decides that it’s finally time to end their regime… single-handedly!
THE KILL: If there’s one thing MISSING in action isn’t missing, it’s action!!! (Sorry, I sorta had to write that…)
In many ways, MISSING IN ACTION is the quintessential Chuck Norris vehicle, just as Braddock is the quintessential Norris character. He’s Norris at his man-on-a-mission best, and if Norris is anything, he’s a man on a mission. The actor has always seemed a little more earnest than his 80s action star counterparts. With guys like Schwarzenegger and Stallone, that movie star swagger is apparent in their characters; Norris just looks like he’s doing what he must, without ulterior motives. I guess that’s why he’s such an asskicker: there’s really no pretense about him.
In MISSING IN ACTION, Norris plays a character that has a lifetime of bad memories in his head. Braddock was a P.O.W in Vietnam and got the full DEER HUNTER treatment there, as did his comrades. Having escaped and lived a “normal” life in the States, he’s still haunted by the thought that he left some of his friends behind. (Lord knows he did what he could and killed about 8,000 Vietcong while there – but it just wasn’t enough dammit!). When the government prepares to send a delegation back to the bush to shed some light on what happened to all those missing American soldiers, Norris simply picks up a phone, says “I’ll go”, and we’re off to bring those boys home!
Chuck Norris doesn’t need a helmet because his hair acts as one
MISSING IN ACTION was made by The Canon Group and produced by Golum/Globus, true purveyors of 80s action trash like this. While the film has a serious plot, it doesn’t carry a serious message; it’s simply wish fulfillment fantasy: why couldn’t Braddock have really existed? Then we would have won that war! Or at the very least, gotten a chance to go back and set things right! A year later, RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD would have a similar storyline, but with more rage in its heart and a more obvious political agenda. Golum, Globus and pals really just want to have fun.
And fun it is, for the most part. Director Joseph Zito stages the proceedings – which involve Braddock mucking about Saigon for a while before heading into the jungle with an old army buddy (M. Emmet Walsh, not playing a sleaze for once) to find the P.O.W’s – with minimal flair. It’s the standard “guy jumps out to shoot Norris, somehow misses, Norris just stands there and shoots him, keeps on running” school of action filmmaking. It’s no-frills but efficient, and what we’ve come to expect (and enjoy) from this kind of movie. The film does have an impressive range of locations and pyrotechnics, landing it on a bigger scale than most products of this sort, but it also doesn’t have that one awesome moment that defines it. It’s also not quite trashy enough, like this crew’s next film, INVASION U.S.A., to qualify as camp. Fans of the Norris, however, will be content to watch the man do what he does best: Beat peoples’ faces like its his job. After all, it kind of is.
MISSING IN ACTION 80s trailer!
TOP DEATH: There aren’t many creative kills in this one (most everyone is mowed down by a storm of bullets), but it’s always cool when Norris chucks a knife across a room and nails a baddie in the chest.
TOP ACTION: Braddock’s final rescue will get your machismo flowing and your fist pumping. The sequence’s ultimate moment comes when Braddock, thought dead by a trio of laughing Commies, rises slowly out of the water with his giant machine gun at the ready.
FEMALE EXPLOITATION: Norris gets himself a lady friend, but she doesn’t do a whole lot, for him or me.
HOMOEROTIC MOMENT: With The Norris?! C’mon!
TOP DIALOGUE: “The misfortunes of war!” – Braddock
DRINKING GAME: Drink every time Braddock should realistically be injured but miraculously is not. You’ll be drunker than f*ck in the first 10 minutes!
TRIVIA: Director Joseph Zito directed this and FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 4 in the same year.
Chuck Norris doesn’t read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he needs.
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