According to IMDB, "Uncommon Valor" is the first of many films from the 1980s featuring brave he-men going to Southeast Asia to rescue American soldiers from the Vietnam War STILL being held in prison camps. The notion is absurd for many reasons...why would enemy soldiers spend a decade guarding prisoners AFTER the war when shooting them back in the 1970s made a heck of a lot more sense AND how could a ragtag group of men do such a rescue in the middle of a godforsaken jungle?! Local, these movies aren't...but they did appeal to viewers who held on to these notions or just like seeing stuff blowed up real good.

A retired Colonel (Gene Hackman) organizes some Vietnam vets to sneak into Laos and mount a rescue mission to save some STILL incarcerated American soldiers. The first half shows their preparations and the final half is an explosion-fest....with tons of shooting, things that go boom and the like.

If you ignore the brainlessness of the basic plot, you have an action film with tons and tons of action. It's certainly NOT a great film by most standards and I felt a bit stupider for having watched it...but it IS entertaining. And, despite some very good actors in the film, I think they weren't used to their best abilities. In other words, a LOT of actors could have taken on these roles and there wasn't a lot of depth to the characters.

Uncommon Valor stars Gene Hackman as a retired US Army Colonel who still wants an accounting of his son who was listed as Missing In Action when the Vietnam War ended in 1973. Rumors on rumors pile up as to whether we still have men kept as prisoners of war from the late conflict in Southeast Asia. Hackman thinks he has a lead and he goes to multi-millionaire Robert Stack who also has an MIA son with a plan of action that involves leading some veterans as a volunteer mercenary force to get their comrades out.

I'll say the same thing I said about Rambo II which touched on the same subject. Does it make any kind of rational sense that the Vietnamese or in this case the men are being held in Laos would keep prisoners of war after the conflict has ended? My guess is, sad to say that prisoners that we could not account for being held by the enemy at the conclusion of the war would probably have been just simply murdered.

But the idea that we could go back and win one in the extra innings of war certainly had appeal which accounts for the popularity of Uncommon Valor and Rambo II. At least Gene Hackman was not going to do it singlehanded the way Sly Stallone did.

Bearing all that in mind, Uncommon Valor is a nice action war film if taken on its own terms. The men that Hackman selects, all veterans from the conflict, Randall Cobb, Fred Ward, Tim Thomerson, Reb Brown, and Harold Sylvester are all professionals. The film never goes down to the rollicking and somewhat dopey hijinks of the A-Team. They have one youngster on the mission, a young Patrick Swayze on the cusp of stardom. He's there to rescue his father if possible.

The cast has a nice chemical camaraderie to it. Uncommon Valor is a decent enough action film, not to be taken too terribly serious.

This DIRTY DOZEN reimagining sees army colonel Gene Hackman leading a crack squad of former soldiers into the steamy jungles of Laos in search of American soldiers declared missing in action a decade previously. The story template is familiar but the central theme of hunting for MIA soldiers in Vietnam is good enough to have inspired later, more popular action films like the Chuck Norris MISSING IN ACTION vehicles and the Stallone-starring RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II.

Uncommon Valor is both similar to and different from those populist movies. In terms of last reel action, it more than holds its own with an explosive climax that involves storming a prisoner of war camp. However, there's much more to it as this film follows the DIRTY DOZEN mould closely, with plenty of time being taken up with recruitment and training. The characters are well drawn and there are enough decent actors around to make this a highly entertaining viewing experience. No-frills director Ted Kotcheff also handled the first Rambo outing, FIRST BLOOD, and he does another confident and assured job here.

And…what a cast! One of the most interesting ensembles from the early 1980s. Hackman, as always, is the highlight of the film: tough, no-nonsense and yet filled with emotion lurking beneath that hard surface. Fred Ward (ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ) shows up as a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress, while bargain-basement muscleman Reb Brown (STRIKE COMMANDO) handles some comic scenes nicely. Then there's the larger-than-life Randall 'Tex' Cobb making an impression, Tim Thomerson prior to his B-movie career with Charles Band and, last but best of all, an extremely young Patrick Swayze giving a subtle and nuanced turn as the rookie of the group. You can see why Swayze went onto bigger and better things on the strength of his performance here.