Action legend Chuck Norris (opens in a new tab) stars in this Vietnam Prisoner of War (POW) film that shamelessly ripped off borrowed many elements from a script for Rambo: First Blood Part II (opens in a new tab), which had been written by James Cameron (opens in a new tab) and had been doing the rounds in Hollywood for several months. Apparently folks at the Cannon Group (opens in a new tab) had seen the script and quickly put the first two Missing in Action films into production; part 2 (opens in a new tab), which is actually a prequel, was filmed at the same time as this film.

The story sees Colonel James Braddock (opens in a new tab) escaping from a POW camp after seven years of captivity and then returning to Vietnam on a covert mission to rescue the men he had to leave behind. The film was absolutely savaged by critics on its release, with Derek Adams of Time Out (opens in a new tab) saying that the film is “so bad that it defies belief. It’s xenophobic, amateurish and extraordinarily dull”. The biggest problem with the film is that it feels like a handful of set pieces with a lot of padding to fill in the rest of the running time, making it a frustratingly boring experience.

For all of its faults, it does feature this utterly brilliant minute of action (opens in a new tab), which has to be seen to be believed.

The poster artwork is by Stan Watts, who painted the posters for Invasion USA and The Delta Force, also starring Norris.

The trailer can be seen on YouTube (opens in a new tab).