Disc Reviews
AWOL & Black Eagle Blu-ray Review
For this review you get – true to Van Damme form – Twice the Van-Damme/ Twice the Van Damage.
So we’ll deal with these in the order they were made. First up is actually a bit of a cheat. Black Eagle – which is more of a Sho Kosugi spy movie that happens to feature Van Damme in a sub-villain supporting role. Black Eagle was one of those films that was released on VHS when Van Damme hit it back and suddenly his name was all over the box art – misleading buyers into thinking it was a “true” Van Damme movie which it clearly isn’t. Nothing much has changed here it seems with this Blu-ray release. But most Van Damme fans are wise to this and will seek this weak thriller for completion perhaps. The film itself isn’t very memorable, or even any good sadly.
The good news is that the other film is AWOL (AKA Lionheart) which sees Van Damme doing what he did so well earlier is his career as she started to make a name for himself. Kicking the crap out of various opponents.
Leon (Van Damme) legs it from the legionnaires to go to the aid of his brother’s family (after said brother is brutally murdered). But in order to make his way there he has to work ship engines and eventually ends up on the streets having to fight for money, all the while eluding capture from a couple of his comrades in arms sent to fetch him.
He works up quite the reputation in the illegal underground fist fighting world and soon heads towards some big money – but he has some tough competition to beat.
And it is the various competition that he faces along the way that makes the film so entertaining.
AWOL is one of the last films of the initial Van Damme martial arts combat era. It sits right alongside the likes of Bloodsport and Kickboxer, and while AWOL perhaps isn’t as strong as those films – it is definitely playing in the same ball park as those movies with no end of slow motion moves as he beats all manner of bells out of his opponents in various locations.
As like any Van Damme release – this one doesn’t feature much in the way of extras. One day hopefully he will do some extensive interviews – or even commentaries for his back catalogue. There is still a fan base there for it.
Steven Hurst