Customer Reviews

P.O.W The Escape [VHS]

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

P.O. W. THE ESCAPE(1986) Directed by Gideon Amir.

Starring David Carradine and Mako.

Five days before the 1973 Paris peace accords, the US military, in its haste to rescue as many American Prisoners of War as they can before they vanish into the Communist block forever, instead send one of their best officers--a colonel--into a Vietcong trap. Now a prisoner himself, the Colonel must try and break himself and the others in the camp out and get them to safety before it is too late.

From RAMBO 2 to MISSING IN ACTION, the Vietnam War prisoner of war subgenre has never produced any films of worth and quality......at least seen by me thus far. This one is no exception. Badly directed, poor score, a script with dialogue that I swear was made up by the actors themselves as they went along, this is a prime example of the type of picture Hollywood simply cannot do anymore. In the forties, Republic or RKO could have spit this out in their sleep and it would have been a solid rousing flag waver. But not here. I have never understood the popularity of David Carradine--KUNG FU aside--and as a gungo ho Randolph Scott type, he is appalling. And Mako--as the camp commadant--makes one wistful for Philip Ahn and Richard Loo.

The film had two good points. 1) The word communist is actually used and 2) When the escapees encounter some American soldiers, to make sure that they are really Americans, they ask them who was the eleventh President of the United States and, when they do not know, that proves that they are yanks. I would have been shot on the spot.

Movie is still crap though.

It may not be as good as "Platoon". However, personally I think it's fair enough for those who crazy about Vietnam War. It's under Class B in my personal War movie collection.(Top 100)

I was disappointed with this purchase. This must have been pressed in somebody's basement. The picture and sound quality are terrible. P.O.W. the escape was the real title of this movie. I don't know how a reputable firm like Amazon can sell this garbage.

Except that Carradine plays Col. Jim
Cooper and nutty Golan Globur crew
stages this one. Not as bad as Rambo
III or Missing In Action III, as Sly
Stallone, who opposed Carradine in
silly Death Race 2000 (*), or Chuck
Norris went to the well once too of-
ten in those pics. Carradine and re-
cognizable black American actor Steve
(Johnny B. Goode) James steal the show
but despicable Mako, a former Hawai'i
Five-0 actor is believable enough until
his hardcore end. Typical pretty good
Carradine actioner undone by sorry Go-
lan Globus production standards which
are worse than Roger Corman's Am.Indies!