The movie's only flaw is also a virtue: It's jammed with characters, stories, warmth and laughs.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

One of the US Air Force's most modern tactical aircraft, an F-111 Aardvark with a new laser guidance system, crashes into the sea near Malta - a region where the Soviet forces are highly present, too. The big problem with 'Black Eagle' is that Van Damme should have been the lead and Kosugi the villain then perhaps we would have a better movie? Van Damme was hardly in the film and his demise kinda disappointing and our lead half as interesting as he shouldn't be. This is definitely a movie that doesn't hold up as i remembered it once to.. (4.0/10)

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

Black Eagle starts as high ranking American military dude Dean Rickert (William Bassett) is informed that fifty million dollars worth of F-1-11 (yes that's F one eleven) fighter plane with a state of the art SX-1 laser tracking guidance system aboard has landed in the Ocean somewhere just off the coast of Malta, his best man Steve Henderson (Gene Davis) is put on the case as the sneaky red Soviet Russians are already there trying to steal it. Unfortunately the Russians lead by Colonel Vladimir Klimenko (Vladimir Skomarovsky) kill Steve, Rickert then sends in Father Jospeh Bedelia (Bruce French) & his other best man besides Steve, a Japanese dude named Ken Tani (Shô Kosugi) to retrieve the SX-1 & teach those Russians a lesson they will never forget...Directed by Eric Karson one has to say that Black Eagle is a poor spy thriller in the vein of James Bond but unlike James Bond there's barely any action in it, the plot sucks & it stars a funny little Jackie Chan wannabe. The one & only thing of any great note with regards to Black Eagle & it's one & only claim to fame is that it was one of Jean-Claude Van Damme's first films, I am sure it's plastered all over the video/DVD case to try & sell a few more copies but in reality he isn't in that much & gets about five lines of dialogue during the thing. If your a fan of JCVD then I suppose you will feel compelled & obliged to see Black Eagle but be warned it's pretty tough to get through. The script by Michale Gonzales & A.E. Peters is a really poor low rent James Bond spy thriller with the Americans trying to beat the Russians to their super laser guidance thing & sending a whole two people to get it including a poor mans Jackie Chan & a priest. There's a fair amount of pointless running around Maltese locations & plenty of near misses as the Jackie Chan wannabe stays one step ahead of those Russians. It's pretty forgettable stuff all the way, the action scenes are few & far between, the dialogue is poor, the character's are poor & it's pretty slow going as well.Director Karson probably wasn't working with a huge budget but Black Eagle is really lacklustre stuff all the way, there's not one memorable fight or action scene in it apart from the very slow car chase where the bad guy's are actually chasing the good guy's in a Lada! I have to admit some of the Maltese & Italian locations look very nice but I'm not watching Black Eagle for the scenery, I want action & frankly it fails to deliver the goods. When Ken dives under the Ocean (& holds his breath for about ten minutes) he finds the F-1-11 jet plane down there completely undamaged & in one piece! Wouldn't it have been smashed to pieces on impact with the Ocean if it had indeed crashed? I think so.Technically the film isn't much to look at, it's got no style & is pretty forgettable on all fronts. Actually shot on location in Malta & Italy which is where most of the budget probably went. The acting sucks, I think Shô Kosugi is trying to be Jackie Chan but fails miserably. JCVD only speaks about twenty words (he apparently still got paid $70,000 though) & still sucks although he does do the splits a couple of times.Black Eagle is a poor, poor film which I barely got through. Probably JCVD's worst film although he can't be held totally responsible, one to avoid unless your a masochist.

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.