Guerreiro Americano 4

New installment in which the tough American Ninja encounters ample reasons and opportunity to use his deadly skills . Michael Dudikoff returns for the fourth "American Ninja" : ¨American Ninja: Annihilation¨ by Cedric Sundstrom with David Bradley, James Booth , Ken Gampu . This explains why star David Bradley plays Joe, a different character than the Sean Davidson character he played in American Ninja 3 : Blood Hunt . In American Ninja 4: The Annihilation(1990) there're lots of karate combats , fighting and plenty of suspense and thrills . CIA agent Sean Davidson (David Bradley) and his sidekick Carl (Dwayne Alexandre) are sent into the stronghold of heinous British ex-soldier Mulgrew (James Booth) to rescue some Delta Force commandoes who have been captured , mistreated and tortured . Then Sean , Carl and a beautiful Peace Corps worker called Sarah (Robin Stille) who uses her morgue as a hiding place , join forces to rescue them but they run into some problems . They attempt to free captured Delta Force soldiers , held for ransom in the fortress of a villainous colonel and his evil Arab dictator ally who plan to send a missile into New York . As the nasty rulers have imposed a dictatorship at a country and supported by bands of implacable ninjas . Sean Davidson and his pal , Brackston , a linguist, are assigned the task of infiltrating the fortress of the cruel former British soldier Mulgrew , featuring an army of training Ninjas who obey the sheik's every command . But then , things go wrong and vet Joe Armstrong (Michael Dudikoff) who is working as a teacher as well as enjoying a pacific life , is called and he reluctantly goes into action . The two-fisted American Ninja must face a deadly terrorist contender . Now his most deadly enemy ... is time. Evil with no cure. A warrior with no fear.

Lots of action , thrills , shoot-outs and non-sense fighting and plenty of silly intrigue . This time the 'The American Ninja' , Michael Dudikoff , teams up to David Bradley to do battle against a sadistic terrorist and his band of Ninjas and along the way showing their impressive karate skills . As Joe Armstrong lured out of retirement joins Sean Davison against an army of violent Ninjas and his ruthless chiefs : a nasty soldier and a a villain Arab who are planning a fiendish global terrorist attack , threatening the world peace with horrifying disasters ; as our brave protagonists must save the kidnapped people and to stop Mulgrew's plan to explode a nuclear device in New York City . Of course , the main amusement results to be the breathtaking fights between the valiant heroes against the super-Nijas dressed in black, hooded , a blade on the back and using Shinkaisen, a metallized star they throw . It's a gripping story of one man's revenge and a dangerous rescue , including graphic violent scenes . The film displays a Norris' style but Chuck does it much better . This violent art-martial film is the fourth entry about our heroes , the brave Joe Armstrong , Sean Davidson along with his proficient sidekick , and here the late Steve James who early died of pancreatic cancer is replaced , all of them undertake a difficult mission . And enjoyable secondaries as James Booth boasting his badness with hammy panache , Ken Gempu , Ron Smerczak and Robin Stille who sadly died and very early by committing suicide . At the beginning this movie was not originally intended to be part of the American Ninja series ; however , producers Ovidio G. Assonitis , Avi Lerner and Christopher Pearce changing of mind . Stars two expert fighters : David Bradley and David Bradley , as they'll wipe out a passel of violent Ninjas , as the relenting pair running afoul while facing off evil criminals . David Bradley who is beefy as ever plays a two-fisted karate man utilizing efficiently his deadly skills , as well as the always good-looking and attractive Michael Dudikoff . Entertaining , though pedestrian -at times- screenplay by actor/writer James Booth , based on characters created by Avi Kleinberger and Gideon Amir . Atmospheric musical score composed by synthesizer in similar style to previous entries and functional cinematography by Yossi Wein who would countinue to shot a lot of B-action films . The film was regularly directed by Cedric Sundstrom , he's a low-grade expert about art-martial and Ninjas sub-genre and in Delta Force rip-offs . ¨American Ninja¨ has various entries starred by Michael Dudikoff substituted by David Bradley and Steve James and mostly directed by Firstemberg and Cedric Sundstrom . Cedric worked in the theatre as an actor and stage manager. He got to work as an assistant director on international films made in South Africa. He has worked in England, America, Italy and lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. His brother, Neal Sundstrom, is also a director . Cedric has shot some action and thrillers films , such as : The Revenger , Treasure Hunters , The Shadowed Mind , The Mountain , The foster gang , Captive Rage and American Warrior III .

The American Ninja series is formed by the following ones : the first two "American Ninja" series entries produced in middling/low budget by Yoran Globus and Menahem Golan, Cannon Productions , ¨American Ninja I¨ (1985) by Sam Firstemberg with Michael Dudikoff , Steve James . ¨American Ninja¨2 (1987) by Sam Firstemberg with Dudikoff , Steve James , Larry Poindexter , Gary Conway , Jeff Celentano . ¨American Ninja 3 : Blood Hunt¨(1989) , here Michael Dudikoff turned down the lead role in this film for various reasons , among them being the fact that he didn't want to get burned out on martial-arts movies , being replaced by David Bradley , along with Steve James , but David Bradley's character was originally offered to Kurt McKinney, who turned it down for fear of being typecast as a martial-arts actor. And American Ninja 5 (2003) by Bob Bralvel David Bradley , Lee Reyes , Pat Morita , Anne Dupont , James Lew , Clement von Franckenstein , this film was not originally intended to be part of the American Ninja series . As Cannon Pictures made it under the title American Dragons but the title was changed to American Ninja V before release.

