I am astounded at the number of people who put down “teen” movies such as this and THE WRAITH, including Mr. Maltin, while obviously not understanding the genre itself and how it works – they must have grown too old and too intelligent to remember what the world was like when hormones raged, leaving reason in the dust.

Films such as IRON EAGLE and THE WRAITH attempt to simplistically instill positive values in teen-age audiences. Courage, creativity, loyalty, banding together to right wrongs and conquer evil with good – these intentions are at the heart of the narratives of both films. Blaming these films for not being “adult” is like blaming FROM HERE TO ETERNITY because it’s not a musical. They are what they are and they achieve their successes by appealing to a teen-age world where they can be and/or become heroes, successes. Of course the plots are fantastic and simplistic – because in reality teens don’t run the world or get to fly jets into enemy countries to rescue their dads. However, by feeding values to this audience in a manner that they can understand and subliminate, they may just take root and turn them into adults with some of those same values.

Diatribe aside, I thought this was a fun movie. Jason Gedrick, the young lead looks very much like the young Michael Jackson and does quite well with a very demanding role. Louis Gossett, Jr. gives an excellent performance – truly award worthy if it had been in a film that had garnered more critical praise. Watching him deal with conflicting feelings in sorting out his character’s actions, I wanted to yell out, “Denzel, eat your heart out.”

The cinematography, sound, editing, score are all quality. A good solid little film and worth one’s attention at least once. Gossett alone is worth the price of a rental. Check it out, even if you’re not a teen!