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Missing In Action II: The Beginning

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    Ian Jane
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  • Missing In Action II: The Beginning



    Released by: MGM
    Released on: June 5, 2012.
    Director: Lance Hool
    Cast: Chuck Norris, Soon-Teck Oh, Cosie Costa, Steven Williams
    Year: 1985

    The Movie:

    'An American Hero's Story Continues!'

    When the fist Missing In Action hit box office gold for Chuck Norris and Cannon Films, you just knew that there'd be a sequel made sooner rather than later. Sure enough, a year later, Missing In Action II: The Beginning hit theaters - this time in an effort to tell the back story behind the exploits of Colonel James Braddock. Joseph Zito didn't direct this one, instead it was helmed by Lance Hool, his directorial debut. Far more prolific as a producer than director, Hool nevertheless turns in a pretty solid prequel, the second of the three Missing In Action films.

    Right, so in the first movie we learn that Braddock himself was a prisoner of war, that he escaped, and that he then went back in the eighties to save a few other American soldiers being held against the Geneva Convention laws. This film brings us back in time and shows us how Braddock and a few other soldiers were captured by some evil Vietnamese forces after their helicopter went down while trying to save some fellow grunts. Tossed in a prison camp and tortured under the command of Colonel Yin (Soon-Teck Oh), Braddock and the others yearn for the day they'll be able to go home again. Mazilli (Cosie Costa) has never met his child, Braddock refuses to bend to Yin's insistence he sign a confession admitting to war crimes, while Nester (Steven Williams) decides to give Yin what he wants in exchange for better treatment within the camp.

    Eventually a random Australian photographer named Emerson (Christopher Cary) shows up and it looks like there might be troops on the way to help free the P.O.W.'s - until a French helicopter pilot named Francois (Pierre Issot) helping Yin with his illegal opium operation rains on that parade. Braddock, however, remains determined to fight for his freedom and when one of the prisoners under Yin's charge dies, he decides it's time to risk it all with a daring and violent escape!

    More or less a ninety-five minute long test of wills between Braddock and the evil Yin, Missing In Action II isn't as solid as the first film but it's definitely a strong follow up. With almost the entire movie taking place in the jungles of Vietnam (or at least Mexico and St. Kitts standing in for Vietnam), we get some pretty great locations and the movie definitely delivers on the action front. With the set pieces choreographed by Chuck's brother Aaron Norris, there are some great stunts, some tense fight scenes, some solid shoot outs, and plenty of things that blow up and go boom. Highlighted by the inevitable showdown between the film's two main characters, the movie goes along at a pretty solid pace and features a fun supporting cast. Of course, none of this takes place in the real world even if we do get some stock footage inserts of Ronald Regan talking about Vietnam in the opening sequences. Realism is never a concern here - though the bulk of the film is supposed to take place a decade after the men were originally captured, they don't appear to have aged a week, let alone ten years. Really though, who cares - this is a movie where Chuck Norris runs around the jungle and kills people, a movie where Chuck Norris puzzlingly decides to burn the only bridge that the men can use to escape with a giant flamethrower and a movie where a guy named Francois shows up with Asian hookers who for some reason take pleasure in making an aged Vietnamese prisoner inexplicably locked up with the Americans drop his pants so they can laugh at his boner. Just go with it.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Missing In Action II: The Beginning looks good on Blu-ray courtesy of MGM's AVC encoded 1080p high definition 1.85.1 widescreen transfer that looks very close to how the first film in the series did on Blu-ray. Some scenes look a little dirtier than others and some scenes look a bit grainier than others but overall the image is pretty strong. Close ups show nice detail but even medium and long distance shots show considerably more texture and detail than was ever evident in the standard definition presentations we've had in the past. The colors look nice, especially in the jungle, while black levels stay strong and stable throughout. There's no evidence of noise reduction or heavy filtering nor is there any obvious edge enhancement or compression issues.

    The DTS-HD Mono track, in English, is also fine. Dialogue is always clean and audible and there are no issues with hiss, distortion, or level jumps. The gun shots sound nice and punchy, explosions have a good amount of boom behind them for an older mono mix, and all in all the movie sounds just fine. An optional French track is provided in DTS-HD Mono as well, with subtitles provided in French and Spanish and closed captioning offered up in English.

    The only extra, aside from menus and chapter selection, is the film's theatrical trailer.

    The Final Word:

    Chock full of senseless violence, bad stereotypes and gigantic plot holes, Missing In Action II: The Beginning isn't exactly deep but it is pretty damn awesome. MGM's Blu-ray is predictably light on extra features but it looks good and it sounds good and Walmart, currently the only place you can get it, is selling it cheap. So go get it!

    Click on the images below for full sized BAD ASS screen caps!





























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