6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.1 |
Set in the early 1980s it shows the capture of Colonel Braddock in the Vietnam war, his captivity in a brutal prison camp and his plans to escape.
Starring: Chuck Norris, Soon-Tek Oh, Steven Williams, Bennett Ohta, Cosie CostaAction | 100% |
Martial arts | 55% |
War | 47% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital Mono
English SDH, French, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
The sequel to Chuck Norris' successful 1984 Rambo ripoff, Missing in Action, was filmed simultaneously and originally meant to be released first, which would have made more sense in dramatic terms. The ceaseless killing spree that Norris' Colonel Braddock unleashes on the enemy in what became the first-released film is the logical payoff to Braddock's own treatment as a POW at the same enemy's hands. But the reliable commercial instincts of Cannon Films' schlock-meisters Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus dictated that a massive body count, sans motivation, would do better at the box office, especially since Rambo: First Blood Part 2 hadn't yet appeared. (Their copycatting was based on an early look at Rambo's script.) The producers' gamble was rewarded with a $6.5 million profit just from the U.S. release of the first MIA. The new frontiers of cable TV and home video provided ancillary revenues for a long time to come. MIA 2 arrived the following year. Though not as successful as the first film, perhaps because Braddock now had competition from John Rambo himself, the sequel performed well enough to inspire yet a third installment, Braddock: Missing in Action 3 (1988), for which Norris co-wrote the screenplay and hired his brother to direct. MIA 3 flopped and ended the franchise. MGM, which controls the video rights, has released MIA and MIA 2 both as single Blu-ray discs initially sold only at Wal-Mart and later in a double pack. MIA 2 was not previously reviewed at Blu-ray.com.
In typical Golan-Globus fashion, MIA 2 was shot wherever costs were lowest, in this case Mexico, where the production company engaged the services of an experienced Mexican cinematographer, Jorge Stahl Jr., who had been making films since the 1940s and delivered less grainy and higher-contrast image than the darker MIA (shot by Brazilian DP João Fernandes). MGM's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray (distributed by Fox) looks quite good for a low-budget project shot on film from this era. The source material is clean, without noticeable damage or wear-and-tear. The image may lack the sharply defined "pop" of a contemporary production that's been tweaked and sharpened on a digital intermediate, but to my eye that makes for a nice change, and it certainly isn't an image that lacks for detail of the jungle surroundings, the squalid POW camp or the grime and sweat on the prisoners' faces and bodies. The colors are very strong, especially the vivid greens of the foliage, the bright yellows and oranges of the pyrotechnics, and the occasional flashes of bright red, which are almost always associated with the North Vietnamese (for reasons that should be obvious). The blacks are good enough to bring out the knee-high boots of which Colonel Yin is so proud, and the film's grain structure appears to be naturally reproduced. With no extras except a trailer and just a few mono soundtracks, MGM and Fox have been able to devote almost the whole of the BD-25 to the 96-minute film, resulting in an average bitrate just over 27.00 Mbps. That's a good average for this film, and the compression appears to have been performed carefully with no artifacts.
The film's original mono track has been encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA. It's well-mixed mono with decent dynamic range for sounds such as gunfire, explosions and the distinctively rhythmic rumble of military helicopters. The track won't rattle your listening room, but it supports the story effectively. The score is by Brian May, who scored the original Mad Max and incorporated several cues that fans of George Miller's groundbreaking action series will recognize, either from the first Max or from its reprise at the beginning of The Road Warrior.
Other than the film's trailer (480i; 1.85:1, enhanced; 1:35), the disc has no extras.
Chuck Norris films are big slabs of processed American cheese, and MIA 2 is no exception. But pop culture is popular for a reason, and some movies are like the songs of an era—you hear (or see) them, and they evoke memories and associations with surprising immediacy. Anyone who enjoyed the MIA films in their initial run (or early video release) probably won't be able to resist being transported back to the Eighties, if only for a little while, while watching these Blu-ray releases from MGM and Fox. The technical presentation is certainly acceptable, with MIA 2 being the better of the pair. They aren't great films, but they're a brand of their own.
1984
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1990