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Show 'Missing' isn't Oscar material Ms Missing in Action: The Beginning by Robin Moeneh "The Killing Fields" it's not, even though it covers some of the same territory as the Oscar nominee: the post-Vietnam war era and the unremitting horror in Southeast Asia. But this is a Chuck Norris picture with no aspirations to high art if you've got nothing better to do on a wet Sunday, it's better than standing in the rain. We're in a malarial POW camp 10 years after the conflict's end, deep iii the jungle of Cambodia or Vietnam, we're not sure which (actually the filming was done in Mexico). A group of Americans led by the laconic Colonel Braddock (Norris) has been at the mercy of the merciless Colonel Yin (Soon Teck Oh) for many years now. The prisoners are more than eager to hang up their hoes and head home to Ohio. (They grub in the fields when they're not reminiscing, "Whenever I close my eyes I see my wife Gina. ' ' ) The only hangup is Braddock, who refuses to sign the confession demanded of the fanatical Yin, who's favorite mode of travel is a wicker chaise hefted by his nasty henchmen. hench-men. Braddock, whether threatened, cajoled or hung by his heels with an excitable rat eating his face, won't give in. That is until long-suffering soldier Franklin gets crisped, still squirming in a funeral pyre set off by Yin with what appears to be a butane lighter. This kick in the face of the Geneva Convention finally arouses Braddock to acts of revenge, which is really saying something: By this time most of his men have ended up spiked in jungle mantraps, scorched by flamethrowers or slung upsidedown in banana trees. You kind of wonder why he waited so long. He escapes and hangs around the camp like an avenging whirlwind, creating mayhem for his former captors. Aided by two other escapees who, assumed dead, have been hanging out in the vegetation waiting wait-ing for Braddock to make his move, and the steadfast Ho, who's a little brighter than the other guys and can be counted on to start a scuffle to distract the baddies, Braddock manages to cripple the opposition and irritate Yin to the point of lunacy. To add to the confusion, a couple of oddballs wander into camp: a French opium dealer who's in league with the wily Yin, and an Australian photographer. Neither one of them makes it to the end of the picture, but the journalist deserves what he gets since he casually strolls in without giving the viewer so much as a hint why he's there. Actually almost nobody slips out of this still breathing, including a pet chicken. In fact, at one point close to the end, all that's left of Yin (you think) is one of his spit-shined boots attached to a shard of leg. But is he really out of the picture? "Missing" was directed by Lance Hool and produced by Menachim Golam. |