HERE’S something not to be thankful for this holiday weekend: “Midnight Eagle,” an alleged thriller from Japan.
A top-secret American bomber known as the “Midnight Eagle” crashes atop a snowbound Japanese mountain. The payload is a nuclear warhead that would cause a national – no, make that international – calamity if it were to explode.
An elite squad of Japanese troops and agents from a third country (North Korea?) head for the site. So, too, do two journalists looking for their “big scoop.” Thus begins this confused message pic, directed by Izuru Narushima from a popular novel. The story is contrived, confused and filled with pointless subplots (including the dysfunctional family of one of the journalists, for instance).
To make matters worse, Narushima throws in weepy melodrama and more talk than action.
There are many new Japanese movies that deserve a stateside release. Why this hapless mess beat them out is a question that deserves an answer. (I won’t hold my breath waiting.)
In Japanese, with English subtitles. Running time: 131 minutes. Not rated (violence). At the Imaginasian, 59th Street between Second and Third avenues.