BLACK EAGLE (US - 1988) Directed by Eric Karson. Written by A.E. Peters and Michael Gonzales. Cast: Sho Kosugi, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Doran Clark, Bruce French, Vladimir Skomarovsky, William H. Bassett, Kane Kosugi, Shane Kosugi, Jan Triska, Gene Davis, Dorota Puzio, Alfred Mallia, Joe Quattromani, Victor Bartolo, Eric Karson. (R, 93 mins) Perhaps no actor is more synonymous with the '80s ninja craze than Sho Kosugi. He set the standard of Kosugiology with Cannon's ENTER THE NINJA (1981), REVENGE OF THE NINJA (1983) and NINJA III: THE DOMINATION (1984) and was a key figure in the short-lived 1984 NBC series THE MASTER, where he was the recurring antagonist to aging American ninja Lee Van Cleef. After Cannon opted to wave the American flag in the Reagan era with Michael Dudikoff in 1985's AMERICAN NINJA, Kosugi made the same year's 9 DEATHS OF THE NINJA for Crown International before doing 1985's PRAY FOR DEATH and 1987's RAGE OF HONOR for Trans-World Entertainment. In 1988, he tried to branch out with a supporting role in the Hawaii-set coming-of-age teen comedy-drama ALOHA SUMMER. The same year also saw the release of BLACK EAGLE, another departure for the ninja star, this time as a CIA agent battling nefarious Russians in a late-period Cold War thriller. Kosugi's time as an action star was winding down, and BLACK EAGLE would be his last film as a headliner to hit theaters (he would have a supporting role as a bad guy in the 1989 Rutger Hauer blind samurai cult classic BLIND FURY). It's fitting that it also functions as a symbolic passing of the torch, as Kosugi's co-star in BLACK EAGLE is a young Jean-Claude Van Damme, who had already made an impression as the ruthless "Ivan, the Russian" in the hilarious NO RETREAT NO SURRENDER and was in the midst of breaking out as a major new action star, practically in real time, as Cannon's BLOODSPORT hit theaters just two weeks before BLACK EAGLE. A film that holds on to every moment and is given strength by the breath of life, BLOODSPORT was already in the can when Van Damme took the BLACK EAGLE gig, and the Muscles from Brussels likely had no way of knowing it would become a surprise hit and he was about to become the only thing keeping the lights on at Cannon for the next two years.
Though second-billed, Van Damme isn't even the main villain in BLACK EAGLE. Instead, he's the coldly lethal, Oddjob-ish henchman to the chief bad guy, evil Soviet colonel Klimenko (Vladimir Skomarovsky). Klimenko and some Russian military and KGB goons are trying to intercept three US Air Force F-111s with high-tech laser guidance systems and top-secret defense intel that crashed into the Mediterranean off the coast of Malta. Klimenko and mostly silent right-hand-man Andrei (Van Damme) commandeer a Soviet trawler in the vicinity and Andrei snaps the neck of Steve Henderson (Gene Davis, the nude killer in 10 TO MIDNIGHT), a hot-headed CIA agent they capture near the crash site. This leaves CIA chief Rickert (William H. Bassett) no choice but to send his ultimate weapon, Ken Tani (Kosugi)--codename "Black Eagle"--to Malta to recover the classified intel and keep it out of Soviet hands. This is all complicated since the crash of the F-111s had the bad timing to coincide with the two weeks out of the year that workaholic Tani has with his two sons Brian and Denny, respectively played by Kosugi's sons and frequent co-stars Kane and Shane. The CIA doesn't care about Tani's family time, so they send the boys off to meet him in Malta, accompanied by ambitious agent Patricia Parker (Doran Clark), who's of course relegated to babysitter duty (drink every time she notices they're being followed and announces "We got company"). To get near the site and hold the commies at bay, Tani poses as a marine biologist and teams with Father Bedelia (Bruce French), a former agent who left the CIA to become a priest but is reactivated because, well, apparently no one else was available.
Produced by home video outfit Imperial Entertainment and released theatrically by Taurus, BLACK EAGLE didn't do much business in theaters but became a fixture in every video store in America. It was a popular rental, but fans weren't really interested in Kosugi going the espionage route and channeling his inner Jack Ryan. For a good chunk of the film, director Eric Karson (who helmed the early Chuck Norris hit THE OCTAGON) mainly just shows off scenic Malta (there's also location work in Rome and Afghanistan), which admittedly looks lovely on MVD's new Blu-ray (which includes the 93-minute theatrical version and a 104-minute extended cut), just out as part of their retro "Rewind Collection." There's maybe too many scenes of the Kosugi kids walking around sightseeing with Clark, but Karson also stages a few interesting chase sequences, including one along some Malta rooftops that actually looks like how a real and sudden chase might look. Two guys are pursuing Tani and everybody's sweaty and running awkwardly and nervously along ledges, trying not to lose their balance and footing as they get tired and winded. Kosugi's two throwdowns with Van Damme are nicely done--one on top of a cliff and the other at a waterfront dock surrounded by a bunch of flaming barrels. Young JCVD gets a chance to do his signature splits a couple of times, but he's strictly a supporting player in a Sho Kosugi movie, so much so that when he's killed off, it's not even by Tani.
