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.

"Black Eagle" sounds like an excellent name for an excellent action film! And it is! This movie has it all - aviation, fighting, being a spy, etc. Now those - those, I tell you - those are the essential parts to an awesome action film. This was the rage back in the day when it came out, and although this movie has lost this rage today in 2006, it's still worth watching day in and day out! And Van Damme made superb acting in this movie, also. He's done the same in all his other works, too."Black Eagle" is the movie to rent this Friday evening - don't walk, fly to the Blockbuster video store and rent this movie! A 10 out of 10 movie, indeed!

just because jean claude is with, it doesn't mean that the movie will be good. i switched of the TV after 30 minutes just because it had no story. no action, nothing! jean claude is not even the main guy. all the other miserable unknown actors make the movie boring. i wanted to watch to the movie just because i was attracted to the title and jean claude. if you watch the movie, whole day will be wasted. that Chinese guy can't even fight, two guys are after him and he runs away from them setting a trap. the only thing i liked that jean cluade is evil in the movie but you won't see him fight. worth watching it on TV but please don't buy it unless you're a jean claude fan.

I have seen every Van Damme movie there is from No Retreat, No Surrender to Derailed and this is without a doubt his worst. He is barely in it, he barely speaks and although he was able to pull off some unbelievable moves, the choreography of the fights was just awful..i make up better fights when i play around with my friends. The plot was so muddled that i didnt really get anything out of it. The main character was just bad and you didnt care for him..actually i was rooting for Van Damme the whole time and he was the bad guy. Please skip this one..this is just a flat out mistake.