Die Adlerkralle

The attempts at comedy, wooden acting, fake from beginning to end. Who writes this crap? Worse who invests real money and time into this tripe? The two leads cannot act to save their lives much less the attempt at a movie. I am only glad that it was a dollar rental and not a pricey ticket stub I had in my hand. Literally one of the three worst movies I have ever seen.

Pretty passable overall, some of the bad acting is funny and some of your standard schlocky B-movie stuff is too. However the fighting is for the most part a bit dull and feels slow, and is shot so it's obvious that stuff doesn't connect. It' also felt like certain parts had been cut out?

This is the third movie collaboration of Billy Blanks and Jalal Merhi that I have watched, and it is the weakest of the three. The other two ("TC 2000", "Expect No Mercy") had futuristic angles that gave them at least a hint of creativity; on the other hand, "Talons Of The Eagle" is about as generic as a low-budget action flick can get. And it doesn't deliver on its promise of a martial arts tournament, either: there are three matches and then it's all forgotten. The fight scenes are also not as good as they were in the aforementioned two flicks: the editing is sometimes poor, and the lack of contact in some hits too obvious. Also, having the 60+ years old James Hong going against Jalal Merhi at the end does not really work. And I wonder why Kelly Gallant, who is a quite proficient martial artist, didn't get the starring female role instead of Priscilla Barnes. All in all, "Talons Of The Eagle" is worth a look for fans of the genre, but only if they've seen "TC 2000" and "Expect No Mercy" first. ** out of 4.

My review was written in November 1992 after watching the film on MCA video cassette.

No-frills martial arts action is displayed in "Talons of the Eagle", an acceptable B title that opened regionally on November 6 and is a Yule video item.

With Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme having successfully moved on to mainstream features, the martial arts vacuum is being filled by a number of interesting types notably Don (The Dragon) Wilson and Cynthia Rothrock.

This feature teams muscular thesp Billy Blanks (usually a villain) with ponytailed producer/star Jalal Merhi. Their moves are fine but acting-wise they both need immediate and intensive sessions with Stella Adler.

Blanks plays a Drug Enforcement Agency operative sent from New York to Toronto to team with local agent Merhi on an undercover mission targeting local drug kingpin James Hong. They get to see the seamier side of Sin City, including a higher sexploitation quotient than usual for the genre.

With undercover agent Priscilla Barnes cast as Hong's girlfriend, the trio get the goods on him, but typical of genre plotting, it's mainly kicking, shooting and explosions that resolve matters.

Pic's main defect is deficient fight choreography, with missed kicks and pulled punches far more obvious than usual. Both leads are otherwise convincing in their roles and Barnes is appealing as a femme fatale.

Hong steals the show with his smooth villainy and a showy scene in which he uses a fan as a weapon. Oversized Matthias Hues is a worthy opponent in the climactic fights.

If anyone say that this is a B-movie, then I suppose they are right about that. If anyone say that this is low-budget, I guess they are right about that too. But these minor details don't mean that this movie isn't good. Personally, I think this is pure entertainment from beginning to end. Good fight scenes, especially from Blanks. It was also interesting to see that Matthias Hues were in it as a bad guy. As always, he does that job in an excellent way. And if you like James Hong, he's here too. All in all a good fighting movie with excellent teamwork between Billy Blanks and Jalal Merhi. The ending proves just that.