The main lesson Van Damme seemed to take from his experience working with Kosugi was mastering the art of ensuring his significantly less-talented children were cast in far too many of his movies. While Van Damme would go on to become an A-list action star until the latter half of the '90s, Kosugi's career was beginning to wind down, seemingly by choice. After BLIND FURY, his next film, the shogun period piece JOURNEY OF HONOR, which co-starred legends like Toshiro Mifune and Christopher Lee, went straight-to-video in 1992, and he returned to his native Japan for a few TV guest spots and voice work and to direct his son Kane in 1994's THE FIGHTING KING and its same-year sequel. Other than a fight choreography credit on 2002's THE SCORPION KING, Kosugi was MIA until he was coaxed out of semi-retirement to play the villain in the 2009 Wachowski-produced throwback NINJA ASSASSIN, the now-69-year-old Kosugi's last screen appearance to date. While Kosugi's younger son Shane long ago left the movie industry, his eldest son Kane remains active, splitting his time between Japan and the US, most notably co-starring in 2004's GODZILLA: FINAL WARS and with Scott Adkins in 2013's NINJA: SHADOW OF A TEAR.
A top-notch Sho Kosugi ninja film that's not from Cannon but sure feels like it, PRAY FOR DEATH is just out on Blu-ray from Arrow in its uncut version that originally got it slapped with an X rating in 1985 (the R-rated theatrical cut is also included). There's a few nasty bits, but by today's standards, it's not that extreme. Following his success with Cannon's NINJA trilogy (ENTER THE NINJA, REVENGE OF THE NINJA, NINJA III: THE DOMINATION), Kosugi moved to TV with THE MASTER and starred in 1985's 9 DEATHS OF THE NINJA. Probably his best film away from Cannon, PRAY FOR DEATH is a similar revenge saga along the lines of the genre-best REVENGE OF THE NINJA, with Kosugi and his half-American/half-Japanese wife (Donna Kei Benz) and sons (his own sons Kane and Shane Kosugi) leaving Japan to pursue a life in America, specifically the mean streets of Houston, TX. Buying a dilapidated bar from an old man (Parley Baer) and turning it into a Japanese restaurant, Kosugi is unaware that the backroom is being used as a drug and stolen merch drop-off for corrupt cops and flunkies of the city's chief asshole criminal businessman (Michael Constantine). When a priceless necklace called the Van Atta (humbly named after producer Don Van Atta) turns up missing from the drop-off, Constantine and his chief enforcer (screenwriter James Booth as "Limehouse Willie," giving himself a ludicrously over-the-top character to play) think Kosugi took it and start coming after him and his family. Needless to say, Kosugi, a quiet man who has buried his lethal ninja past after a horrific family tragedy, gets pretty pissed off.
