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Mark Dacascos, Theresa Randle, Rutger Hauer

Directed by Bryan Clyde

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2006


 The Hunt For Eagle One is a war movie like the ones I liked as a teenager. The heroes are clearly identified as Stallone was in Rambo and Chuck Norris in Missing in Action. Yet, the storyline is somewhat predictable. Hollywood usually lacks inspiration when it comes to war movie plots, except when they are based on actual history, as in Black Hawk Down or Full Metal Jacket for example. Well, The Hunt For Eagle One would be like combining the technical accuracy of Black Hawk Down, with a Missing in Action type of storyline.

For technical accuracy, The Hunt For Eagle One seems to hit the mark for a movie that doesn’t have the budget of a big-star blockbuster. If you can get over the fact that the actress playing Captain Jennings (Theresa Randle) goes on mission with perfectly applied makeup and that the Stinger missiles in the movie are ridiculously disguised RPG Launchers, you’ll find that the rest of the technical details are dead-on. It’s surprising. The Marine Recon team wears the new MARPAT uniforms currently used by the Marines, and the weapons they use are authentic. They have the right equipment for the job. The fact that the Americans work hand in hand with local governments (here The Philippines) to catch terrorists is typical of such Special Operations in real life. As you’ll see in the next paragraph, this accuracy helps to immerse you in the storyline.

Now for the big question; Is The Hunt For Eagle One any good? Yes it is. I was expecting a very predictable story because the DVD case tells you what will happen and to some extent, it is what I had imagined, but somehow I got caught up in the action and I felt part of the effort Lt. Daniels (Mark Dacascos) makes to reach his goal to rescue Capt. Jennings. General Lewis looks like the typical tough movie General, yet you see how he deals with the types of decisions he makes for the good of his team and his mission. Theresa Randle as Capt Jennings shows us that women in the Army can be as tough as men and worry just as much about the survival of their team, again an idea pioneered by the role Meg Ryan played in Courage Under Fire, but Randle gives a nice spin to it. All of these things make you forget that you know what is going to happen next in The Hunt For Eagle One.

In the end, if you can forgive the ideas borrowed left and right from other movie plots and you are looking for an entertaining action-packed war movie, The Hunt For Eagle One is for you. On the other hand, if you’re hoping to see anything new here, you’ll be disappointed.