Black Thunder

BLACK THUNDER isn't really a good movie, but it's definitely fun and is one of my favorite Dudikoff movies. Several of his movies have had interesting concepts, this one included: a prototype fighter jet with a stealth mode that hides it not just from radar, but from the human eye as well, rendering the plane completely invisible. When karate expert Richard Norton steals it, Michael Dudikoff is recruited to steal it back. Flying into enemy territory with an SR-71 and comedic sidekick Gary Hudson, Dudikoff sets out to recover the stolen aircraft, finding help from a local villager, BAYWATCH beauty Nancy Valen. (Sadly, that's a body double for Valen during the nude scene.) One of my favorite scenes is towards the end, when Dudikoff takes on a whole airfield full of enemy soldiers with a machine gun and a couple grenades. The climactic dogfight between Dudikoff and Norton has some cheapo effects (especially of that missile flying around), but it's all tongue-in-cheek fluff that can turn a rainy Saturday afternoon into something fun.

Not too bad for a typical Dudikoff film. Nancy Valen is always a treat but has a terrible "Libyan" accent. Artistic license is taken frequently with basic geography and flight times but if you can ignore that it's a harmless way to waste an hour and a half. Watch for the same guy dodging the same Jeep twice and two soldiers getting blown up twice (actually just recycled footage).

Of course I had never heard about the 1998 movie "Black Thunder", as I happened to stumble upon it by random chance here in 2024. And seeing that it was starring Michael Dudikoff, of course I opted to check out what the original "American Ninja" had to offer.

Truth be told, though, I wasn't exactly harboring the biggest of expectations to the movie. But still, it might be possible that I had missed out on a stellar movie experience from writer William C. Martell and director Rick Jacobson.

The storyline in the movie was fair, and it was certainly a watchable movie. Writer William C. Martell put together a script that was okay. It was, sort of, an archetypical late 1990s action movie, with a single man against insurmountable odds and still coming out victorious.

The acting performances in the movie were fair. Nothing outstanding or thrilling, but then again I wasn't really expecting this to be a Shakespearian experience. Aside from Michael Dudikoff, I was only familiar with Richard Norton, Michael Cavanaugh and Nancy Valen.

Visually, then the movie was actually adequate.

Watchable for what it was, but I doubt that I will ever return to watch "Black Thunder" a second time.

My rating of director Rick Jacobson's 1998 movie "Black Thunder" lands on a five out of ten stars.

This movie is a B-action. It´s just made for showing how bad Dudikoff can play sometimes. But still I like action so I gave it a 4/10. It´s almost the same in quality as Aces Iron Eagle 3.

Lots of action in this Michael Dudikoff thriller. Plot wasn't too bad and the acting wasn't that bad either. Lots of recycled footage but it was still a pretty good movie. 7/10 stars, I'd recommend this movie to everyone.