There's some brutal and bloody fight scenes throughout, all well-handled by journeyman director Gordon Hessler, whose career ran the gamut from replacing the late Michael Reeves on the Vincent Price/Christopher Lee horror film THE OBLONG BOX (1969) to putting up with four out-of-control egos on the TV-movie KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK (1978). Hessler would direct two more films with the ninja legend: 1987's RAGE OF HONOR (coming soon from Arrow) and 1992's JOURNEY OF HONOR, a big-budget 17th century period adventure that ended up going straight-to-video. Kosugi kicks ass throughout PRAY FOR DEATH and his final showdown with Booth--who looks like an enraged Richard Kind--is as drawn-out and ridiculous as any Peter vs. the Giant Chicken fight on FAMILY GUY. Also with veteran character actor Norman Burton, some blatant 007 ripoff opening credits, and the infectious and very '80s Peggy Abernathy theme song "Back to the Shadows." Mandatory Kosugi. (R, 94 mins/Unrated, 98 mins)
After the release of 2010's NINJA, a formulaic throwback to the likes of ENTER THE NINJA and AMERICAN NINJA, director and DTV action auteur Isaac Florentine and star Scott Adkins both expressed disappointment at the outcome, with Florentine saying the film relied too much on CGI and wirework. For the sequel, both he and Adkins wanted to make a back-to-basics martial-arts movie, essentially crafting it as a do-over to function as both a sequel and a reboot. Well, they got it right this time. NINJA: SHADOW OF A TEAR is maybe the best movie Golan & Globus never made. The CGI is very conservatively used, mainly on greenscreen work and background visuals, and even the Bulgarian clown crew at Worldwide FX seems to have brought their A-game for this one. Adkins, who starred in Florentine's two excellent sequels to Walter Hill's UNDISPUTED, has been slowly making a name for himself in the cult action scene, with increasing visibility in films like THE EXPENDABLES 2 (as Jean-Claude Van Damme's chief henchman) and John Hyams' amazing UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING, as well as a brief supporting role in the Oscar-nominated ZERO DARK THIRTY. And Florentine really needed to get back on the horse after the disappointment of NINJA and the disastrous ASSASSIN'S BULLET, easily his worst film. NINJA: SHADOW OF A TEAR is a ninja film in the classic tradition, and looks much more expensive than it really is. It's a shame that it, and Florentine for that matter, are confined to the world of DTV. 30 years ago, this would've been released in theaters and it would've been a hit.
Picking up where NINJA left off, Casey Bowman (Adkins) is living in Japan with his pregnant wife Namiko (Mika Hijii), the daughter of his late sensei. When Namiko is brutally killed, an enraged, grieving Casey goes to Thailand to visit the dojo of her family friend Nakabara (Kane Kosugi, son of ninja genre legend Sho Kosugi). Unable to contain his anger and prone to violent outbursts that bring shame to Nakabara's dojo, Casey decides to avenge Namiko's death after Nakabara tells him of a longstanding grudge held against his and Namiko's family by Myanmar drug cartel lord Goro (Shun Sugata). Of course, Casey journeys to Myanmar and proceeds to ninja the living shit out Goro's organization and anyone who gets in his way. David White's script won't win any awards for originality and, based on the fact that a prominently billed genre figure has very little to do, you'll probably figure out the twist long before Casey does, but with its jaw-dropping fight choreography, NINJA: SHADOW OF A TEAR is one of the top action films of 2013, and further proof that Florentine and Adkins are ready for bigger and better things. There's absolutely no reason--other than the big-name actors' inability to keep up with his requirements--that Florentine shouldn't be helming something like THE EXPENDABLES 3. There's always the possibility that he enjoys the relative autonomy he's granted working for Avi Lerner's Millennium/NuImage and is happy with the niche he's carved for himself. After all, his experiences away from the company were unpleasant for him (I liked Florentine's 2008 Van Damme film THE SHEPHERD, though Stage 6 Films took it away from him in post-production) and/or his fans (the less said about ASSASSIN'S BULLET, the better), but even with a fervent cult following, Florentine is the best-kept secret in action filmmaking, and NINJA: SHADOW OF A TEAR is the real deal. (R, 95 mins, also streaming on Netflix)
SWEETWATER (US/UK/Germany/Canada - 2013)
With the ever-changing world of film distribution, good films inevitably get lost in the shuffle, often getting dumped in a just a few theaters and quietly turning up on DVD or on streaming services. The $7 million-budgeted SWEETWATER, which grossed a paltry $6000 during its very limited US theatrical release, isn't necessarily a "good" movie by the classic definition, but it's entertaining to an almost absurd degree, a frequently audacious and gleefully nasty little gem that comes very close to being the PUNISHER: WAR ZONE of westerns. The Prophet Josiah (Jason Isaacs) is an insane minister/cult leader in the small, middle-of-nowhere Sweetwater, New Mexico. After a property dispute involving his sheep grazing on the land of struggling--and unwelcome--immigrant farmer Miguel Ramirez (Eduardo Noriega) escalates, Josiah brutally kills Ramirez and has his underling Daniel (country music star Jason Aldean) bury the body. Ramirez's pregnant, ex-prostitute wife Sarah (January Jones) awaits his return, miscarries, and is then abducted and raped by Josiah (who calls the vile act "purification"), who already has two wives and a daughter he intends to make his third (at one point, regarding his young daughter, he suggests the experienced Sarah "teach her how to fuck"), in addition to his fanatically-devoted flock, which seems to constitute the entire racist population of Sweetwater. Meanwhile, eccentric lawman Cornelius Jackson (Ed Harris) arrives in town and immediately declares himself sheriff. He ends up in Sweetwater while on the trail of two missing brothers (played by director/co-writer Logan Miller and his twin brother, co-writer Noah) who never turned up at their sister's ranch. They were killed by Josiah for trespassing on the outskirts of his property, where they built a camp after a series of unfortunate travel mishaps, like a busted wagon wheel and a dead horse. With Sweetwater being the place directly in the middle of where they came from and where they were headed, it doesn't take long for Jackson to zero in on Josiah.
