Missing in Action 2: The Beginning.

Review #2389: Missing in Action 2: The Beginning.

Cast: 

Chuck Norris (Colonel James Thomas Braddock), Soon-Tek Oh (Colonel Yin), Steven Williams (Captain David Nester), Bennett Ohta (Captain Ho), Cosie Costa (Lieutenant Anthony Mazilli), Joe Michael Terry (Corporal Lawrence Opelka), Christopher Cary (Emerson), John Wesley (Master Sergeant Ernest Franklin), David Chung (Dou Chou), and Professor Toru Tanaka (Lao) Directed by Lance Hool.

Review: 

You might remember that with Missing in Action (1984), there were two movies done back-to-back about a man trapped in a North Vietnamese POW camp that eventually broke out from there and years later traveled with an investigation team wondering if there was any US soldier still out there. Well, the movie about the man going back to the jungle somehow seemed more commercially appealing than the movie about being in a POW camp, so with the planned first movie, they simply just named it "The Beginning". The script for this film (made for roughly over $2 million) was written by Arthur Silver, Larry Levinson, and Steve Bing. This actually was the directorial debut of Lance Hool, who had served as producer on films such as Wolf Lake (1979) and The Evil That Men Do (1984) while spending many years in the Mexican film industry. Hool has sticked mostly to producing movies, but he has directed three other movies as well, with the latest one being 2 Hearts [2020]. Chuck Norris once stated that his films "do deal with certain positive things", believing that people went to see them because of the feel-good endings and stating that one great thrill of his life was hearing people applaud at the end of Missing in Action (1984); he participated in those movies as a tribute to his brother Wieland and also remarked that Vietnam "was a tragic mistake. If you don't want to win the battle, don't get involved.'' Four years later, with a script written by James Bruner and Chuck Norris with direction by his brother Aaron, Braddock: Missing in Action III came out from Cannon Films, complete with yet another different supporting cast around its star.

You would think a movie where Norris has to at least sell the perils of being trapped in a POW camp (with a 95-minute runtime) would be an interesting prospect to set up a tense experience before the inevitable climax. But all you get here is just a movie too wrapped in flat routines. It's not enough for a POW camp to have a guy leading the way in sadistic torture, complete with an actual (dead) rat used in one scene with a bag, no he also grows opium for a side hustle in drugs too. You might say that a good deal of action movies has routines they have to live by, but some of them at least have the energy to back up any audacious moments. Here, you have a movie that is probably only truly interesting with a scene involving, well, a rat. John Wayne impersonation or not, Norris is just too stoic here, somehow having as little personality as possible. Oh may have some of the smug and sadistic qualities needed for an adversary this film desperately requires, but there is still something so hollow in the writing beyond what you might see from the old-fashioned exploitation films of yesteryear. Hell, probably the one thing that sticks out from him is that he and the villain have a fistfight at the end because they share the same rationale of "nah, I can't just shoot him, I must beat him head-on" before the ending decides that, wait, you gotta blow him up too just for good measure. Williams probably is the highlight among most (if not all) of the cast*, mainly because his struggle with his own surroundings as one with the illusion of freedom, but it can only go so far with such few scenes (one being a fistfight, naturally) that it almost seems pointless. The time spent in captivity might be interesting to those who probably thought The Deer Hunter (1978) was too subtle. The movie may believe it has the energy and commitment to have its first half of misery follow with the action-packed climax mesh well together, but it really just comes off as a puddle. I called the other Missing in Action "an action cheese fest", but at least it had gall to set forth on that goal. In general, the movie is probably best serviceable for those who cared about the first film, whether that is the dull sense of the word or not, but this is a movie made on the cheap that really needed fleshing out, because the end result is just too cardboard in its one-sided goals to rise above D-grade entertainment. 

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

*Tanaka (Charles J. Kalani Jr) was actually a boxer-turned-wrestler-turned-actor and he barely has anything to do besides be the heavy. Incidentally, four of the main ten cast members of the film don't even have Wikipedia pages.

Cooley High.

Review #2178: Cooley High.

