The Hunt for Eagle One

Back in the 1960s, the likes of director Eddie Romero churned out endless WW2 films in the Philippines, all of them sub-par and displaying a distinct lack of talent. In the 1980s, cheap American studios and directors like Cirio H. Santiago reignited the genre with some more enjoyable, RAMBO-inspired blow-em-up pieces of spectacle. All has been quiet for a couple of decades, but now THE HUNT FOR EAGLE ONE seeks to bring this defunct Filipino war sub-genre back to life.

Unfortunately the best part of this production is the opening credits, in which we learn that Roger Corman served as the producer and good old Cirio H. Santiago was co-producer. Promise indeed! Sadly, THE HUNT FOR EAGLE ONE turns out to be a throwback to the '60s-style war films rather than the '80s-style, and a right chore it is to sit through too.

The film is badly written and horribly directed, with all of that choppy editing and bad, distorted direction that was a scourge of the 2000s (it helped spoil many a Steven Seagal-starring DTV flick, for example). Characterisation is nil and the endless battle sequences are low budget and largely uninteresting, failing to draw viewers into the scenario or action. There are precisely three familiar faces on show here: a tired Rutger Hauer, delivering a minor cameo; a bored Mark Dacascos, in a role which could have fitted anyone; and Theresa Randle (BAD BOYS), who once had a career of sorts in the 1990s, not that you'd know given her performance here. Avoid this one like the plague.

this was probably one of the worst war movies i have seen in a really long time. from the very beginning it had the feeling of wanting to be a "saving private ryan" type film, but in my opinion, never made it past a re-enactment of one of those commando war hero computer games. very bad acting and continuity mistakes all throughout the film made it very clear that they weren't trying very hard to produce a quality film. it was difficult watching these guys recite their lines instead of actually acting. i was tempted to just turn it off, unfortunately i did finish it and will never get those 90 minutes of my life back! so, do yourself a favor and go rent saving private ryan, tears of the sun, or pretty much any other war movie in place of this one. you can thank me later.

A dull plot, one dimensional characters and no money for special effects. Worst shooting ever! Magazines are emptied without hitting anyone at 20m distance and only the marines have hand grenades. Killing the bad guy is celebrated in a repeated slow motion but when he finally falls over miraculously none of the rifles caused any exit wounds. Of course what once has been just rebels now has ties to AKD (supposedly Al Qaida) and manufactures biological WMD's who just happen to be sitting right next to prison cell, very convenient. Maybe they should have called the movie "Counter Strike" like the game, so one would know what to expect.

This Roger Cormon produced action/war flick is reasonably well made but ultimately as shallow as most of it's rival DTV action films. The film shot on a clearly microscopic budget manages to deliver some competent action scenes however the lead Mark Dacascos has been used to far better effect in other movies.

Following in the vein of Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down this film has the requisite battle sequences, which are shot well enough to mask the low budget, however unlike Scott's film and Spielberg's film, this lacks the character and depth of those movies. The cast is not too bad and everyone does reasonably well with their simplistic roles, but we never really care about any individual characters, particularly Dacascos in the lead. Dacascos is essentially playing a his character in solider mode all the time, he's in battle mode, showing little emotion or personality. Dacascos convinces as a solider but is given little humanity to convey. Also Rutger Hauer appears to chew scenery in a quick and wasteful cameo. Unfortunately Theresa Randle is quite wooden in perhaps the most fleshed out role.

Overall there are many films better than this but similarly this isn't too bad. **

Well they must have spent the budget they had set aside for the technical adviser on all the pyro and squibs they blew off. A good war movie is FAR more than authentic uniforms, locations, equipment. Doesn't matter how good your replica looks if the acting, continuity, and technicalities are crap! The pilot, after the crash doesn't even attempt to check the many other troops injured in the crash, she goes right to the conscious one with a hurt leg - no blood to be seen... this is the crappiest triage I have ever seen - not at all real to what a true Marine would do in that situation. She also remains way too calm during the crash AND after the crash - this scene coupled with the lame beach attack scene alerted me that turning the movie off would be the best thing to do.

This movie is a waste of time, a waste of a Hollywood budget, and a shame to army movies.