Talons of the Eagle

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.