Cast: 

Glynn Turman (Leroy "Preach" Jackson), Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (Richard "Cochise" Morris), Garrett Morris (Mr. Mason), Cynthia Davis (Brenda), Sherman Smith (Stone), Norman Gibson (Robert), Corin Rogers (Pooter), Joseph Carter Wilson (Tyrone), Maurice Marshall (Damon), Steven Williams (Jimmy Lee), Christine Jones (Sandra), and Jackie Taylor (Johnny Mae) Directed by Michael Schultz (#1637 - Car Wash)

Review: 

"The thing is, when you’re a kid in whatever environment you grow up in, you look at it in a different way. It’s your home. It’s where you hang out and you have your friends. To outsiders, it may be ugly, but as a kid, you don’t look at the ugliness. You look beyond it. I wanted to capture that on film."

I'm sure you can recognize the idea presented in writing about what you know, because this was a film released in the 1970s, but I think we all are very interested in ones that seem ripe with honesty. Eric Monte was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, growing up in the Cabrini–Green housing project (all but the original two-story rowhouses remain from there, as everything around it was demolished from 1995-2011) on the Near North side that found himself attending Cooley Vocational High School only to drop out in his junior year to join the United States Army. After serving in the Army, Monte had a dream to work as a screenwriter, to the point where he hitchhiked across Route 66 and found his way to Hollywood. He eventually found work on television, most notably serving as co-creator on the sitcom Good Times. His first script in film was co-writing The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat in 1974. Steve Krantz had brought Monte in to help write for the film, and a conversation between the two of their experiences growing up (him in New York and Monte in Chicago) got Krantz to bring the idea to American International Pictures. Monte wrote the script for what became this film to express the fun he had "while inhaling and exhaling" in the projects. The success of the film inspired ideas to make a television show based on the film, and after some retooling, it became What's Happening!!, which ran for a number of seasons starting in 1976. Monte did not reap much of the rewards, as he felt that others higher up than him in productions were stealing his ideas, which led him to sue. He won a settlement but his prospects of writing for television dried up to the point where this was his last film script. At director for this film was Milwaukee native Michael Schultz, who had previously directed stage productions and two somewhat obscure films in Together for Days (1972) and Honeybaby, Honeybaby (1974), and he helped cast a handful of authentically Chicago people for certain roles (such as Norman Gibson and Sherman Smith, known as petty thieves by cops) while also working on straightening the script out with Monte (interpret for yourself about the decision to tone down the language). Shot in Chicago and featuring a selection of Motown music and distributed by American International Pictures, Cooley High was a tremendous success that made over ten times its budget.

Admittedly, one might have an inkling of thinking about American Graffiti (1973), because, well, that was a film set in 1962 with a script based on a writer's experiences in that time. In fact, both movies feature a "where are they now" for certain characters at the end. But we are talking about an AIP film (read: compliment!) set in 1964 that happens to seem just as useful in its portrayal of life in the inner city in all of the honest angles imaginable without becoming just a series of cheap gags. It earns its moments that play out for 107 minutes because the chase for dreams and trying to escape the hard truths that come in potentially hard living is a universal one always worth watching play out on screen. Turman and Hilton-Jacobs make a suitable pair because their interactions with each other seem authentic as friends. Sure, they do make plenty of comedic moments happen with the interactions that come in trying to skirt situations, but it works as well as it does because the pairing seems authentic without a false note shared even with their distinct dreams for trying to dig out of the projects, whether that involves writing or in sports (consider Boyz n the Hood, released in 1991 by John Singleton, who had been influenced by this film, also dealt with a group of friends where one is a promising sportsman). In the hijinks of escapes and chaos also involve dreams and desires that you just didn't see in film as much back then. That youthful energy goes all the way down to the other members, such as with Davis or with Rogers. Morris doesn't have as much time, but even he has presence worth watching when it comes to trying to spread meaningful influence onto the youth with truthful warmth (his performance played a hand in being cast as the first group of actors on the comedy program Saturday Night Live, perhaps his most enduring appearance). There are a handful of scenes one could highlight, such as sharing poetry together or trying to drive, but I think the one that brings it all together really is that climax, where the film moves from recollection to reality. By the time the film maneuvers to its resounding conclusion, the best thing to say is that the film fulfills itself as one that lives for today with a mostly successful collection of honesty and humor that clearly has every reason to endure in influence and stature as it soon approaches a half-century of age.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.