Fairaher
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Roy Hart
If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin
The movie really just wants to entertain people.
Mr-Fusion
This being a Cannon production, I think my problem is I was expecting something like "Revenge of the Ninja". And that's just not being fair. What it does have is Steve James, ably stealing all of his scenes and, well the whole movie to be honest.There's entertainment here, you just have to work for it. The movie doesn't really get going until the first good fight scene 45 minutes in. And the real ninja fun is kicked to the tail end. It's probably just me, I don't think I was prepared for the Tao of Dudikoff; the scowl, the saunter, it's a heady stew of low-rent charisma.6/10
Paul Magne Haakonsen
The first action scene alone is worth watching this 1985 movie over, as unarmed American soldiers take down Filipino mercenaries armed with Automatic weapons. It stars with a blast, literally, and just keeps getting better. I mean, ninjas in the Philippines, does it get any better than that?This movie has it all; stereotypical villain, martial arts, goons unable to-hit anything more than an inch away, lots of action and of course ninjas! Granted this is not Shakespearian cinema, but it is still entertaining for the campy thing it is. And it was also a trip down memory lane to my childhood."American Ninja" is predictable to the core, sure. But it still has an entertaining enough storyline. The background story of Joe doesn't make much sense. But all this can be looked past because this is, after all, a ninja movie! You know that when someone snatches your arrow out of its trajectory and breaks it that you have found your arch nemesis.As for the action and martial arts, taking into consideration that it is from 1985, then it was adequate and did what it was supposed to. However, if you haven't seen the 1980's ninja movies, and only watch todays martial arts movies, I believe you will not be impressed with "American Ninja".In all its cheesy, campy self "American Ninja" is an entertaining enough movie if you want to kill some time with a no-brainer movie.
Comeuppance Reviews
Now this is what we're talking about! Much imitated but never duplicated. A true classic of the action genre.Pvt. Joe Armstrong (Dudikoff) is a troubled loner sent to an American army base in the Philippines. He doesn't say much, and he really doesn't want to play hackysack with his fellow officers. On a routine truck convoy, baddies kill some of Armstrong's fellow officers, and Armstrong escapes with Col. Hickock's spoiled daughter Patricia (Aronson). While Patricia falls for Joe, the remaining officers on the base blame him for the tragedy. At first, they disparagingly call him "karate boy", but he eventually wins their respect and the friendship of Cpl. Curtis Jackson (James) due to his excellent fighting skills. He has been training since he was a boy, but has amnesia and doesn't remember a lot of his past.As it turns out, an evil gun runner, Ortega (Don Stewart) is in cahoots with some of the army brass (including the Fred "time to make the donuts" guy lookalike John LaMotta as Sgt. Rinaldo), and there is only one obstacle to his newest million-dollar deal: Armstrong! Fortunately for Ortega, he has a large Ninja training camp on his vast estate. So he sends his army of Ninjas after Armstrong, Jackson and Patricia. When Patricia is kidnapped, Joe goes into full ninja mode and it becomes ninja vs. ninja in a fight to the finish. Will they be victorious over the nefarious ninja army? It's no wonder Cannon and director Firstenberg put Dudikoff and James back together shortly after this in Avenging Force. (1986) They work very well together, especially here, with the gregarious, charismatic Jackson and the mysterious, belligerent Joe. The climax puts the Rambo-like machine-gun shooting of James with the smooth Ninja-ing of Dudikoff with his never-ending supply of clever moves. It makes for an excellent combination that can't be beat.That's what's great about American Ninja - it's high-quality action fun that seems to put pleasing the audience as its number one priority. Why can't more movies, especially today, do this one simple thing? Please the crowd! What's so wrong with that? Well, we're proud to announce American Ninja simply does just that. It's not uncommon when you watch it with people to hear yells of "Yeah! Awesome!" and the like. You've heard the title "American Ninja" so many times, for such a long time, you probably don't realize how good it is. You just have to watch it to see why it's withstood the test of time so well.Comeuppance Reviews fan-favorite Richard Norton appears in a short, small role - but in the credits he is only recognized for stunts. But if you watch carefully, you can spot him as a soldier in the film.For Fun with a capital F - go with this great classic that is deserving of its fame and status.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
Jonathon Dabell
American Ninja is a tired martial arts potboiler from the Golan-Globus production team (a pair of Israeli profiteers who unleashed various terrible movies on the world during the 1980s). This one tries to make an action hero of the handsome but thoroughly talentless Michael Dudikoff who, prior to this film, was best remembered for playing a dumb-ass named Ryko in the comedy Bachelor Party. Virtually nothing about American Ninja works, from its appalling score to the utterly routine action sequences. The performances are generally terrible, there's nothing original or interesting in the story department, and even the requisite martial arts moves are far from dazzling. In fact, the only thing that saves this film from the dreaded 1-out-of-10 rating is Steve James's amusing turn as the hero's sidekick. It's not an example of great screen acting by a long shot, but James does manage to embrace the absurd tone of the film with his tongue-in-cheek performance.At an American army base in the Far East there have been a number of ambushes resulting in the loss of military hardware. During a transportation of equipment, more American soldiers are attacked by a number of deadly assassins wearing ninja costumes. The ninjas try to kidnap the Colonel's daughter Patricia (Judie Aronson), who is tagging along, but an American private called Joe Armstrong (Michael Dudikoff) steps in to save her. Joe is a loner and none of the other soldiers know much about him – in fact, he doesn't know much about himself, as he has suffered from amnesia since he was quite young. He does know that he possesses incredible martial arts skills, and occasionally has flashbacks during which he recalls being trained as a boy by a mysterious Japanese mentor. Joe discovers that the army supplies are being stolen by a corrupt businessman, Victor Ortega (Don Stewart), who includes arms dealing among his list of misdemeanours. Ortega has a private army of ninjas guarding his lair and Joe has to take them on in order to put a stop to the bad guy's nefarious plans.The movie had a relatively cheap budget of $1,000,000 and grossed about ten times that amount. It is hardly surprising that Messrs. Golan and Globus were able to carry on churning out this kind of rubbish if 80s audiences were content to keep lining their pockets in such a manner. Everything about American Ninja shows signs of shoddiness. Dudikoff seems to have difficulty delivering the most straightforward of lines, and his expression barely changes during the course of the movie. The action scenes are simply ludicrous, with staggeringly inept bad guys – on this evidence even Dolly Parton could whoop their asses in a fight. The film even attempts to incorporate a few plot twists in the latter stages – with certain "good" characters turning out to be allied with the bad guys – but these twists are both heavy-handed and unsurprising. On the whole, American Ninja is thoroughly low-grade trash with nothing to recommend it.
