Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985)

User Rating:

4.4/10   

Director:

Lance Hool

Writers:

Steve Bing (writer)
Larry Levinson (writer)

Release Date:

2 March 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Action | War

Tagline:

Chuck Norris is back! A one-man time bomb set to explode!

Plot:

Prequel to the first Missing In Action, set in the early 1980s it shows the capture of Colonel Braddock during the Vietnam war in the 1970s, and his captivity with other American POWs in a brutal prison camp, and his plans to escape. |

Plot Keywords:

Escape | Vietnam | Prequel | Colonel | Psychotronic

US TV Schedule:

Tue. July 28

6:00 PM

AMC

Cast

Chuck Norris	...	Colonel James Braddock
Soon-Tek Oh	...	Colonel Yin (as Soon-Teck Oh)
Steven Williams	...	Captain David Nester
Bennett Ohta	...	Captain Ho
Cosie Costa	...	Mazilli
Joe Michael Terry	...	Opelka
John Wesley	...	Frankie
David Chung	...	Dou Chou
Professor Toru Tanaka	...	Lao
John Otrin	...	Soldier
Christopher Cary	...	Emerson
Joseph Hieu	...	Guard
Dean Raphael Ferrandini	...	Kirtle (as Dean Ferrandini)
Pierre Issot	...	François
Mischa Hausserman	...	Kelly

Also Known As:

Battle Rage (Australia)

Runtime:

USA:100 min | Norway:95 min (video version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (TVC)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:18 (heavily cut) | West Germany:Not Rated (cut) | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-18 (uncut) (2006) | Australia:M | Finland:(Banned) (cut) (1986) | France:-12 | Norway:18 (video premiere) | Sweden:(Banned) | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Jalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

Company:

Cannon Films

Trivia:

Mazilli's pet rooster was named "Angelo".

Goofs:

Factual errors: Throughout the movie, one of Braddock's men is wearing a machine gun ammo belt over his shoulders like a bandoleer. The rounds in that belt are not even dummy cartridges, but clearly blank movie rounds.

Quotes:

Colonel Braddock: You really didn't think I'd leave... without making sure you were dead?

Movie Connections:

Follows Missing in Action (1984)

Chuck Norris takes over Vietnam, part 2

The opening scene of this movie shows Chuck Norris getting shot down in a helicopter while sporting a mustache, but no beard. He is then captured and taken to a prison camp. Little do his captors realize that the more facial hair Chuck Norris develops, the stronger he becomes.

Many people are of the opinion that this is inferior to the first movie, including the producers, who filmed the two back-to-back and decided to release this one later. I have to strongly disagree. While the first one was more like a Blake Edwards comedy than an action movie, this one shows off some surprisingly brutal torture scenes and a general air of nastiness, all for the better when Chuck decides to take matters into his own hands. I am not in a position to say whether the Vietnamese are really the demonic beings they appear to be in this movie, but after enough scenes of Colonel Yin's cruelty, the only political opinion the average viewer can hold is that Chuck needs to beat the sh*t out of this guy. Chuck indeed appears to be genuinely disturbed throughout the thing, to the point where you want to take him aside and tell him that it's just a movie. Watch carefully his face in the scene where he jumps out of the treetops in order to knife two soldiers--it is not the face of an actor. It is the face of a madman. It is a face of murderous rage. He really intends to kill these people. Whether or not this is a good thing is for you to decide, but it is certainly impressive. The jungle action as Chuck goes psycho is undeniably good, and a lot of work has been put into making sure the characters are as dirty and sweaty and bloody as possible, making the whole viewing a wonderful experience.

You may notice the soundtrack is done by Brian May--not the Queen Brian May, but the Brian May who wrote the music for the first "Mad Max." This is only the second soundtrack I have encountered by the man, and his music has definitely not improved--it is as blustery and overblown and inappropriate for the specific scenes as it was in "Mad Max." The only downside to an otherwise sublime movie.