Angered by a Vietnamese General's claims that there are no prisoners-of-war in his country, an American soldier goes on a rogue mission to rescue the missing-in-action US troops that he suspects are still held in Vietnam in this Chuck Norris action thriller. The film benefits from a rousing music score by Jay Chattaway and a delightful supporting turn from a moody M. Emmet Walsh who accompanies Norris on his mission. There are solid action sequences too, though much of it is shooting and explosions rather than hand-to-hand combat, and they are surprisingly few and far between with most of the excitement saved until the end. The plot is also a tad half-baked. James Hong is perfectly charismatic as the Vietnamese General, but his motives for lying to the US about the POWs are never made clear. By lying about their existence, the Vietnamese are not able to use the MIA soldiers for bargaining purposes, and if they are lying to cover up the fact that they took so many Americans prisoners, it would make more sense to execute them rather than keep them alive in camps. Even if the finer details do not quite add up though, Norris is saddled with an interesting enough character to keep things plodding along, and the film suffices quite well as a story of a man reluctantly returning to Vietnam to settle unfinished business that he would really rather forget.

Chuck Norris was one of the big action icons back in the 1980's, where this "Missing in Action" movie also first saw the light of day. But amidst movies such as "Rambo: First Blood Part 2" and "Commando", then "Missing in Action" just didn't have as much impact or punch. Now having said that, I am not saying that it is a bad movie, I am merely saying that it didn't manage to stand up to Stallone's or Schwarzenegger's movies that came out in the same year.What failed to impress in this 1985 "Missing in Action" movie was the storyline. It was just too shallow and failed to get a grip with the audience. Colonel James Braddock was a soldier stationed in Vietnam and were in a P.O.W. camp for years, then he returns to Vietnam to look for soldiers still trapped in camps.There was too much focus on events not taking place in the jungle or in the prison camp, which lead to us sitting and watching Chuck Norris spending 10 minutes, give or take, to climb down and then up a wall of a hotel. It just felt too slow paced and too irrelevant.When the movie actually does pick up pace and brings about the gunfights in the jungle and the P.O.W. camp, it was just too late to remove the mediocrity that permeated the entire movie.Chuck Norris does a good job as Colonel James Braddock, and went on to being a memorable character, but that was not to be before the sequel later on that very same year.

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.

This is the first of Missing in Action series movies made by Golan-Globus production. Golan- Globus made pretty good B movies in the '80s, that were aimed to entertain its audiences. One thing that jumps out when I see this movie is that it's beautifully shot. There's not a bad scene in this movie, and the credit goes to director Joseph Zeto.There's not much going for the story if you look at it now, but back then MIA was a hot media topic, and this movie merged the MIA subject with Rambo type story.I'm not sure what's missing from this "Missing In Action" movie, but it's rather one dimensional. Maybe it's because it has shooting, and fighting and not much else going on in the story. It's also an early Chuck Norris classic, and the scene that he appears from the water shooting his rifle is one of the well known scene in cinema history.If you love war movies, or looking for Chuck Norris action, you came to the right place. If you're looking for this type of entertainment, it's a good movie for you.