Black Eagle (1988)
Director: Eric Karson
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Codename Black Eagle (Kosugi) is summoned to Malta to thwart KGB plans to steal a sunken laser device. And, barring sundry explosions, killings, a subplot in which his two children are kidnapped, and a car chase (visibly at 33 mph) through the streets of Malta, that's about it. Directed without flair, this is a movie that defies easy classification: it's either a spy thriller without glamour, gadgets, or twists, or a martial arts movie with only two real fights; and if the script ever had a good line, it's fumbled somewhere between the Russian and Japanese accents. The only difference between this and countless other low-budget action movies is that the hero is not macho: he's thin, doesn't screw around, and even fails to defeat the KGB's balletic kung-fu king (Van Damme). In fact, he does nothing of any interest at all: refile under codename Black Turkey.Author: DW
Cast & crew
Director: Eric Karson
Producer: Shimon Arama
Cast: Sho Kosugi, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Doran Clark, Bruce French, Vladimir Skomarovsky, William H Bassett full cast
Genre(s): Action/Adventure
Duration: 104 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.



What do you think?
Post your review now