Third one in the series actually has a decent central idea - Braddock returns to Vietnam to rescue his wife, who he believed dead, and child, who he didn't know existed.
The continuity doesn't quite match with the earlier films - from memory Braddock was in a POW camp after the war ended, and there was reference to his wife in the outside world. This one has Braddock present during the fall of Saigon, when he believes his wife is killed.
To be fair the fall of Saigon sequence is well done - lots of extras and production value, shot on location in the Philippines.
Aaron Norris does a solid job of directing - very professional and no nonsense. It looks good - there's camps and planes and kids. There's another Australian (?) character - a pilot who drops off Norris behind enemy lines.
The film doesn't quite work - it felt as though he went back to the well one too many times. I couldn't put my finger on it. Maybe the lack of a personal story underpinning it - sure, Norris connects with his kid but the kid has a short role, and they don't spend much time connecting. I never got the sense they were father and son. (Good on Chuck for attempting to broaden his range though). He's reunited with his wife but she gets quickly blown away. There's a priest looking after the kids - I know, I know - but he's not much. (Early Norris films had good casts - that changed after time. Maybe due to the location filming? Budget cuts? A decline in ambition?) The villainous commandant is an over the top evil Asian caricature, even for Chuck Norris (the baddy in Missing in Action 2 had a lot more nuance by way of comparison).
Maybe also it's the fact this isn't a kids film and there's lots of kids in it. There's a harrowing and all too believable scene where a Vietnamese tries to rape a young girl (she looks 12 or something). That's an adult movie. And there's all these kids running around. Kids kind of ruin the guilty pleasure askpect.
Thinking about it more I feel the biggest part of this is a lack of theme. In the first film it was about Chuck seeking a sort of redemption - proving that there were POWs still alive. In the second he was looking after his men. In the third... I guess it's about him finding his family but... I don't know it didn't power the piece.
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