Uncommon Valor

Actually I had the feeling, watching this picture, that I had seen it before. That may in fact be true; maybe I did sce it before. But even if I hadn't seen it before, I have seen other pictures like it-enough like it to make me feel a bit of deja vu. This is one of those missing in action pictures, like the aptly named “Missing in Action” (parts I, II, III) and “Rambo,” about a group of guys who gang up to go back to Nam and get our boys. For some reason the Times’s capsule sticks in my head, and I quote: "Worthy theme of MIA's squashed by standard, gung-ho treatment" whatever that means. It's not too bad as these pictures go, and it is elevated by the presence of Gene Hackman, who is a real actor. Fred Wand proves once again that the only kind of charactems he is any good at playing are wooden, unemotional ones. (like here). Technically the picture is adequate, (the training scenes are best) (why is it that the training scenes are always best??) but ultimately it is unsurprising.