Missing in Action 3

release year: 1988
genre: action/adventure
viewing setting: home DVD, 12/5/04

synopsis: Colonel Braddock returns to Vietnam to search for his missing wife (who he thought was dead in 1975) and son (who he didn't know he had.)

impressions: Formulaic: the lost wife is little more than a plot device to get the hero back to Vietnam, where he can get captured and tortured by really evil Vietnamese military men. Then he escapes, conveniently failing to kill the single most evil bad guy when it would have been easy. Then he ends up having to rescue an entire orphanage of half-American children. Then he takes out an armored helicopter with a single lucky shot to the windshield. All of this makes for some good action, and a high body count, but...urrrrrgh. I sensed an autopilot in there somewhere.

things to watch for: Braddock's escape from the prison.

something this movie has that no other movie has: A super mini-speedboat with waterproof nacelles containing a vast assortment of weaponry.

acting: Chuck Norris plays a good guy who doesn't seem to have any real passion as he's dispatching enemy soldiers - he just does it, and moves on.

final word: Entertaining but predictable.

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