In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Yeah, I know low budget...but still good entertainment. This is the first one, not to be confused with the 2 mediocre sequels. Former Special Forces Col. James Braddock escaped from a from a Vietnamese communist POW camp. The Washington establishment want him to be part of a high ranking delegation to put the MIA issue to bed. Braddock reluctantly agrees to join the delegation and fly to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, where he insults various communist murderers/butchers and upsets the liberal pantywaist American delegation, except for the the sympathetic and beautiful Ann/Lenore Kadorf. Braddock then goes rogue to rescue the imprisoned American soldiers/MIAs. Much superior to the sanitized TV version, we see the beautiful Lenore in a nice nude scene. However it is the last scene which almost makes this movie a 10! Naturally it was panned by the commie/marxist/responsible conservative movie critics.

Chuck Norris is Col. James Braddock, a survivor of a Vietnam Prisoner of War camp who many years later decides to return to find proof - and liberate - American soldiers still being held against their will.As the 1980s boom for martial artists becoming filmic action stars gathered apace, Chuck Norris carved his own spot upon the testosterone fuelled wave. Much like a lot of films of its ilk, Missing in Action is of course daft, violent, jingoistic but also crucially it's a whole bunch of fun. This naturally comes down to expectation levels for a production of this type, park the brain and enjoy the cheese and carnage. It's a bit disappointing to find that we don't get to see much of Norris' martial artistry, it' s more a case of gun play and standard fists and kicks taking the lead in this one. The story is hardly taxing and many scenes just serve to show some flesh and pecs, but with M. Emmet Walsh along for the ride as an ebullient side-kick, there's enough here for the undemanding action film fan to enjoy. 5/10

What an ironic name for the film. It really is 'missing in action', and acting.Chuck Norris is a complete bore throughout the film. He has one expression, remains wooden and fails big time as any kind of action star. I have no idea how this guy became famous let alone a cult icon. His martial arts sucks balls. I guess his fame comes from being in that Bruce Lee movie.Missing In Action lacks in thrills and is so contrived, its a chore to get through. I laughed so many times at ridiculous scenes, like how every bad guy misses him while firing at him, despite outnumbering him, and he just turns around and kills them straight away.I also laughed when the Asian guy and Jack Tucker take turns on the boat machine gun and repeatedly shoot the bad guys boat coming towards them and it seems to go on forever hahahahahahaha. The boat seems to be stuck in a loop repeatedly coming toward from where it started off from, just like that scene in Monty Pythons Holy Grail. I was expecting the bad guys boat to finally explode but no....Jack Tucker's boat explodes instead (no idea how) and he dies hahahahaha. So effing stupid.This film sucks, and Chuck Norris sucks. But I enjoyed the laughs.

Col. James Braddock (Chuck) spent several years in a North Vietnamese POW camp. After escaping, he's now home, but he's a troubled man. He's invited by the American government to go back to Vietnam to investigate/talk about the phenomenon of soldiers still Missing In Action. Tensions flare, thanks to the evil General Trau (Hong). Braddock, being the badass that he is, decides to go off on his own into the jungle (actually with Tuck (Walsh), an old army buddy), and rescue any remaining POW's himself. While in the midst of their mission, they face an endless stream of baddies trying to stop them. It'll take all the firepower and skill Braddock has to defeat the enemy and save the missing men. Can he do it? This is classic Cannon all the way, and they really hit paydirt with this one. Thanks to the high-quality cinematography, the rousing, triumphant score, and the longer running time, Missing In Action has that big-screen feel. While the pace, at least for the first half of the movie, may seem a bit on the slow side to modern viewers, that's just the way things worked back then. It's a pre-ADD generation action movie. And we're all the better for it. It's ultimately a rewarding experience, and Cannon (as well as moviegoers) obviously thought so too, as this spawned two sequels to date (maybe we haven't seen the last of Braddock...?). Surely this film was at the forefront of the exploding hut/guy falling out of a guard tower/mindless shooting jungle movie back in the golden age of the 80's. Along with the Rambo series, not to mention countless Direct-To-Video items, these movies capitalized on the craze for patriotic movies with plenty of violence that were so in vogue in the Reagan 80's. To hammer the point home even more, stock footage of Reagan is actually IN Missing In Action 2. If you even THINK about communism, Braddock, Rambo, or any number of other heroes will mow you down with a machine gun that's taller than they are. So there. Take that you stupid commies.As for the cast and crew, Chuck Norris here started to take tentative steps toward his Texas-based clothing style that would manifest itself most fully during the Walker: Texas Ranger years. His hair and beard are at their reddest and most impressive here, and when he wears his sunglasses, you really can't even see his face. M. Emmet Walsh is always a welcome sight to see, and he plays a similar character in Red Scorpion (1988), which was also directed by Joseph Zito. As good as Walsh is, we also felt the role could have been played by Nick Nolte. Lenore Kasdorf of L.A. Bounty (1989) fame is onboard, as well as James Hong, who's been in pretty much everything. For our purposes here, he was in the same year's Cannon vehicle, the great Ninja III (1984), and much later was in Talons Of the Eagle (1992). Willie Williams, whose entire movie career seems to have been in Vietnam (or Nam-like) Jungle movies such as Final Mission (1984), Savage Justice (1988), Saigon Commandos (1988) and, not coincidentally, P.O.W. The Escape (1986), continues his tradition with the movie at hand today.Also it has been said that none other than Van Damme appears in an uncredited role as "Car Driver", but we didn't see him, so we can't necessarily confirm that that's actually true. But he's also credited with stunts, along with Aaron Norris, who would go on to direct the second sequel, Braddock, as well as Dean Ferrandini, who would go on to direct Overkill (1996). The next year after this, Zito would direct the ultimate Chuck movie, Invasion U.S.A. (1985) This is a nice trial run for that masterpiece.If there was going to be a movie version of the 80's Nintendo game Jackal, this could be it. It's a shoot-em-up where the hero must save the hostages. But here the hero is outspoken on the M.I.A. issue and is Chuck Norris. I guess those are the only two differences.Missing In Action is undoubtedly a classic and is completely worth seeing. In our eyes, however, the series would improve even more in the subsequent two outings, so watch out for those as well.