ivo-cobra8 *SPOILERS* Black Eagle (1988) oh boy, where should, I start with this poor boring lame action movie? Seriously this movie is by far the worst Van Damme, Sho Kosugi action movie I have ever seen! Not only the movie is boring and lame, It also rips off the same plot from James Bond 007 Thunderball (1964). When Sho Kosugi's character is looking for those missals under water, the same plot was in Thunderball when Sean Connery was looking under water for those bombs. Three minutes in, already looking like the worst stinker ever made, dumb dialog, bad acting, like Van Damme is there waiting to get discovered, holding his nose because this smells so bad. It seems like Van Damme was kicking Sho's ass more than vice versa and was stronger than Sho. And Sho didn't even kill Van Damme...JCVD dies saving his woman and getting pulled under (almost like a hero's death, weirdly enough). Very boring, not much action, and nothing to it.I liked the two fights between Sho Kosugi and Van Damme, I am confused with the first their fight, Van Damme kicked and almost defeat Sho Kosugi, when Sho gives up, shows his finger to Van Damme all bloody around his face and jumps in the water off the cliffs, I don't get it?! Why Is Van Damme bloody around his mouth, when Sho did not even injured him full bloody? On the docks their last fight between those two guys fighting each other, Van Damme was wining but than his girlfriend calls his name and he get hits from Sho Kosugi's foot in his head. Than Sho's agent shot Van Damme in the leg. When Van Damme tried to safe his wife in the water, he was pulled down and killed why? Van Damme does not uses any real weapons, the same goes for Sho./: Sho's girlfriend Doran Clark shots and kills one of the bad guys when she and Sho's kid are kidnapped, in real life it wasn't a real gun, even the shot wasn't heard real. In reality Van Damme could have, definitely defeat Sho Kosugi, because he was winning both of the fights. None of the actors did not know how to act, Van Damme has no any good liens. I really don't wanna go on about this terrible forgettable action movie, that is not even an action movie at all!!! I am not saying Sho Kosugi is a bad actor he definitely is not! The first time I watched him in an underrated action film Pray for Death (1985), I thought he was Bruce Lee, he looked a like Bruce Lee, I was a kid than when I watched his movie. Revenge of the Ninja, Ninja III: The Domination, Pray for Death and Rage of Honor are good movies of him. I like those four movies, I think Sho Kosugi is a real master Ninja and a good actor and an martial artists star. Anyway the action is boring and really awful bad, this film isn't even an action movie! As a kid I hated this film and I even hated now! Poor Van Damme, he did not deserve to go and make that kind of awful stinker movie! Don't waste your time on this stinker, it is not worth of your time, just skipped. This film get's 1 by me. F*** this movie! Black Eagle is a 1988 American martial arts-action-thriller film starring Sho Kosugi and Jean-Claude Van Damme. It is notable for its location shooting on the Mediterranean island of Malta.1/10 Grade: F Studio: Rotecon B.V. Magus Productions, Taurus Entertainment Imperial Entertainment Starring: Sho Kosugi, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Doran Clark, Kane Kosugi Director: Eric Karson Producer: Shimon Arama Screenplay: Michael Gonzales, A.E. Peters Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 33 Mins. Budget: $3.000.000

Leofwine_draca A pretty much average thriller, like a lot of the supposed exciting rubbish which was churned out in the '80s. This one has some nice foreign locations to look at, but the muddled plot is both boring and headache inducing, involving a James Bond-like agent who must retrieve some technical stuff from the bottom of the sea. To make things interesting, there are some chase sequences and of course the expected martial arts action, but unfortunately both turn out to be disappointing.Basically, this is because they offer up little in the way of excitement, because they're totally generic and therefore useless. The only exception is a cool rooftop chase but that's the highlight of the film. The fight scenes, when they occur, are too brief and too tame, I mean we know Kosugi is tough and can easily wipe out the bad guys, so there's no suspense and not enough action. The only fight scenes worth waiting for are the Van Damme/Kosugi fights, where the martial arts aces do their bits, and there are three of these to enjoy, with the second being the best (the first is too brief, and the third is too dimly lit).The acting is typically bland for a film like this, just guys with stony faces barking out orders. There is the obligatory love interest but even the little kids are clichéd. Kosugi is okay as the hero of the piece, but he's never as engaging as he was elsewhere. People complain about Seagal and Van Damme having no charisma, but this guy makes them look like Clark Gable in comparison. Van Damme is pretty good in a rare bad-guy role, although he is no actor he definitely shows his mettle in the fight sequences, doing the splits and high kicking endlessly. It's cool to watch. As it stands it's an average thriller with a budget not high enough to do it any justice. Barely passable.

