Black Eagle Down and Out
There can be only two reasons why anyone would watch "Black Eagle". The first is that they were duped in to watching it by some sadistic friend or secondly because they are a fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme and watch it too fill in a gap knowing full well how bad it is. And trust me "Black Eagle" is bad with Jean-Claude Van Damme as a bad guy, a henchman to a Russian whilst Shô Kosugi plays ken Tani a James Bond style character. In fact "Black Eagle" is basically a James Bond rip off with Ken Tani sent on a mission to Malta to rescue a guidance system from a jet which has crashed in to the ocean. There is absolutely nothing which makes "Black Eagle" entertaining, not even the fight scenes and it truly is a movie for those who feel they need to fill a gap in their Van Damme collection.
When an expensive guidance system goes down with a jet off of the coast of Malta the Russians are desperate to get their hands on it whilst the American's send their top agent Ken Tani (Shô Kosugi) to try and retrieve it first. Due to have his annual 2 weeks leave to spend time with his sons they are sent to Malta so he can still see them but they add to the complications when the Russians learn exactly who Tani is and kidnap his boys along with their minder Patricia (Doran Clark).
So "Black Eagle" is for all sense and purposes a James Bond rip-off and not a good one at that. The storyline is not only weak but also laughable as not only do you question why Ken's bosses would put his children in danger but why would Ken think he can still see them whilst masquerading as a marine biologist to dive to search for the jet. I say you would question but by the time that happens early on you have stopped questioning because it is already so terrible.
And it doesn't get and better with a weaker than weak scene where Ken confronts the evil Russian over a roulette wheel. But that is not the worst of it and the one thing which could possibly make "Black Eagle" interesting is as bad as everything else. It is really why you watch "Black Eagle" to see Van Damme drop a couple of splits and throw out a few high kicks and they are all there but there is no excitement to these action scenes especially when it comes to the ones between Kosugi and Van Damme.
As for the acting well it is terrible all round and when it comes to Van Damme as henchman Andrei he only has a handful of lines with the majority of the time asked to look menacing. It is simply poor and Shô Kosugi is unfortunately no Jackie Chan which to be honest is what "Black Eagle" is calling out for, an exciting martial artist.
What this all boils down to is that "Black Eagle" has no redeeming qualities at all and as already mentioned is really only for those who like Van Damme and have never seen it but even then they will be disappointed.
