Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Such a frustrating disappointment

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Prequel to Chuck Norris' quite successful first film in the "Missing in Action" franchise. The prequel tells the story of how Norris' Colonel Braddock was captured and held prisoner by the NVA during the Vietnam War. The film is a fairly standard POW war film story, complete with an evil camp commandant, cruel torture, and daring escapes. Norris has always been limited in his acting ability, but this film wisely did not ask much of our hero in that department. Unfortunately the film also did not ask Chuck show off his martial arts skills much either, with the exception being a final confrontation with venerable character actor Soon-Tek Oh as the evil Colonel Yin. Chuck takes some beat downs from Professor Toru Tanaka and has some nasty torture scenes, particularly one involving rats, throughout the film as the NVA try to get him to confess to war crimes, but why have a karate champ in your film if you're not going to let him fight? The film's production company realized this was a weak film and had already filmed a sequel back-to-back with this one. Producers made the wise choice to release what was originally filmed as a sequel ("Missing in Action" where Chuck goes back to Vietnam to rescue POWs) as the first of the franchise and then released this weaker film later as a prequel. In the plus column for this film, it does feature music by Max Max composer Brian May. Also, as clichéd of a POW story as it is, it's a pretty sturdy one that's hard to resist for fans of this war film sub-genre.

This middle chapter of the James Braddock trilogy is a prequel to the original Missing In Action that traces the origin of Chuck Norris's not-quite-iconic franchise player. The film is centered around Braddock's detention at a Vietnamese prison camp with several other American POWs, who are held at the mercy of a malevolent colonel who subjects them to a variety of cruelties. Of course, Norris is never one to sit idly by while injustice is being done, and he soon navigates a daring escape, blowing tons of stuff up and gunning down dozens of bad guys in the process.Though The Beginning boasts all of the hallmarks of an enjoyable B-action flick (slow motion explosions, liberal use of machine guns, a hero seemingly impervious to damage, etc.), Missing In Action 2 spends a lot more time developing the characters and the scenario than fans of the genre may be used to. While this relegates most of the action to the third act and slows the pace a bit, the film benefits from the more immersive approach, and delving deeply into the horrors of the POW experience brings home the real-world resonance of the piece while simultaneously bolstering the pay-off when the guns n' grenades portion of the plot gets underway.The dramatic emphasis also allows the usually stone-faced Norris to showcase his acting chops a bit, and even when he's called upon to express actual emotions, he does a capable job of humanizing Braddock beyond the scope of an interchangeable action hero. I'm keenly aware that most people curious about the Missing In Action series aren't all that interested in seeing Norris cry, so I should post-script that endorsement by adding that even though this outing is a bit more serious-minded than some others you'll encounter from the era, Chuck still doles out plenty of vengeance upon his captors with flame-throwers, Uzis, explosives, and good old-fashioned karate leaps out of trees.Your basic good-vs-evil movie is only as strong as its villain, and we get a suitably malicious match for Norris in Soon-Teck Oh's Colonel Yin, who notches up serious baddie points by burning people alive, tormenting Norris with news from the home-front, and humiliating one prisoner by having the least attractive prostitutes you'll ever see strip him naked and mock his genitals. In adherence to the sort of muddled logic you only find in '80s action films, Colonel Yin is a rare breed of Vietnamese overlord who speaks perfect English and is proficient in advanced martial arts.The presence of veteran henchman Professor Toru Tanaka is a welcome addition, and always entertaining character actor Steven Williams lends his services as a conniving turncoat, who, in true Williams fashion, fights valiantly to steal the movie by taking big meaty bites out of every scene he's in.Most of the shoot 'em up aspects of the film are fairly standard, but MIA2 does boast a few truly memorable scenes during the extended prison camp segments, the most effective of which is the "rat in a bag" sequence. Though the majority of Colonel Yin's tortures aren't all that creative, when he orders his men to stuff Chuck's head and an agitated rodent into the same burlap sack, it becomes impossible not to recognize his ingenuity.Though The Beginning dramatizes the true fates of some American soldiers left behind in Vietnam, any parallels to reality are readily negated by Chuck's propensity for invincibility. He does get kicked around a bit as a prisoner, but once he assumes the mantle of heavily-armed liberator, his (we assume) highly-trained captors suddenly forget how to aim their weapons, and Norris is able to elude even the most voluminous volleys of gunfire by simply rolling out of the way. The absurd apex of Chuck's super hero capabilities arrives when he opens a hatch to free some of the prisoners, only to discover that he has been lured into a trap. Instead of POWs, the compartment is filled with a dozen enemy soldiers, who immediately open fire with their machine guns inches from our sturdy protagonist's face... and somehow miss him entirely.Of course, such silliness is to be expected from a film like Missing In Action 2, and when the result is a fun and entertaining 90 minutes, it seems beside the point to complain about the improbabilities. Judged against the other work being churned out by Norris and his contemporaries during the era, The Beginning is a surprisingly thoughtful offering that balances its heart and its gonads rather adeptly. Above average is definitely good enough in this case.

This film is not the super explosive blockbuster that "Rambo" was, but this one has a certain appeal to it. Then again it has Chuck Norris in it, what more does one need to enjoy a film? I am only semi joking as I just enjoy a good Chuck Norris movie every now and then and this one was rather interesting and had some good action as one might expect and a very nice finale that was very explosive. This one is about a bunch of Vietnam soldiers who are p.o.w's in a camp with a very brutal commander. He wants simply to break the leader of the group Braddock (Chuck Norris) and he goes about trying to do it in very demented ways. One of the p.o.w's seemingly sides with this vicious man, but he really believes that if you play nice and do as your told that they can all be freed. The ending has Chuck getting away and getting revenge and is just as nice as the scenes in Rambo, and at the same time are a bit more emotional. The film is not perfect by an means, as you usually can see where this one is going and who is going to live and die and who is going to get theirs, however there are some surprising scenes such as the nasty rat scene. The movie moves at a nice clip, the action is more confined to the end of the picture, but the rest of the movie is entertaining enough so that it is not a chore to get there.

Missing in Action 2 (1985) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Prequel to the first film has Col. James Braddock (Chuck Norris) and his men thrown into a POW camp where they are constantly abused and tortured. Soon Braddock finally realizes that their only chance for survival is by escaping. I've read at a couple sites that the first two films in the series were shot at the same time and that originally this prequel was meant to be the first in the series but the producer's film that the other film, the eventually part one, was better so this one here was released second and as a prequel. The first film was a laughably bad action film but this one here tries to play itself more straight and it works in some ways. I'm really not sure if the series would have been better had this one been released first but it does contain more human drama than the first film. This film has "B" movie written all over it due to the poor performances and lackluster direction but it still manages to be entertaining due to some nice action and a fun ending. Soon-Tek Oh plays the bad guy in the film and actually steals the movie. This isn't an all out action film like the first movie but I enjoyed it just the same.