A Dança das Sombras

This one makes more sense than most Ninja movies, but that's not saying much is it? A fun one if you like the bad movies.

Actually, the Australian Teenage Movie has become one of my favorite bad movie genres. OK, we got kids involved in dangerous secret stuff at night, but also involved with "good" activities at school. Of course there's a caring female teacher who reaches out to help a troubled young man (and the ensuing titillation). And we must also have the bad mentor, showing the kids the wrong way.

Best of all, Nicole Kidman running around in a dark factory in a Ninja suit! Also hysterical is the way they keep referring to the frumpy schoolteacher as a real looker! Wait till she shows up on her motorcycle. Also featuring painful 80's rock at local club, and sudden dream sequences.

The pacing of this movie is pretty good, and with a little more care, could have been a better film. Nonetheless very entertaining. If you like this, you'll gotta see the Aussie teen flick, Street Hero.

Have you ever had one of those dreams where you seem to know everybody around and all the places you were at, but somehow it didn't match up? For instance, you're at the Raiders game with your grandmother and a drug dealer and you're singing Christmas carols. Doesn't quite go together very well.

That is what this movie is like. I couldn't tell if the characters were at their school, martial arts gymnastics dojo or some big boiler room or if they were all the same place. At one point I got the distinct feeling that I was in the Cobra Kai dojo from the Karate Kid.

The lack of any plot, it seems, makes this movie totally uninteresting in even the slightest manner.

I do realize that this review doesn't make much sense, but that is because this movie makes no sense either. It's just hard to explain.

I did, however, watch a young Nicole Kidman pretty closely. She looked so different and yet, still just as recognizable. She definitely has "It", even at such a young age. She is the only thing that kept this movie from being unwatchable.

Even despite Kidman, I give this movie 3 stars out of 10. Not recommended at all.

Not because of similar plots, but because of the similar way that a) it's clearly for teens and b)I really don't understand what the plot is, I was reminded of the movie City Limits. There's a ninja Fight Club thing going on, and I can see them ninja-ing in the dark to the detriment of their studies and health, but I haven't a clue why they are. There's a drug dealer and some other daytime sports scenes with a coach who gives me a creepy peek-at-the-boys-in-the-shower vibe (though I don't think that's part of the plot), a chronically angry "good teacher," a made-for-TV drug dealer, and a guy in a wheelchair ... but these details don't all add up to anything that makes sense. I have a suspicion that the director said to his buddy, "Hey, we have access to a bar, a school, and an abandoned factory next month. Let's make a movie!" and then tried to come up with a plot to fit those locations. I think they needed an extra month on that script.

This gets a star for being a baby-faced Kidman's first role--and really, none of the actors are terrible, but 50% of my stars go to the music, a sort of no-particular-decade rock that I thought was pretty good. Had I been 16 and Australian in 1987, I would have wanted the soundtrack.

Amy (Nicole Kidman) is a student involved with a cultish group of paramilitary types. Their leader is a martial arts expert named Beck (Vince Martin). It seems that the wargames practiced by the group could be leading up to something far more serious than Amy could imagine.

Violence and murder ensue.

NIGHTMASTER is a fairly forgettable made-for-TV action film. The plot is absurd and disjointed, with no real direction. If it weren't for the presence of Ms. Kidman, there would be no reason to watch it...

I just bought a DVD player, and this was one of the free movies thoughtfully supplied with it. Even at that price, I was overcharged. The plot (such as it was) was muddled, character development was nonexistent and the martial arts sequences were poor to say the least. I've given this 2 on the strength of Nicole Kidman alone, who at one point actually did some acting, and for the one interesting scene where the Older Woman turns up on a motorbike to save Our Hero. One for the "why was this ever made?" bin, for me.