JeffreyLipsey.com

I’ve finally gotten around to watch the first movie in the trilogy, and the fact that I watched them in reverse order might have helped. MIA3 had Braddock rescue his long lost son and wife and MIA2 had Braddock back in Vietnam as a POW.


In Missing in Action, Braddock (played by Chuck Norris obv) goes back to Vietnam after the war is over to rescue forgotten POWs. To do so, he must use the help of old colleagues that will turn up in the later movies.


Unfortunately, MIA doesn’t have nearly the over-the-top dialogue as the later two movies; it focused much more on plot than ridiculous action too. And, as any avid Norris fan would know: we don’t watch Chuck Norris movies for the plot.


Missing in Action must have been made during the time in Norris’ career where he didn’t consider himself a complete acting joke, where he actually tried to create good cinema. Little did he know that all he had to do to create all star movies was to not worry about the plot, but focus solely on dialogue and action.


In the movie itself, I wasn’t that interested in most of it; in fact it took nearly 2/3rds of the movie before Braddock even went to go rescue the hostages themselves. The first 90 minutes had him research the POWs’ whereabouts, barter for help and acquire the necessary equipment all while fending off some Vietcong hitmen. I guess that was interesting, but I really wanted to see gun slinging in the jungle! Not car chases and shitty bar fights (and, again, no dialogue).


Braddock’s rescuing of the hostages started out boringly slow with little to no build up of any ensuing danger. Maybe the fact that I know he lives through it all decreases my excitement? My lack of entertainment might have developed from the fact that I’ve seen it all so many times before in future Chuck Norris movies, and Missing in Action was just the start of them all.


Obviously though this was all written before the huge boat and machine gun scene that had the best visual effects and offensive attacking scenes in MIA by far. You can’t deny the fact that, after getting their motor boat blown up by an RPG, Braddock and Co. were able to swim underwater to a group of Vietcong and come up to kill them all. The best part: it was all in slow motion.


Unfortunately that one scene couldn’t make the rest of the movie interesting to watch and I found it all pretty boring. Good thing I saw the last two movies first, as otherwise I might not be as into the Missing in Action trilogy as I am today.

I’m assuming based on the title this is a prequel to the first Missing in Action, which I haven’t seen yet. In comparison to Missing in Action 3, MIA2 was a completely different style.


In MIA2, Braddock (played by Chuck Norris) becomes a prisoner of war at the beginning of the movie and the majority of the screen time came from what it was like to be a POW. The action came at the end of the movie with little to no quotable dialog along the way. MIA3 on the other hand, seemed like it was 100 % action with just a small plot; the plot in MIA2 takes up the majority of the film.


Truthfully, I’d rather see awesome action and over-the-top dialog, as usually the plot in Chuck Norris movies isn’t the reason to watch the movie. If you were wanting crazy action/dialog then MIA 2 would not be the movie for you.


However, if you’re a die hard Chuck Norris fan at heart, and you were going to watch MIA 1 and 3 (like you should) then you might as well watch MIA 2 for the story. Plus, you’d be able to have that ‘one up’ against all your friends who CLAIM to be Chuck Norris fans but still haven’t seen this movie.


That, in and of itself, is a good reason to watch Missing in Action 2: The Beginning.

What could possibly warrant such an awesome title? How about a Chuck Norris DVD 3-pack from Best Buy for only $12. That’s THREE MOVIES starring CHUCK NORRIS for only $12!!!! How could I not pass that up?


The synopsis:

Synopsis
# Includes:Logan’s War: Bound by Honor (1998)


# The President’s Man (2000), MPAA Rating: PG-13


# The President’s Man 2: A Line In the Sand (2002)


Logan’s War: Bound by Honor


Logan Fallon was ten years old the night gangsters burst into his home and brutally murdered his district-attorney father and the rest of his family. Somehow, the boy had a premonition before it happened and saved himself. This actioner follows the adult Logan on his quest to honor his promise to avenge his slain family. His uncle, an ex-Army ranger, assists him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide


The President’s Man


Chuck Norris stars in this made-for-TV thriller as Joshua McCord, a Presidential secret agent. Though still quite virile and limber, McCord feels that he is getting too old for his job, thus he begins training a younger man named Deke Slater (Dylan Neal) as his replacement, using Zen and proper nutrition as primary teachings tools. But McCord springs back into action — and kicks plenty of serious butt in the process — when the First Lady is kidnapped by a terrorist organization. First telecast by CBS on April 2, 2000, The President’s Man was followed two years later by a sequel, The President’s Man: A Line in the Sand. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide


The President’s Man 2: A Line In the Sand


Based on characters created by Bob Gookin, the made-for-TV thriller The President’s Man 2: A Line in the Sand casts Chuck Norris in a role not dissimilar to his title character on the long-running series Walker: Texas Ranger. Norris is seen as secret agent Joshua McCord, the right-hand man to the President of the United States (Robert Urich). The plot thickens when a band of terrorists breaks into a museum to retrieve hidden nuclear-bomb components from the statues therein. Apprised of the situation, the military attempts to abduct the charismatic leader of the terrorists, but to no avail. It is up to Joshua to infiltrate the terrorists’ lair and disarm the bomb before an unnamed U.S. metropolis can be blown into oblivion. Along the way, Joshua’s “techy” daughter Que (Jennifer Tung) falls in love with her dad’s young assistant Deke Slater (Judson Mills). Directed by the star’s son, Eric Norris, and co-produced by his other son, Aaron Norris, The President’s Man: A Line in the Sand debuted January 20, 2002 on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

To top it off, it comes in a collector’s tin! Bad ass.