After the abysmal American Ninja 3, it seemed all hope was lost for fans of low-budget martial arts movies starring white guys. But like a phoenix rising from the ashes, this film would see the return of the one and ONLY American Ninja: Michael Dudikoff. Unfortunately, he doesn't return until about halfway through it. Still, it's Dudikoff's last hurrah as Joe Armstrong so it's worth seeing for that alone. Steve James is absent, which is unfortunate. The movie doesn't have the same feel as the first two. But that was generally true of most Cannon films of the time. The heyday of Golan/Globus was gone and Cannon by 1990 was just another cheap production company. Is this movie worth checking out for anybody who isn't an American Ninja or Dudikoff completist? Probably not.

Michael Dudikoff and his blank stare return to the "American Ninja" franchise, and he's the film's selling point, though even with him this fourth installment of the series that really should have stopped after the first two is hard to sit through.

We do desperately need Dudikoff's Joe though, because our other ninja is Sean, played by David Bradley, who looks too weird and wears too much eye makeup for me to ever fully get behind. Plus he's not a very effective ninja. He spends what feels like half of the film's running time chained to a post in someone's basement. Jackson, who served as Joe's sidekick in the first two movies and then Sean's in the third, would never have settled for that. He would have ripped the post out of the ground, and then ripped off his own sleeves before pulling two giant machetes out of his underwear and kicking some ninja ass.

Speaking of Jackson, this is the first film in the franchise that doesn't have Steve James in it, and when he's absent, you realize how much he made the series in the first place.

I did enjoy the Mad Max band of ruffians who appear mid-way through this movie living in some kind of dystopian society. I'm not really sure where they are supposed to be or why they're all living like characters out of "Ready Player One," but I could roll with it.

It's not like the "American Ninja" movies were ever movie masterpieces to begin with, but the third and fourth installments make you realize how relatively good the first two are.

Grade: C-

In part 4, the two American Ninjas, Joe Armstrong and Sean Davidson, team up to do battle against a terrorist and his band of Ninjas. It is always in people's nature to put down great things and to nitpick or sometimes just be plain mean. No matter what anyone says, this is utterly fantastic, an eye-popping cinematic treat. From an artistic standpoint, there were some plot elements and character developments I didn't think were totally needed. They do however drive the story, which seemed to be their purpose, so I can accept them. I am not saying the film is a classic, but I love it. My rating ends up being 7 out of 10.

Michael Dudikoff returns as Joe Armstrong, the original American Ninja (Who doesn't even show up until half way) who is forced into single handedly rescuing a delta force team as well as the other American Ninja(David Bradley) after the ninjas provide too much even for him. American Ninja 4 walks the fine line between guilty pleasure and just plain bad. There are moments of sheer stupidity that you just can't help but love the antics. For example the movie asks us to believe that an Arab terrorist would have ninjas guarding him. Or that a gang of Mad Maxish rebels couldn't overthrow the Arab terrorist and his minions until the American Ninja (The one played by Dudikoff) arrived plus the bad guy's army actually takes the time to try and arrest what looks to be a thousand rebel soldiers armed with machine guns and axes. The most ridiculous moment arises when Dudikoff catches an arrow in his mouth which he then uses to stab a ninja in the neck with. (Take that James Bond!) American Ninja 4 does have slightly more life in it's fight sequences than American Ninja 3 but really American Ninja 4 is a sub-par effort in all respects as the action sequences while competent are filmed with lack of inspiration and imagination. Still the movie has just way too many unintentionally amusing moments which almost (but not quite) save the day. American Ninja 4 also becomes a laugh riot due to some of the dialog handled with astonishing straight faced seriousness. For example the Arab terrorist and his sidekick James Booth are excited about the nuke that fits in a briefcase, to which the Arab actually activates it and lets it tick down to 1 second which then has the biggest howl of the movie. "It fills me with ecstasy to know that I was one minute from meeting Allah!" However he never elaborates if he means the drug or happiness in general. When Dudikoff finally blitzes the Arab's stranglehold, the Arab runs to the helicopter which leads to another howler of dialog. "Where we headed?" "MECCA!" It was classic moments like this made me enjoy the cheese of this bad ninja movie. Also of note is that Dudikoff and Booth (The best thespians in the movie) give performances of such contempt that is also vaguely amusing. The disinterested performances are still better than any other performance in the film. My wife who is a good sport, sat through this with me and said the funniest remark. "How lame of a ninja do you have to be to wear a bright yellow ninja suit."

*1/2 out of 4-(Poor)