American Ninja

If you are watching this movie expecting anything more then action then you're a bit touched in the head. Action indeed, but a special form of action! IT'S 80'S ACTION! All that's missing from this show is "I love it when a plan comes together", as offered by the immortal Hannibal Smith from "The A-Team" as played by the venerable George Peppard.

Make no mistakes. This movie is le grande fromage, but it is fun. Even the super evil ninja with the cute little star tattooed below his right eye is downright adorable. Who doesn't like cute ninja's? Even those with lasers? Highly recommended (if you have enough booze and detach yourself from any form of realism). Fun.

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.

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.

When asked at school "What do you want to be when you grow up?" most kids answer fireman or astronaut. To hell with that, I wanted to be the American Ninja. As far back as I can remember I wanted to be the American Ninja. So, I finally picked it up on DVD the other day and let me say this is one of the corniest action movies out there, but I still love it. It's one of my fondest childhood dreams. As unrealistic as it may seem, Michael Dudikoff stills kicks ass, as does the late, great Steve James. Dudikoff single handedly takes out an entire private army of ninjas. It's better than Commando. It's definitely not for the serious action audience. But here's the real kicker, the villain who is hijacking military equipment to sell to the highest bidder is only making 4 million dollars. That's really not that much money for all of the trouble he's going through. Did he only go to one bidder or what? Oh well, it's all about fun, right? My friend came up with the suggestion that we should get all of the eighties martial arts stars and have a huge battle royal. To which I replied: "Well, Dudikoff and Steve James would team up with Ralph Macchio to win the thing." Check out jedibolger's comments for a hearty laugh.

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.