P.O.W : The Escape (1986) – Gideon Amir.

'Everybody goes home is a slogan, not a religion!'

David Carradine, Steve James, and Mako star in Golan-Globus gem P.O.W : The Escape, an entertainingly boisterous 80s Namsploitation about gritty Colonel Cooper's (Carradine) one man's dogged mission to free captured GI's. While the stock text is strictly trope city, the lively cast prove credible, with Carradine on commandingly steely form as the righteously resolute colonel. I don't believe that I have ever seen an action/martial arts feature starring Steve James wherein he doesn't deliver 100%, and P.O.W : The Escape is certainly no exception! This thunderous actioner's Gung ho credentials are manifestly on point, providing plentiful gun play, bodacious pyro, along with all the requisite, sweatily imperilled GI's, gorily blasting their way through a sweltering Jungle inferno. The more avid Namsploitation addicts should be all over this like hot stink on a Hanoi hooker, and B-fans who can dig a formulaic, competently made, slam bang shoot 'em up will find P.O.W : The Escape a pretty solid effort. I appreciated the fact that the director rarely took his foot off the gas, really gunning it during the blazingly grenade-garlanded, hell-or-glory finale, whereupon an expanse of the lushly picturesque Philippines is quite literally consumed within a monstrous fireball of white-hot pyrotechnics, semper fidelis, dude!