P.O.W. THE ESCAPE (1986)
aka BEHIND ENEMY LINES
Label: Scorpion Releasing
Region Code: A
Rating: PG
Duration: 86 Minutes 7 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Gideon Amir
Cast: David Carradine, Charles Grant, Charles R. Floyd, Steve James, Mako
Another military actioner, this time the Cannon produced P.O.W. the Escape (1986), wherein Col. Cooper (David Carradine, Death Race 2000) is tasked with rescuing American POWs being held in a secret camp in Vietnam in the lead-up to the Paris Peace Talks. They storm the camp with three helicopters and full of armed soldiers, but when they get inside the camp they realize it's empty - it's an ambush. All Hell breaks loose as the Vietnamese rain mortar fire and bullets upon them from the fringes of the jungle surrounding the camp. They retreat to the choppers taking heavy casualties, but Cooper returns to search for an injured soldier, carrying the wounded man back to the chopper rocket fore destroys the chopper and the wounded soldier dies. Cooper is imprisoned at the camp where he befriends fellow POWs Johnston (Steve James, The Exterminator) and the hard-headed Sparks (Charles R. Floyd, The Delta Force). In a weird turn of events the camp commander Captain Vinh (Mako, Sand Pebbles) Cooper to escape Vietnam with a trunk full of stolen gold and valuables he's looted from POW's and make a new life for himself in Florida USA. Cooper agrees, but only if all the POWs can go with thew, to which he reluctantly agrees.
They get busted at a checkpoint and from here it turns into a bombastic series of chases and gun fights with many a huge explosion - it's fun stuff. Carradine is probably the weak spot here, despite being draped in an American flag and mowing down the enemy with a machine gun he's pretty flat here, there's not charisma or gravitas to his character, which is pretty typical for Carradine to be honest, but he's surrounded my more interesting folks like Steve James and Charles R. Floyd who outshine him. Even still, this is a solid enough big-dumb actioner with bullets, explosions and macho jingoistic 80's shenanigans - the sort of stuff you'd come to expect from a Cannon Films flick for sure.
Audio/Video: P.O.W. The Escape (1986) arrives on Blu-ray from Scorpion releasing via Ronin Flix in 1080p HD framed in 1.78:1 widescreen, advertised as being a 2019 HD master. It's not an overly impressive HD image, there are some compression artifacts visible in spots, looking a tad soft with anemic contrast, generally just looking like an older HD master with milky blacks. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2. with optional English subtitles, no issues to report, it comes off clean and well-balanced, just not spectacularly vibrant.
Extras are surprisingly more robust than what I would have thought; we get a 15-min Interview With Director Gideon Amir who talks about his early career and how how came to work for Cannon Films, and commenting on working with the cast of the film; there's also a 7-min Interview With Screenwriter James Bruner who gets into doing re-writes on the script, working for Cannon, the Vietnam films being made at the time, and more; plus a 14-min Interview With Stunt Man Steve Lambert who talks about shooting in the Philippines and shooting some of the stunts seen in the flick. The disc is buttoned-up with a selection of trailers for The Delta Force, The Dogs Of War, Lone Wolf McQuade, Opposing Force. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the illustrated movie poster.
Special Features:
- Interview With Director Gideon Amir (15 min)
- Interview With Screenwriter James Bruner (7 min)
- Interviews With Stunt Man Steve Lambert (14 min)
- Trailer: Delta Force, The Dogs Of War, Lone Wolf McQuade, Opposing Force
Screenshots from the Scorpion Releasing Blu-ray:
