Good movie but grossly overrated

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

A rousing men-on-a-mission action-adventure with an angry political message, this covers the same ground as Rambo 2 and is almost as entertaining. The great Gene Hackman plays Colonel Rhodes, a father haunted by his son's disappearance behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War. For years he tries, and fails, to convince the US government to help him find Frank. In a last-ditch attempt, he recruits several of Frank's comrades-in-arms, who each, in his own way, has unfinished business with the war, to join him on a daring rescue mission.What follows is a by-the-numbers but stirring action film, with an extremely likeable cast including Fred Ward, Tim Thomerson, and a young Patrick Swayze. James Horner provides another of his brilliant 80's action scores, by turns haunting and pulse-quickening. The set-up and training sequences are rock solid and fun, and the final rescue mission is downright exciting. I liked it better than The Dirty Dozen, which had way too much comedy for me to take it seriously. Uncommon Valor strikes a much better balance between popcorn heroics and its more sobering themes, both human and political. It's an underrated film, one I never tire of watching.

Chuck Norris and Sly Stallone really has nothing on Gene Hackman & Company as Hackman can act, first of all. Despite liking Norris and Stallone. But, Hackman knows how to act! He plays Colonel Rhodes, a career military man as his only son, is a POW in Vietnam. Despite the government and everybody else saying to him that he needs to give up. Still, any and all hindrances won't deter him. As he rounds up a group of men from his son's team in the Vietnam War. That have gone onto other things, meaning other jobs, in hopes of saving his son and others left by the war as POWs. And with financial backing from a billionaire, played by Robert Stack, also having a son that is a POW. As the camp is built like a POW camp in order to prepare them for the worse. There, they meet young rookie, Marine reject Patrick Swayze. The first part deals with their training, as the other five vets that aren't sure about Swayze and after not taking lightly being bossed by a rookie young Marine. They mutiny and Sailor, who steals the movie played brilliantly by, Randall "Tex" Cobb teaches the rookie a lesson in a fistfight. As it is revealed by Rhodes, he has a father that's MIA, shot down in Vietnam. There the young Marine is taken in by the vets and also learns to work as a team member, rather than a leader. He learns that he needed to be a team member, not a team leader all along. Second, despite a few obstacles and more government bureaucracy, Hackman's character and the now organized six men, won't stop until they rescue the POWs. Won't give away how they do it or the end, but it is pretty bittersweet. But all in all, it goes to show us, that we shouldn't leave out the POWs. Don't know why Cobb could had been a bigger name and given bigger roles after this. I admit the Swayze character was kind of jerk but then, mellowed out a bit. As well as started to learn to, become a team player. But it is Hackman's movie as he is brilliant in this. As well as the other supporting players. That build support around him.

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.

First of all it has to be conceded that this film has a very "macho" 80s/Reagan era view of war. Most Vietnamese characters are cannon fodder whose deaths have little or no impact, while American characters are granted either tragic or glorious deaths. But if you can tolerate, ignore or (to be fair) enjoy this aspect of the film, you will find a very moving look at people dealing with the idea of their friends and family never coming home and/or being forced to live as Prisoners of War. This is the main thing which separates this from other POW rescue fantasies (along with a certain, though modest, degree of realism). The most touching scene is at the start of the film, with Hackman pondering over the whereabouts of his son, but there are also some very poignant moments at the end of the film. "Uncommon Valor" is also worth watching for a memorable cast including one of Patrick Swayze's earliest and best performances. Hackman is, as usual, excellent.