The Order of the Black Eagle

The second of unfortunately only two movies (the first being Unmasking the Idol) with ninja super-agent Duncan Jax and his faithful sidekick, a fighting baboon, is surprising in comparison with its predecessor due to the fact that it takes a different (sub)genre path, though it retains the overarching exaggeration while keeping a straight face and contains many of the elements known from the first film. This actually comes down to the practice of E.O. Studios, where all of the previously built sets and purchased props were always recycled in completely different productions. In The Order of the Black Eagle, viewers see not only the same cars used by different actors, but also, for example, a futuristic set that in this film constitutes the bowels of the villain’s laboratory, whereas in Unmasking the Idol it served as Jax’s base and, before that, originally constituted the bowels of a spaceship. Based on the approach described above, Duncan Jax returns to action, but he no longer has an army of ninjas with him. After all, he has traded martial arts for firearms and sophisticated disguises in the face of which Ethan Hunt pales by comparison. His variations of Bond’s M and Q also return, as does the baboon, but instead of engaging in martial arts, this time the ape spends most of the film on the sidelines before making a spectacular return in the bombastic climax. The more complicated yet consciously cheaply absurd and trashily overwrought screenplay sends the hero into action against neo-Nazis who are planning to conquer the world using a giant laser, while also intending to awaken the cryogenically slumbering Adolf, and who are also headed by Baron Ernst von Tepisch. When Jax’s original plan fails, he runs into an old acquaintance while escaping the bad guys’ base. Following a western diversion, the two of them attack and take over the base with the help of a dirty half-dozen, or rather walking genre clichés. And this is all as wonderfully and magnificently stupid, spectacularly flashy and childishly goofy as the description indicates, while also exhibiting competent craftsmanship. Each of the supporting characters has a different, distinctive fighting style, which they demonstrate many times. And that includes the baboon, which is equipped with his own mini-tank. The pyrotechnics department went especially nuts and, in conjunction with the stunt team, came up with a number of spectacularly physical attractions for viewers. A film in which a baboon makes fart noises at everything with its mouth and flips the bird and in which the credits include the entry “Adolf Hitler as himself” cannot be bad. And not only is it not bad, but it’s damn entertaining. I have to say again that it’s a huge shame that the duology of Duncan Jax movies regrettably remain so little known. They belong in the pantheon of 1980s action trash flicks and, with their good humour, levity and straightforwardness, overshadow many of the other more disproportionately exalted titles of the period. (16/07/2023) (moins) (plus)