American Ninja

Sam Firstenberg of "Revenge of the Ninja", Ninja III: The Domination", and "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo" fame returns to give us this classic Cannon action flick. It's all very fun and very '80s, Dudikoff is a bit wooden, but, both he and Steve James are still great here. Also, some great action pieces towards the end. I think all '80s Cannon flicks need to be put in the library of congress as a way to look back on a style of balls to the wall film making that no longer seems to exist.

Amercian Ninja is a gulity pleasure if anything. The film has some decent fight scenes and some good B movie acting. Mike Dudkoff and Steve James are some smooth pimps in the movie bringing it to the man as only they can. If you like 80's karate movies then check this out.

For those who know Michael Dudikoff, he most-likely became a household name thanks to this movie. Who knows where he would be today had Chuck Norris not passed on the film. (Probably busy as a child psychologist since that's what he originally wanted to be). This is a film I virtually grew up with as a kid, thanks to it being on cable seemingly every other day. Anyway, Dudikoff finally got his shot at headlining a movie with this cheapo chop socky flick about an Army G.I. in the Philippines going up against a secret Ninja army and an international weapons dealer. Dudikoff is at his most wooden in the this part, but as someone who's a fan and has see nearly all his movies, I can see the progression of him as an actor over the years, and he has certainly improved since this movie. Steven James co-stars in the first of three collaborations with Dudikoff, and the two work well together, but they're basically the best part of the movie. There's the usual B-movie acting, ranging from stiff to lame over-the-top performances, but pretty co-star Judie Aronson fares well. Of interest only to chop socky fans.

I think this should be required viewing for any male child 13 years or younger. I have no idea how many times I saw this movie growing up, but it is easily over 15 times. Maybe twice that. It has everything a boy who plays with action figures could want, NINJA's, G.I.Joe's (for god sakes his name was even Joe), lasers, flips, sai's, cat's claws, wrist lasers, machine guns, sword fights while in knee deep water (fights in water are always WAY cool), buff dudes with muscles, motercycles, a chick, characters with a disrespect for authority, a butterfly knife being flipped back and forth as Joe cooly leans against a truck, guys getting kicked in the nuts, did I mention flips? Anyway it goes on and on. All the cheesy effects make it all the more fun to view. I just watched the DVD after not having seen it for a few years and I just caught another good effect. When Joe and Patricia jump off the roof, there is an obviously inflated balloon on the roof that they land on. I remember my brothers and I putting sweat wrist bands on our hands as a child and pretending they were the cat's claws thingies that the black star ninja and Joe had. We had some awesome battles. I was probably a ninja for at least 3 Halloweens when I was a child as well. I was an "army guy" for another few Halloweens. I was the coolest. Anyway American Ninja rocks. By the way I don't know the name of the movie (I'm sure I could find it out here on imdb easy enough if I cared to look) but a few years back I was flipping throught the channels and I came across a movie where the Michael Dudikoff and Mark Hamill were fighting. Luke Skywalker fighting the American Ninja!??! I kids dream come true. So go see this movie. Or even better, show your young son, nephew, or whoever this movie.

A new army recruit proves to have Ninja skills which he then uses to fight hi-jackers and ninjas. Nobody seems to be impressed that the soldier saved the equipment and saved the colonel's daughter, just upset he got people killed. However this is because high officials in the army are in on the scam. Also the black-star ninja looks to do in our hero. American Ninja is one of those movies they just don't make anymore. The action sequences are well staged (Although edited poorly) and there are enough cheesy moments to make American Ninja just lovable. For example the part where the black star ninja pushes over a palm tree which then falls near Dudikoff's love interest. Also the climax has so much goofy action and ponderous zen philosophy (I dare anyone not to smile when Dudikoff says "Then he must die!") that the movie is even more fun now than it was in 1985.

* * * out of 4-(Good)