Truly Dreadful Film

Captivating movie !

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

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.

Well if that title doesn't tell you all you need to know I don't know what will. Both of these films were filmed at the same time, back to back, but for some odd reason the powers that be decided to release the sequel first then this film as a sequel prequel. Why exactly I don't know as it makes no sense whatsoever, I don't think there were any issues so why muddle things is a mystery.This film simply tales the tale of how 'Braddock' got captured and held captive in Nam before breaking out and getting to the point we see him in 'Missing In Action'. Its all very straight forward and like the other film, very by the numbers step by step action flick fluff.Mind you this film is slightly more adult than the first film. Most of the plot takes part within the POW camp and shows us some mildly nasty stuff. The odd bit of torture, beatings, mock executions, real executions, torment, getting burned alive with flame throwers etc...it is a bit harrowing in a semi-harrowing kind of way. Nothing that will make you lose sleep, its not a dramatic epic true to life event flick, but its based on the reality of real Nam POW camps and does offer a touch of emotion.The evil sadistic POW camp leader is nicely portrayed by Soon Tek-Oh. Much like Drago in 'Delta Force 2' this film is saved by his smooth villainous ways, his almost charming tone of speech, wry smile and merciless manner. His henchmen soldiers are all your standard Vietnam war types if I can say that, they just appear very stereotypical to look at I guess. Same can be said for Chuck's boys, militant and loud mouthed yanks with blonde hair, blue eyes and the token black guy (who dies). As for Norris...well its business as usual with the headband, Uzi and his lumberjack looks. He says little and acts badly while doing it, but we don't ask that of Norris do we, we just want him to grunt stare and kill bad guys tamely.The film looks better than the first that's for sure but I'm starting to get bored of bamboo huts within green South East Asian jungles. Still we are given some more explosions, bigger ones this time and a more interesting array of deaths for various military personnel good and bad. Its still fun as we see Chuck wear down the evil Colonel and survive his torture tricks. It is more realistic than the previous film but overall it does also feel a bit of an excuse just to see Chuck take out an entire camp of bad guys...again. Still its on par with the original film in my opinion, the more adult approach is welcome adding some tension, the corniness of the first film has been cut back. Its also funny and hackneyed that when this film was made it was common practice that the goodie black guys all get killed off whilst most of the blue eyed white guys survive to fight another day, old movie clichés huh.7/10

For this film to get a low 4 score is a travesty and probably because of a concerted effort by political leftists to 1 star all Chuck Norris films because he is a Republican. We all know there are groups on IMDb that do this, mostly the leftists because the right wing doesn't think in such activist terms. I mean I have watched some USSR films that are rated here straight high 7 to 9's and actually really are horrible so you know IMDb is populated by a leftist crowd. Having gotten that off of my chest, it has been a long time since I've seen this trilogy but the prequel is the best. One could say it's a B movie Rambo part 2 and thats fine, it probably is, but it does have differences and that lies in character development. Without giving away any spoilers lets just say that all the characters are way over the top and that if you are an American you will love the Americans here and loathe all the enemies down to the last guard tower guard, but especially the leader. Pleasant surprises, the Aussie journalist and the black American POW collaborator. Chuck shows a full range of emotion as best as he's able and hey thats why I think this is the best Chuck Norris film, I really was blown away by parts of this when I first saw it, and despite it's cheesy low budget feel (or maybe because of it) I rate it a 9 of 10.

This was apparently filmed back to back with the original entry in the series and was actually originally intended to be released first; that was until the producers decided that it was inferior in quality to its intended sequel and released it as part 2, serving as a prequel (have you got that?) Watching the film I would say that the producers made the correct decision; Indeed, not only is this inferior to its predecessor in virtually every way, it is additionally for the most part, unforgivably boring to! Chuck Norris once again plays the tough as nails, Colonel James Braddock who finds himself and a few of his men at the mercy of a sadistic prison warden when they are captured in Nam. What follows is a mercilessly drawn out representation of the prisoners hardships and humiliation in their confinement for the first half of the film, and a fairly lacklustre action fuelled second half. Even the inevitable hand to hand finale between Norris and his nemesis is incredibly blandly handled here.Sadly far from Norris' best and a somewhat miserable failure when compared to the joyous mayhem of the original. Luckily, matters were redeemed somewhat with the third and final entry in the series which saw Braddock back on fine form.