Phil Hubbs Ah one of those old JCVD movies that wasn't actually a JCVD movie. I remember being fooled by this back in the day when I was a kid, the cool looking movie poster with both Kosugi and JCVD looking uber badass, the movie title in that striking old USSR logo, so much promise from one image. This movie is very much like JCVD's other early action flick 'No Retreat, No Surrender', he doesn't appear much in that film either, plus he also plays yet another baddie Russian character. So back in the 80's JCVD was kinda typecast as a Russian henchman, guess he had that look.The plot actually revolves around Sho Kosugi, a special ops operative who is called up to find some downed hi-tech equipment from the bottom of the Mediterranean. Some laser tracking devices went down with a jet that was shot down by whoever for whatever reasons. This is all set in Malta and is now very dated to look at of course, in fact the entire thing looks very much like an old James Bond flick, especially with the whole downed jet with hi-tech equipment scenario. It all feels very much like 'Never Say Never Again' to me. At first I thought this was just me but no! this movie does actually try its best to rip-off the Bond franchise. Hell there's even a smoky casino sequence with the main villain and his sidekicks at the roulette table facing off against Kosugi. The whole scene is clearly lifted straight outta the 007 universe, 'Dr. No' much!The location work for this movie is extremely impressive I must say, its easily the best aspect of the feature. Every scene is shot in and around the beautiful and awe-inspiring sand coloured stone structures of Malta and its various famous landmarks. To be quite honest most of this movie is actually rather dull frankly, all we see for the most part is Kosugi pussy footing around like a beige coloured ninja or swimming in crystal clear blue waters. He also has a sidekick, some other skinny dude who aids him with intel. The rest of the time it cuts to scenes with his two kids who eventually get kidnapped, and that's the only reason they are there...to be kidnapped. Sure Kosugi's bosses used the kids to get him to do this assignment but after that it makes no real sense why they hang around in the face of obvious danger. If all this hadn't been shot against this stunningly historic, sand coloured land of ancient wonder then it would be completely pointless.After lots of rather mundane dialog and hints of JCVD's grandness, we finally get a showdown between him and Kosugi. The setting is perfect, atop of some crumbling derelict old fortress wall (or so it seemed), a blazing sun high in the clear blue sky, both men glistening in the Mediterranean heat (oh my!), JCVD vs Kosugi, round 1, fight! Annnnd its all over in less than three minutes, yep a few kicks, a few ducks and parries, a bit of blood around the chops and its all over. We now have to wait to the very end for another face- off, ugh!Yep then its back to more of Kosugi prancing around with his skinny sidekick as they create their plan to infiltrate the villains main ship, thing is I can't remember why. Not that any of that matters now because this is the lead up to the main battle, the main battle against Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his hordes of henchmen aboard his...oh wait. Yep we now get a quick 'Commando' rip-off with Kosugi gearing up and covering himself in black tar by the looks of it, he does a sloppy job of it too sheesh! Lock n load with a bigass crossbow to rip-off Rambo a little bit, then its off we go to kill all the bad guys. This all leads to the finale fight with JCVD, round 2, fight! It lasts a bit longer this time but it never really hits it stride, both men seem to take turns in doing all their signature moves whilst trying not to hurt each other too much. Some nice swing and misses with sweeps and roundhouse kicks etc...but nothing that will get you frothing for more.I lost the plot ages ago with this, they were after these laser tracking devices and I'm sure Kosugi found them and won the movie halfway through, I dunno. It had to lead up to some sort of big showdown with guns and plosions. Its a very odd movie really, Kosugi isn't much of a leading man or fighter judging by this, plus his accent is very heavy and hard to follow at times. JCVD is wasted but does make a fun bad guy, whilst the main villains are pretty pathetic, completely non-threatening, just suits. Clearly they were trying for a slick Bond-esque type romp with semi-serious overtones, yet at the same time they throw in little bits from other franchises too just to make sure, they even get Kosugi's kids in on the action.In the end the plot goes MIA halfway through and it all becomes a very lame excuse just to get Kosugi facing off against JCVD (in a pretty location). The problem being its all a completely wasted opportunity because most of this film sucks, if anything it serves as a fantastic tourist advertisement for the Island of Malta and its idyllic cobbled backstreets.3/10

sveknu This movie looked really cool on the DVD-cover. In addition, this is in 1988, the same year that van Damme starred in Bloodsport. Because of this, the movie had a great potential. Unfortunately, potential doesn't mean anything at all. This movie was in fact a VERY bad one. The plot is surprisingly equal to a Bond movie. An American airplane with a new laser guidance system crashes in the Mediterranena sea. The movie takes place on Malta, where both Soviets and Americans want to get their hands on this airplane. The lead in this movie is not van Damme, but instead Sho Kosugi who plays some kind of American agent. It was surprising to see van Damme as some kind of bad guy, and as a Soviet. The action scenes in this movie are very bad. So is the story, and totally this means that the movie sucks.