Chuck Norris (“The Delta Force”, “Lone Wolf McQuade”) stars in “Missing In Action”, a rather mediocre action flick that deals with some controversial political issues. The movie closely resembles “Rambo: First Blood Part II” and although this one came out first, it was actually based on the script treatment for the “Rambo” sequel.

After nearly a decade since the Vietnam War ended, there are still American troops being held in the country. Colonel James Braddock (Norris) joins politicians travelling to Vietnam to help bring the soldiers home but when diplomacy fails, Braddock will take things into his own hands to locate a P.O.W. camp and rescue his fellow servicemen.

Chuck Norris struggles to convey the emotions of a Vietnam War veteran but he sure can kick people rather well. The first “Rambo” movie, just titled “First Blood”, showed us an ex-soldier that we could believe had gone through hell and back but “Missing In Action”, like some of the “Rambo” sequels, doesn’t get it quite right. The American politicians are not very interesting and are just there to be another reason to trigger Braddock. The villains are very underwhelming and are just there to be shot, which is not surprising for a movie such as this.

“Missing In Action” features some reasonable action sequences and there are a few genuinely entertaining moments here but for the most part, this is a very generic action movie. The political elements are there but they are never fully explored, instead the film is happy just to provide us with a routine action flick. Chuck Norris’ fans often declare this to be one of his better films (although he isn’t exactly the greatest action star) so I recommend the movie for the true fans of Norris that have yet to see this one but for everybody else, it’s not really worth it.