Black Eagle Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		2.5

Black Eagle Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 6, 2018

The venerable saying goes “everything old is new again”, which means the Cold War underpinnings of Black Eagle, rumblings which seem to be active once again on the international stage, may be back in the spotlight again enough that we may be seeing a remake of this lesser remembered Jean-Claude Van Damme film soon. Even calling this a “Jean-Claude Van Damme” film may be something of a stretch, though, for as director Eric Karson mentions in an appealing interview included on this release as a supplement, Black Eagle was (originally at least) more of a “Shô Kosugi film,” meant to capitalize on Kosugi’s already considerable star power. Van Damme’s character was actually added as something of an afterthought (according to Karson), with the role substantially beefed up to provide more opportunities for what Karson immediately identified as Van Damme’s “star power”.

Black Eagle has a kind of interesting sound design during its opening credits sequence, where a bunch of information coming via a radio channel drifts in and out. The upshot is that a top secret American fighter jet with an even more top secret weapon has been ditched in the Mediterranean Sea off of Malta, and the United States must retrieve the wreckage at all costs before it falls into the wrong hands, meaning of course the Soviets. Here’s where the casting choices get kind of interesting. The “main” Russian villain is a colonel named Vladimir Klimenko (Vladimir Skomarovsky), but it’s his chief henchman Andrei (Jean-Claude Van Damme) who actually handles the enforcement side of Klimenko’s villainy. It becomes obvious as the film progresses that Karson obviously wanted to inject Van Damme in as many scenes as possible, and in fact Andrei kind of lurks in the background needlessly a lot of the time, though he of course assumes center stage when the splits or other action elements are required.

Black Eagle’s patent improbabilities being to mount once the chief good guy is introduced. He’s an undercover operative named Ken Tani (Shô Kosugi), a guy whose “particular set of skills” make him perfectly suited to do the United States government’s bidding. Tani is reticent, however, since he’s somewhat estranged from his young sons. In a plot conceit that virtually telegraphs what’s ultimately going to happen, the bright lights of the government transport Tani’s sons to Malta for a family reunion so that Tani can go about the business of finding and retrieving the valuable weaponry. (Kosugi’s biological sons Kane and Shane plays his boys in this film.) Adding to the already fairly arguable ludicrousness of this setup is a CIA agent named Patricia Parker (Doran Clark), who pretends to be the Tani kids’ nanny. In the timeless words of every infomercial you've ever seen, "but wait, you also get" a character played by Bruce French who has perhaps one of the funniest "combo careers" ever in an ostensible thriller, one which won't be spoiled here.

What is kind of odd about Black Eagle is that it seems to be aligning everything for a typical action adventure film, with the good guys and bad guys clearly delineated, but it then becomes almost a Kosugi vanity project mixed with a travelogue about Malta. The film has a huge amount of dead weight narratively speaking, with huge swaths turned over to basically meaningless vignettes with Tani and his kids, with the whole missing top secret laser kind of interjected here and there as a seeming afterthought.

Black Eagle is often fairly scenic, and there are a couple of middling fight scenes, but the film doesn’t really successfully exploit either Kosugi or Van Damme. That said, it’s clear from the get go who wins the “charisma wars” between Kosugi and Van Damme, and that means that this already problematic film has another issue, since it’s the second banana of the bad guys who repeatedly pulls focus.

Black Eagle Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Black Eagle is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual's new(ish) MVD Rewind imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. MVD Rewind, a label that has been carving out a rather interesting niche for itself with various cult releases, has a masthead that kind of cheekily recreates the "blue screen" of an old VCR boot up, and unfortunately this transfer of Black Eagle often looks more like video than film itself, with what looks like fairly aggressive high frequency filtering, leading to a kind of smeary, waxen look a lot of the time. In fact, what might pass as minimal grain in the film's opening moments may just in fact be the dust that is swept up in a melée. Otherwise, long shots of clear blue skies and other beautiful Malta scenery have little to no natural grain in them, something that gives this presentation the appearance of video. There is also quite a bit of damage, albeit small at times, that can be seen throughout the presentation, with lots of tiny moments of dirt and a couple of larger white specks that intrude. The palette looks faded at times, though admittedly some of the outdoor material still pops at least relatively well.

Black Eagle Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Black Eagle's theatrical cut features a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix along with the LPCM 2.0 mix that is also available as the sole audio option on the extended cut. The lossy surround mix adds a bit of spaciousness to ambient environmental effects and score, but also lacks some of the added "oomph" of the midrange and especially low end that the lossless track offers. I frankly didn't notice that much of a difference between the two options as I toggled back and forth even in some effects heavy scenes, and my hunch is purists will want to go with the lossless track in any case. Fidelity is mostly fine (some effects, like the opening radio broadcasts, seemed a bit anemic to my ears), and there's no outright damage to report.

Black Eagle Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical (1:33:04) and Extended (1:44:26) Cuts of the Film. Per the audio section above, the Theatrical cut features either a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix or an LPCM 2.0 mix. The Extended cut features only the LPCM 2.0 mix.


• Sho Kosugi: Martial Arts Legend (1080p; 21:24) is an enjoyable interview with the star, who recounts a number of anecdotes about his career in general and this film's production.


• The Making of Black Eagle (1080p; 35:45) features more fun comments from Kosugi, along with some excellent reminiscences from Eric Karson, who recounts kind of stumbling into directing martial arts films.


• Tales of Jean-Claude Van Damme (1080p; 19:20) features various cast and crew (but no Jean-Claude) relaying various anecdotes.


• The Script and the Screenwriters (1080p; 27:22) features Michael Gonzales.


• Deleted Scenes (480p; 11:16)

A (folded) collectible poster is also included in the keepcase.

Black Eagle Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Black Eagle is a kind of middling affair that also suffers from some technical inadequacies in its Blu-ray presentation, so interested consumers are encouraged to peruse the screenshots and look over the list of (very enjoyable) supplements to see if this release warrants a place in their permanent collections.