Midnight Eagle

A secret military plane carrying a nuclear warhead crash-lands in Japan’s northern Alps and threatens to shower Tokyo with radiation. Gripping? Not in this film, which trades nail-biting squeakers for lugubrious melodrama and manages to defuse any promising moments with bad pacing and bloated conversations. Everyone is honorable to the point of laughter—our ad hoc heroes call themselves “the self-defense force,” while the prime minister apologizes to the son of a man just sentenced to death. Thrillers are no place for politeness.