SWEETWATER actually has enough space to accommodate two thoroughly demented performances: Isaacs is great in a fire-and-brimstone way as the homicidal Prophet Josiah, while Harris, who's never cut this loose onscreen before, enthusiastically hams it up as the not-quite-all-there Jackson. Introduced screaming into a canyon, Harris just gets crazier from there, dancing his way into Sweetwater as he beats the shit out of the useless sheriff, exhumes the corpses of the two brothers and leaves them in Josiah's dining room, and later recites Lord Byron as Josiah crucifies him upside-down. Jones underplays it as Sarah, which is fitting since the Millers basically turn her into a frontier Terminator once she escapes from Josiah's stronghold and goes on a vengeance-fueled killing spree throughout Sweetwater. Let's just say SWEETWATER is the kind of movie where a masturbating, pantsless Peeping Tom gets a gun shoved up his ass and the trigger pulled. It's the kind of movie where Harris' Jackson is attending a formal dinner at Josiah's and asks "You ever fuck a sheep?" before taking a knife and carving a map into the Prophet's cherished oak table. Mean, misanthropic, hilarious, and often in questionable taste, the tragically under-the-radar, hard-R SWEETWATER is a film that should be embraced with open arms by connoisseurs of Batshit Cinema. You know who you are. (R, 94 mins)
LAST LOVE (Germany/Belgium/US/France - 2013)
It's easy to imagine the meeting where the producers of LAST LOVE approached Michael Caine and told him something along the lines of "It's like VENUS with Peter O'Toole, but with you!" The film ultimately goes in a bit of a different direction, but the comparison is still appropriate. Caine is Matthew Morgan, a retired American philosophy professor living in Paris, still coping with the death of his wife Joan (Jane Alexander) three years earlier. He still sees her and talks to her, and more or less goes about his days detached and biding his time until it's his turn to go. Matthew befriends Pauline (Clemence Poesy), a young dance instructor he repeatedly sees on the bus. The two become close friends, with Matthew being a father figure for her. Matthew may or may not develop romantic feelings for her, but whatever he feels prompts him to (perhaps half-heartedly) attempt suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. Enter Matthew's estranged children, Miles (Justin Kirk) and Karen (Gillian Anderson), who come over from the States to convince him to move back home. He refuses to leave Paris, where he's stayed since Joan's cancer diagnosis, at which time she decided to live out her last days there. They're also suspicious of what's going on with "the French bimbo" who's entered their father's life. When the self-absorbed Karen heads home, Miles, whose own wife just left him, decides to stick around as Pauline attempts to heal the rift between father and son.
This is one of those films where there's inevitable Big Revelations and the expected airing of long-dormant grievances. Working from Francoise Dorner's novel La Douceur Assassine (translated: "Murderous Sweetness"), writer/director Sandra Nettelbeck (MOSTLY MARTHA)goes into areas that a mainstream American film wouldn't, chiefly that Matthew is kind of a prick to his kids. And not in an amusing curmudgeonly way, either. He tells Pauline that he never really wanted to have children but only did so to make Joan happy, and despite his expectations that he would, he never warmed up to the idea. Once Joan passed on, it seems both Matthew and his children realized they had nothing more holding them together. What Pauline provides for Matthew is that fatherly bond that he never felt with his own children. In that sense, it's almost a European art film take on GRAN TORINO if you consider the way Clint Eastwood feels a kinship with his Hmong neighbors that he never felt with his own family, in similar tatters after the matriarch's passing. LAST LOVE provides a nice showcase for 80-year-old Caine, though his attempt at an American accent is inconsistent, to put it mildly. He slips into his usual Michael Caine voice a lot, but his idea of sounding American is mainly to talk deeper and slower. You wouldn't even know he's supposed to be playing an American if it wasn't mentioned in every other scene. But, living legend that he is, he still maintains the screen presence. His scenes with Poesy are sensitively and believably conveyed by the actors. US distributor Image Entertainment didn't even try to do anything with this, dropping half of the title (it was released overseas as MR. MORGAN'S LAST LOVE) and giving it a one-screen US release a few weeks before its DVD/Blu-ray debut. The film and its star deserved a little more effort than that. By no means a great film, but it's a nice, low-key one that Caine fans will want to seek out. (Unrated, 116 mins)
