Missing in Action (film)

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Missing in Action
File:Missing in action (film poster).jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Joseph Zito
Produced by Menahem Golan
Yoram Globus
Screenplay by James Bruner
Story by
  • John Crowther
  • Lance Hool
Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Music by Jay Chattaway
Cinematography João Fernandes
Edited by Joel Goodman
Daniel Loewenthal
Distributed by The Cannon Group
MGM (current)
Warner Bros. Pictures
América Vídeo (VHS) 1987
Release dates
 <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • November 16, 1984 (1984-11-16)
Running time
 101 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Vietnamese
Budget $1.5 million[1]
Box office $22,812,411[2]

Missing in Action is a 1984 action film directed by Joseph Zito and starring Chuck Norris. It is set in the context of the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. Colonel Braddock, who escaped a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp 10 years earlier, returns to Vietnam to find American soldiers listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War. The film was followed by a prequel, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) and a sequel, Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988).

Missing in Action 2 was filmed back to back with Missing in Action, and was actually set to be released first before the producers changed their minds.[3]

Despite the overwhelmingly negative reception, the film was a commercial success and has become one of Chuck Norris' most popular films. It was also Chuck Norris' first film with The Cannon Group.

Plot

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Colonel James Braddock is a US military officer who spent seven years in a North Vietnamese POW camp, then escaped 10 years ago. After the bloodiest war, Braddock accompanies a government investigation team that goes to Ho Chi Minh City to check out reports of US soldiers still held prisoner. Braddock gets the evidence then travels to Thailand, where he meets Tuck, an old Army buddy turned black market kingpin. Together, they launch a mission deep into the jungle to free the US POW's from General Trau.

Cast

Reception

Critical

Missing in Action received overwhelmingly negative reviews.[4][5] The film has been widely described as a rip-off of the Rambo film series by critics and viewers alike, particularly the film Rambo: First Blood Part II, even though that film was released the following year (1985). Scott Weinberg of eFilmCritic.com gave the film 2 stars out of 5, writing that "Norris does Stallone... badly" in his review.[6] In a 2003 BBC article entitled "Rambo: Pretenders to the Throne", Almar Haflidason wrote "the runaway success of the Rambo trilogy inspired dozens of rip-offs", citing that the Missing in Action series was the most famous of the Rambo clones.[7]

Derek Adams of Time Out wrote that the film was "so bad that it defies belief. It's xenophobic, amateurish and extraordinarily dull". He also labeled it as "all-gooks-are-baddies propaganda".[8] On AMC's movie guide, Jeremy Beday of Rovi described the film as a "crass, dopey Rambo-esque film that ultimately fails to connect with anything interesting in the realm of fact or fiction" and that its "chop-socky, shoot-em-up, explosion-a-minute action quickly wears thin".[9] Steve Crum of Video-Reviewmaster.com wrote that MIA was "Chuck Norris' best film, and that isn't saying much".[6] The film currently holds a 23% "Rotten" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.[6]

Box Office

The film was popular at the box office, one of the most successful ever made by Cannon. It earned over $10 million in rentals in the US[10] and resulted in a profit to Cannon of $6.5 million on the basis of its US release alone.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Andrew Yule, Hollywood a Go-Go: The True Story of the Cannon Film Empire, Sphere Books, 1987 p58
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Chuck Norris: The Public Has Made Him a Star: FILM VIEW "'Code of Silence' is a first-rate action picture about a two-fisted, two-footed Chicago cop caught in the middle of a gang war." (Vincent Canby) FILM VIEW Canby, Vincent. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 12 May 1985: H15.

External links

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