User Reviews

In Vietnam, 1973, the military top brass is told to free all the P.O.W.'s. In order to do this effectively, they call in Col. James Cooper (Carradine), who, naturally, is "The Best". Of course, he also has a bad attitude and is getting on in years. Once he finds the prisoners, one of which is Johnston (James), all the men lead a daring escape through the jungles of 'Nam. Along the way they'll have to fight tons of NVA soldiers, evil camp commander Capt. Vinh (Mako), among other pitfalls, while fighting to stay alive and recapture some gold bars. Can they do it? By this time, Cannon had already made Missing In Action (1984), so they probably figured, "'why not try 'P.O.W.'"? Instead of Chuck Norris or Michael Dudikoff, their main staples, they opted for David Carradine. He's not quite as belligerent and surly as he is in Future Force (1989) and Future Zone (1990), but roles like this, where he's put in the driver's seat as an action hero with terse dialogue, certainly paved the way for those. His dialogue pretty much consists of soundbites such as "I'm going' back for 'em" and "Everybody goes home". This might be less noticeable if he had some non-bumper-sticker-like dialogue anywhere else in the movie, but he doesn't. As far as his attitude (i.e angry), it seems Cannon will just give you a more assertive demeanor at times. For example, for Chain Of Command (1994), they probably just said to Dudikoff, "be angry". We're guessing they did the same here for Carradine.

POW: The Escape is your basic exploding hut/helicopter/guard tower movie where people are constantly firing machine guns under the green foliage. But you gotta admit, those huts had it coming. There's the Prerequisite Torture as well. Not of the huts, of the humans. Thus, the movie is quite repetitive, as there isn't enough material here to properly fill a 90 minute feature. Not that any of this is bad, it just feels very, very familiar.

As far as the rest of the cast, there are some familiar faces: we are fans of Mako and he does a decent job as the commander who might secretly have an affinity for America. Steve James remains one of the most underrated actors of the 80's and beyond and his presence livens things up considerably. In the background doing small roles like "G.I. #4" and "Soldier at Fuel Depot" are Willie Williams, Henry Strzalkowski, and Cris Aguilar. Among the smaller players is fan favorite John Barrett, who is also credited as a stunt coordinator. If you watch any of these Philippines-set actioners, these names will ring a bell. But none of them can possibly top Carradine, when, in a moment of inspiration, he takes an American flag in danger of burning down - this is during a firefight, no less - takes it off the pole, puts it over his shoulders, and continues killing badguys with his machine gun! He's literally draped in the flag as he fights those stupid, stupid commies. God bless the 80's.

Released by Media on VHS (and laser videodisc!), POW: The Escape is standard jungle action, with maybe a few blips of interest within that framework.

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Also known as Behind Enemy Lines and Attack Force 'Nam, David Carradine stars as Colonel James Cooper, which is the Chuck Norris role in this movie, as Cannon had gone all in on military movies.

Directed by Gideon Amir, who produced Cannon's Boy Meets Girl, Missing In Action and American Ninja, this movie had three - yes, three - screenwriters: Malcolm Barbour (who would go on to create Cops for Fox), James Bruner (who had already written Missing In Action) and Avi Kleinberger (who wrote American Ninja and three of its four sequels).

During a mission at the end of the war, Cooper gets caught trying to liberate his fellow soldiers and ends up in a North Vietnamese POW camp himself. He's due for a trial bu the North Vietnamese, but Vinh (Mako), the camp commander, offers him a deal: if he can get Cooper and the troops there to safety, they will help him get to America.

With music from other Cannon movies (The Delta Force, Revenge of the Ninja), you may write this off as just another Vietnam movie, but it literally wraps Carradine in the flag and also has not just Steve James, but Steve James singing "Proud Mary," and I think it's worth watching just for that one scene. And because this was made in the Philippines, it legally has to have James Gaines in it.

Also, drink every time Carradine says, "Everybody goes home," and you'll die.

Yet another right wing action film from Cannon Films, P.O.W. The Escape (love that title) feeds the fantasy that American servicemen were abandoned by their country when the Vietnam War wound down in 1974. In a part surely written for Chuck Norris, David Carradine plays Colonel Cooper, a macho American soldier charged with getting 'behind enemy lines' and liberating a bunch of prisoners from the brutal hands of the Viet Cong, personified by evil and two-faced Captain Vinh (Mako). There's action aplenty, naturally, a lot of convoluted plot machinations revolving around some stolen gold, and some absurd developments that keep the characters chasing after each other in the most unlikely circumstances. Chuck Norris' favourite (and best) sidekick, Steve James, is on hand as well, and his presence (plus the Philippines location work) makes this a classic entry in the Cannon canon.

David carradine leads the way in this all action epic, which is basically the Great Escape, but set in Veatnam, but with a corrupt Vietnamese prison camp general, as played by Mako and a traitorous double crossing American soldier Sparks as played by Charles R Floyd. The basic story revolves around Carradine getting captured by the Veatcong and meeting up with the corrupt Vietnamese general who steals the Gold from his captors like watches and gold necklace's. Anyway he is desperate to get back to his "home" in America.

Anyway, there is not enough action scenes particularly in the middle of the film, even though it does pick up towards the end with a large battle scene where Carradine saves a American firebase under attack from hordes of Vietnamese soldiers, single handily added to that, a rushed climax which involves Carradine running around a small village while killing several soldiers. This film is good for b action movie fans and little else, but still contains some good harmless fun.