American Ninja 5: O Pequeno Ninja

Readers of my user comments will see that I reviewed the first four "American Ninja" movies years ago, but I only got around to reviewing the last entry just now. Hope it was worth the wait. Speaking of waiting, it wasn't worth the wait for me to track down and watch a copy of this movie.

The action, the main attraction of a movie like this, is very lame. There is only one real martial arts battle in the first 30 minutes of the movie. When the action does start coming, there is nothing exciting or special about the martial arts sequences. The movie is also not very well made. There are signs that footage is missing from the movie - either it was lost or never filmed, leaving to some question marks such as how Bradley's character severs the chain on his handcuffs. But even if the missing footage was here, the movie would still suffer from a badly written screenplay - there's barely a plot here, and it crawls at a snail's pace, with plenty of scenes seemingly only there to pad out the running time.

I suppose Bradley gives one of his better performances, though he's still not a very compelling actor. And it's always good to see Pat Morita, though he only gets three short scenes. But even with that stuff, the movie will still have even dedicated martial arts movie fans squirming in their seats.

I've been seeing lots of movies on the bottom 100 list lately and they have been getting steadily worse, the last one, Th underground comedy movie was just horrible. American Ninja 5 though, is far too good for that list. Sure, the dialog is stupid, the plot is stupid, the action is lame, and he actors can't act but it's fun. You really have to see this as a comedy (a much funnier one than many of the actual comedies on the list) which is made abundantly clear by he use of light hearted music in all the action scenes. I would like to give this film a higher score than 3 out of 10 but I can't ignore the fact that it is a bad film, in pretty much every way. American Ninja 5 is in essence a "so bad it's good" movie but doesn't quite get there.

This is probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The plot isn't more ridiculous than many other b-action movies, what makes this movie worse than all others are the pitiful acting from actors whom never should have been allowed to enter a set. These actors actually make soap opera actors seem like academy award winners. As if this wasn't enough you have to see the worst "karate" scens ever shot. The only thing they ever hit is air. All this is captured on what seems to be a hand camera.

Whatever you do DON'T watch this movie... try doing something more fun and less painfull during these 1.5 hours, like ripping of your pubic hair with a pair of tweezers.

(1 / 10)

I havn't seen the other four films, but judging from the nature of this one, I assume the other four were something like it. The worst part of this horrible film are the ninja thugs that the hero beats up like it is an everyday hobby. In the first place, the "ninja" thugs do NOT behave like real ninjas. Come to think of it, neither does the hero. Ninjas are supposed to be ASSASSINS who work in the night and kill with STEALTH and SILENCE. The thugs here dress up in the most cheesy and plain costumes and come out screaming loud and waving their swords and nunchakus like they think they know how to use them, only to be clobbered by the hero within a second or two. This film is good if you are under 10 years old and like movies where none of the good guys die and all of the bad guys die. True Lies may have been like that too but it does it with STYLE. Another dumb aspect of American "Ninja" 5 is most of the lines are retarded. Example: After the boy Hiro manages to clobber a couple of ninja thugs(as if a twelve year old could beat up a "ninja"), and rides on top of a wheeled table which the hero uses as a battering ram through the thugs, one of them reports to his boss:"the boy was this big, but he had the strength of ten men" as if he was describing an encounter with a deadly alien. So in conclusion, for mindless hokey fun, this is a good movie. For good quality action flick, this is pure dumbness at its best.

I bought this movie for me and my daughter to watch and what can i say, this movie was funny, action packed, and full of really clever zingers which had me laughing non stop. American Ninja V is an instant classic that I had hoped would go down in history as one of the great action-comedies. The expertly choreographed fight scenes keep your heart pumping and your mind at all times completely at a loss for who is fighting who and why. This unique style is both ground breaking and a pleasure to watch. The dialogue is very witty and surprisingly full of rich subtext. For example, when the male and female leads are escaping from an army of ninjas, the female comically remarks, "Ladies first!" (Ba-Zing!). This seemingly one-dimensional and inane one liner actually reveals the film's deeper message of female empowerment and social equality. Another example of this emotionally layered narrative is the small Asian child's swift transformation into a fat white man during the stellar chase sequences. I recommend American Ninja V to everyone I meet. It is one of the classics that redefined the way I watch films.