The Hunt for Eagle One: Crash Point

Not bad if you just want to see straight action. The gun battles and fighting sequences were great and also extensive. The explosions looked surprisingly good as well (and there are quite a few of them). The flight sequences seemed low budget, but this is a straight to DVD movie after all. I am a Mark Dacascos fan (ever since Brotherhood of the Wolf) and was glad that he was in a leading role and got to do some fighting. Even though he was playing a marine who did mostly physical stuff he managed to make the character shine through. I wish that Theresa Randle (the other star of the film) made more appearances. Overall, it had its cheesy moments but they were probably outweighed by raw and gritty moments of excitement.

THE HUNT FOR EAGLE ONE: CRASH POINT is the follow up to the original HUNT FOR EAGLE ONE film. These are war movies starring B-movie action hero Mark Dacascos and shot in the Philippines by long-time exploitation producers Roger Corman and Cirio H. Santiago. The first film was a drivelling mess of badly-directed nonsense, but to my surprise this sequel isn't too bad.

Let's get this straight, however: by mainstream standards, this is poor. The storyline is hackneyed and predictable and the direction is hardly adequate. In addition, the acting is wooden across the board, including that of Theresa Randle (who returns from the first outing) and newcomer Jeff Fahey, who should know better.

Even so, this is mildly entertaining to a degree. There's a greater emphasis on close quarter combat than in the first film, including a couple of decent fights between Dacascos and various villains. The violence has also been amped up, making this more of an all-round guy's flick. Hardly what I could call good, solid entertainment but it passes the time if you're in the mood.

I've said it before in other reviews: action heroes shouldn't do these military team movies. Playing one part of a regulated squad – even the leader – is bound to result in a lot less screen time and focus on the star of the movie, and Mark Dacascos' role in CRASH POINT is no exception. This is an impersonal, unoriginal little adventure with very mild highlights, populated by characters I had a hard time caring about. In a word, it's overlookable.

The story: When the leader of a murderous rebel alliance (Dick Israel) steals a new technology with which to hijack planes by remote control, a strike force led by Captain Matt Daniels (Dacascos) is dispatched to retrieve it.

I haven't watched the original THE HUNT FOR EAGLE ONE, but if any of the returning characters were established there, they don't carry over much personality. Dacascos' immediate costar is Theresa Randle, and she has barely more luck than Mark and his three teammates at establishing herself. Jeff Fahey's here in an action-free role to supply on-off narration, and Joe Mari Avellana is utterly wasted in his do-nothing part. In its final quarter, the film manages to create at least some tension, but it's too little come too late, after I've sat through so many drawn-out shootouts that only served to disengage me.

Said final quarter of the film also includes a decent fight between Mark and supporting villain Boy Roque, wherein Roque attacks with a knife and Mark counters with a computer keyboard. Beyond this, there's nothing to get excited about, though plenty of directorial weirdness to raise an eyebrow at. The movie is practically on life support through the grace of lifted footage. Some of it's stock footage, and the rest of it's clearly shots from bigger and better movies. Additionally, for some reason, almost all of the original footage has been edited to include a noticeable color contrast – giving the movie the same look that conventional flicks reserve only for flashback scenes. How odd.

Luckily, this franchise seems to have run its course long before I even got to it, and I look forward to not watching any additional sequels. I don't recommend anyone else sees this one, either, unless you're completely out of other Dacascos material.

"The Hunt For Eagle One: Crash Point" is a step up from the first one.

The plot this time around is about Al-qaeda. They have a nuclear device and only Lt. Daniels and Jennings (Dacascos and Randle) can stop them. Jeff Fahey plays their Commander.

"Crash Point" has ten times more action. Dacascos gets to use his martial arts skill, even when his character can just shoot people. Randle handles the clunky dialogue well. The climactic chase with a helicopter and a bike, while very silly, works on a B-movie level. Fahey just yells a lot, but does a good job at that.

Overall, "Crash Point" is better than the original, and I wouldn't be surprised if they made a third one. Maybe they can call it "The Hunt For Eagle One: Gitmo Strikes Back".

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A huge disappointment for any Mark Dacascos fan. Very little martial arts, just a lot of gun play and that is not why I watch Mark. We want to see shades of "The Base" and "Drive". This was a let down. That said, Mark can act and he does well given the script and the actors he has to work with. The action is pretty good if you like gun fights. The story is fun too, actually kind of clever in a impossible sort of way.

The effects range from B right down to Z. But as I said the action is a solid B, its just not the sort of action I expect from Mark. I hope he starts doing marshal art based action movies again soon. He has too much talent to waste on this sort of project.