Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988)

How sad is this?

Brilliant and touching

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988) ** (out of 4) To say this Cannon film was just a tad bit far-fetched would be like saying Chuck Norris was overlooked for a Best Actor Oscar-nomination. Col. James Braddock (Norris) learns that the wife he thought died during the fall of Saigon is actually alive and he has a 12-year-old son that he never knew about. It turns out the Vietnamese government doesn't like their people who worked for the Americans so the two are deep in enemy territory so Braddock must sneak back in and try to rescue them but he's got the sadistic Gen. Quoc (Aki Aleong) waiting for him. Many reviews will point out that the entire storyline for this third film goes against stuff that happened in the first two movies but I'm not going to put that much thought into a film like this. This is Cannon we're talking about after all and like most of their films this one here is high on action and short on brains. Overall I thought this was a decent little action picture but I can't help but think it would have been much better had the original director (Joseph Zito) not walked from the production. Aaron Norris makes his directorial debut here and to say it's a bad one would be an understatement. He's clearly in over his head and the perfect example of this are the first few scenes in the film. The opening takes place as we see what happens to the wife yet this scene just drags on and on to the point where you get bored with everything taking place. This sequence should have happened at a much quicker pace. The next sequence has Braddock learning the secret of his wife and son, being warned not to go by the CIA and the next thing we know he's in Vietnam and all of this happens in the matter of minutes. The CIA even manages to follow him even though you have to wonder why they waited for him to get there. I mean, why not just stop him at the U.S. airport if they knew when he was going? Norris, the director, just can't handled most of the scenes and the editing isn't much better as thing really come across cheap and ugly at times. With all that said, most people are going to be coming to this thing for action and it at least delivers that. I love those silly explosions and gunfights that you find in a Cannon picture and there are plenty of them here. Bodies are constantly being shot up and the explosions are all of good quality. The eye candy is never short but then they have to ruin things by trying to be dramatic with the relationship between Norris and his son. All of this just comes off extremely silly and it doesn't help that Roland Harrah III just can't act and his scenes of being mad at his father are laughable. Norris isn't much better but at least he knows how to throw a punch and break necks.

"I don't step on toes littlejohn. I step on necks." Chuck Norris is at it again as Col. James Braddock heading into enemy territory; Communist Vietnam to rescue to his once-thought dead Vietnamese wife and his unknown son. The third entry of the series is an agreeable slice of rough and tumble action escapism (though maybe the lesser of the three), which is just as cheaply produced but for most part very well mounted. There was probably has a little more story hanging off it than say its first sequel; "The Beginning". But it feels like its rehashing ideas from the first two, while adding its own angle involving American / Asian orphans. Nonetheless it's just as thick with its overwrought propaganda push and b-grade dialogues with the quick-lipped one-liners. Director Aaron Norris conventionally lays it out. Keeping a brisk pace, even with some blotchy action it's surprisingly lean, sweaty and fist-pumping. I wasn't expecting it to be as sadistic as it was, as I remembered seeing bits and pieces of it thinking it was rather toned down compared to the other films in the series. But it's just as raw and brutal. The performances fall on the static side. Chuck Norris gives a weathered acting performance, but still effectively breaks out those lethal head hugs and neck snapping. After showing glimpses throughout, he finally lets loose in the dying stages by breaking out the big guns. Aki Aleong is vivid, but gets a bit over-the-top as the merciless Vietnamese General who'll do anything to see Braddock admit to the crimes towards his country. Also you got the likes of Jack Rader, Floyd Levine and a tiny show-in by Keith David.

Chuck Norris made a third film in the missing in action series with each film even more preposterous than the previous one. Here, as Braddock, he returns to Vietnam yet again to search for a wife and son he didn't know were alive. Norris encounters another evil general, as he did in the previous film, who also has a penchant for torture. By the film's end, Norris saves an entire orphanage of Amerasian kids from the general and his cronies. The first half hour of the film is filled with a lot of unnecessary exposition before things get going. The middle third of the film is probably the best and most enjoyable because it's more realistic and tension-filled than the last third. The last half hour once again reduces all tension and action to a comic book level with Norris turning into a one man army yet again; he fires weapons, snaps necks, and uses enough kicks to run a martial arts class. Unlike previous films of his, Norris only yields one great line of dialog. Remember, he doesn't step on toes; he steps on necks. It's probably slightly below average for a Chuck Norris film. *1/2 of 4 stars.

Wipe away those tears and try not to blub America, Chuck Norris is back to kill all those horrible Vietnamese Communists who survived the war and this time, he's doing it for the children, those lovable little tikes that can't fight back. And who says that old beardy death legs doesn't have a heart? Braddock: Missing In Action III is another spin on the Rambo 2 formula, with our titular hero travelling to the Orient to find his Asian wife, who he presumed killed when America pulled out of Vietnam. As you might expect from a Chuck Norris vehicle made in 1988, this is stereotypical 80s action through and through.Yes people, we're in the land of right wing politics, homosexual undertones and where everyone who cannot speak English is indescribably evil. Where you can make anything explode by shooting a Beretta at it a few times and where women are expendable cannon fodder only there to serve as a reminder that heterosexual intercourse can only lead to anguish and pain.Clichéd period piece it may be, but man is it fun. Sure, your scarf wearing hipster friends may think that Chuck Norris is only good for those 'hilarious' facts that have been going around, but what those guys often overlook is just how riotously entertaining these old movies are. Applaud as Chuck rampages through a Vietnamese military base blowing everything to pieces! Cheer as an Asian rapist gets blasted out the side of a building by a grenade launcher then explodes on impact! And jump to your feet and shout 'Hail Democracy' as father and son bond in an intimate machine gunning of a helicopter gunship. It's not big, it's certainly not clever, but anyone who can't enjoy this movie while drunk is in serious denial.