Vietnam: la grande fuga

I can't believe this played once in theaters. Everything is bad and especially the direction. Even Steve James, this underrated second-fiddle, can't save this. Hopeless

Silly cash-grab by Cannon Films to milk their success with Chuck Norris' Vietnam action flick MISSING IN ACTION. Set in the waning days of the Vietnam War, David Carradine plays a Colonel tasked with rescuing a group of P. O. W.s being held at a secret camp. The rescue does not go as planned, and the team finds themselves prisoners, now needing to escape. The great Mako plays the evil commanding officer of the P. O. W. Camp, who goes head-to-head with Carradine. It's all very dumb and is hardly Colonel Nicholson and Saito from THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, but it's breezy and has pretty much non-stop action and explosions once it gets going. P. O. W. THE ESCAPE is not a serious film and nothing to go out of your way to see unless you're a fan of cheesy Cannon Films of this ilk (i.e. AMERICAN NINJA, THE DELTA FORCE, PLATOON LEDER, etc.).

(1986) P. O. W. The Escape WAR/ ACTION

Co-written and directed by Gideon Amir directing the David Carradine less than equivalent of version of "Missing in Action" as he plays Colonel James Cooper patriotic duty to save the POW's left behind in Vietnam prison camps resulting him to be captured himself. As the colonel finds out that the Vietcong camp commander, Captain Vinh (Mako) is secretly planning to build himself a new life in America using the gold that he has stole.

The action is not that good, as well as the credibility which all it is is Carradine taking advantage of a genre that has already been tired out.

P. O. W.: THE ESCAPE is one of those low budget American war flicks shot in the Philippines standing in for Vietnam. This one has an autopiloting David Carradine as a soldier who ends up the sole survivor when his escape helicopter is bazooked in front of him. While in prison he meets a Vietcong officer looking to move abroad and agrees to help him in return for the freedom of him and his men, but treachery awaits. There's little plot here, just a series of recycled music and low rent action sequences featuring a ton of explosions and little finesse. Carradine sleepwalks through the role but you get Mako as the baddie and Steve James in support, so it's not all bad.

David Carradine makes you believe a laid back lethargic soldier can become a one man killing machine in the jungles of the 'Nam. This film is lots of fun, anybody expecting military and historical accuracy will suffer the same kind of disappointment as someone expecting to see David Carradine perform with all the speed and agility of Bruce Lee.

Carradine and his fellow P.O.W.s suffer at the hands of a VC officer who secretly harbors a desire for the American dream, he demands that Carradine aid him in achieving it. Instead the Tai Chi expert and the dependable Steve James (you could pair James up with Hugh Grant and still be guaranteed victory) serve up a healthy dose of mayhem and sends Charlie running most ricki tik. If you've run out of Chuck Norris war films to watch, P.O.W. the Escape will fill the void.