An average movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since it was starring Gene Hackman and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Apparently, at the beginning of the 80’s, there was some kind of sub action genre involving the rescue of US soldiers held in Vietnam after the war was over. Well, even though this movie might be the best one in this obscure genre, to be honest, I really struggled to take the whole concept really seriously. I mean, if it would have been some black op organized by the US government to save these men, it would have been more plausible and therefore more interesting. However, in this case, it was a civilian initiative set up by some retired Colonel bankrolled by the rich father of another soldier also missing in action but it was just too ridiculous for me. As a result, they also spent a good chunk of the running time during some boot camp taking place in Texas in a mock up of the POWs camp in Laos but I didn’t see how watching these guys training for this mission was supposed to be so interesting or entertaining. It was like the recruitment of this team. The most interesting thing for me with this movie was the timeline. Indeed, it was made 10 years after the end of the Vietnam war and it was dealing with some soldiers who were getting back there 10 years later as well. I mean, was it really a thing back in the 80’s that there were still some US POWs held captive after all this time? And how did these veterans did feel about going back there after such a long time to save one of their buddies? Unfortunately, there was really none of that in this movie after all. They did give us some glimpse of Fred Ward’s character suffering some PTSD but it was barely developed and he was reduced to be another lethal killing machine like the rest of his squad. From the moment they finally got in Thailand to start their mission, it never became more convincing. Seriously, they even ended up being helped by some deposed drug baron who would join their mission with his two daughters. Why on Earth did they take part in this mission? What was their motivation? Again, it didn’t make sense like most of this movie. At the end of the day, it was just a typical silly action flick from the 80’s and I might have enjoyed it more when I was 12 years old but I’m not 12 years old anymore and it just didn’t care at all about the damned thing. 

5/10