Missing in Action

A simple, bullet-riddled, crowd-pleasing action movie. Read full review

Chuck Norris fans will not be disappointed by Missing in Action, a bang-bang-you're-dead exploitation flick from the Cannon Group in which the action is rarely missing. [19 Nov 1984, p.C3]

As an action picture, Missing In Action works fairly well. Norris is a worthy hero, shooting and kicking Asian enemies right and left, and the film is blessed with production values that make it quite watchable. Read full review

Writer James Bruner and director Joseph Zito have marshalled a formula pic with a particularly jingoistic slant: even though the war is long over, the Commies in Vietnam still deserve the smack of a bullet. Read full review

Missing in Action is thus never especially compelling, even as a B-movie, because it is never remotely believable. Nonetheless, Norris' appeal is so quiet and uncomplicated that, although the film exploits the issue of MIAs as thoroughly as any movie has to date, Missing in Action is never offensive. [20 Nov 1984, p.D1]

This moves along pretty quickly and has a lot of over-the-top action and explosions. There’s a whole Missing in Action trilogy, but I can’t see how someone could sit through a second one. Read full review

Joseph Zito directed this cheap exercise in hate, suspicion, and mayhem. [06 Dec 1984, p.50]

Xenophobic, amateurish and extraordinarily dull. Read full review