LastingAware The greatest movie ever!

Palaest recommended

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

FlashCallahan Because the makers of the films thought that the second one was better than the first, the first films becomes a prequel to the second film, which became the first.But the reality is that the above statement is more interesting than the rest of the film.Braddock has been in a concentration camp for heaven knows how long because he refuses to sign a confession stating that he has committed war crimes, and is in desperate need of a shave.because of his refusal, he and his soldiers are subjected to many dressing downs from the head bad guys, and in one scene, Norris is forced to eat a rat, which he probably enjoyed.it's a cannon film, so it's not all that bad, Norris has some great screen presence, but his acting skills are still nothing more than him looking perplexed into the distance.But whilst watching this, I couldn't help but think if that the soldiers went just that little farther over the horizon, they would wander onto the events of Rambo: First Blood Part 2, now that would have been something, Norris and Stallone team up for the ultimate dressing down.It's understandable that the film wasn't released first, as it does become a little slow in the second act, but then thankfully, the film goes over the top in the final third, and we have the obligatory Norris walking away from a big explosion shot.It's not Cannon's greatest hour by a long shot, because it takes it's self too seriously, but if your a Norris fan, it's pretty much a given you'll want to see it.

Harry Lags When we last left Colonel James Braddock, he was shoving it up Vietnamese butt by barging into their press conference about how they didn't have any POWs in Vietnam with a POW he just rescued. Truly a fairy tale ending, but what about the beginning of the fairy tale? Missing in Action 2: The Beginning is his most personal mission of all! Because it's when he was a POW himself! Which we already saw in sporadic flashbacks in the first movie.Missing in Action 2: The Beginning shows the capture of Colonel Braddock (Chuck Norris) during the Vietnam war in the 1970s, his captivity with other American POWs in a brutal prison camp, and his plans to escape. Norris and his crew are holed up in a prison camp for the whole picture, ruled by tyrannical Colonel Yin (Soon-Tek Oh) who resorts to psychological mind games, torture and murder to try to make Braddock sign a statement admitting to war atrocities he never committed.There seems to be no end to the different scenarios and interesting scenes that play out during the film: escape attempts, arranged fights between prisoners, a guy who stumbles onto the prison camp and gets executed. Things really start to pick up when Braddock gets really mad and you see him sneaking here and there, setting bombs, picking off people one by one, freeing people, blowing up stuff, and staying behind after everyone leaves because he doesn't believe Yin really died when he bombed Yin's hut. But Chuck really delivers in the end, especially in his final feel good showdown with Yin. In my opinion, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning is the best of the Braddock movies, it's part action film and part action drama, which sets it apart from the other movies.The first time i ever watched this film was in the early 80's in the cinema and it was great, and i still think it's great...

utgard14 Prequel to Missing in Action covers Braddock's years as a POW and his eventual escape. This one was filmed back-to-back with the other movie and was intended to be released first. But they realized the first movie was better, so they moved it from part 2 to 1. Which is funny as today there are many fans who claim part 2 is the better movie. I'm not one of them but they're out there. Don't get me wrong, it's a decent war movie and I like it. It's not action-heavy, though it never drags and the action does pick up towards the end. It's more of a drama for the first hour or so. Chuck is his usual stoic self. Soon-Tek Oh is a suitably despicable villain. Steven Williams plays the POW who betrays the others. Christopher Cary has a brief but enjoyable role as an Australian photographer who tries to help the POWs. The continuity doesn't line up with the previous movie (or the third), but I doubt most viewers will care. If you like Chuck Norris' Cannon movies, you will probably like this one.

Michael_Elliott 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.