American Warrior

Most people today have forgotten, or just don't know, that AMERICAN NINJA did quite well (for an independent film, at least) when released to theaters, grossing 35 times its 1 million dollar budget. The sequels (that were released to theaters) didn't do as well, the chief reason probably being of Dudikoff's performance. For his first starring role, Dudikoff is pretty underwhelming in the lead. He has a blank expression in his eyes a lot of the time, and other times he seems plain nervous, as if he doesn't seem to know what to do. And it's clear that he was far from an expert in martial arts, seeing that the choreography has him doing pretty simple moves much of the time, and that for the most part he does only one or two moves before the editing cuts to another angle.

Most of the action (with or without Dudikoff) isn't terribly spectacular, and many viewers will probably get a little impatient between action scenes, since the movie isn't wall-to-wall action. Still, the movie never gets to be seriously boring; there are a few decent action scenes, and the goofiness of ninjas bouncing the story around does give the movie an entertaining cheesiness. Plus, there is the presence of Steve James, who (despite his limited time) really gives a likable and entertaining performance, and gets to show his genuine martial arts skills. He got to show more of all this in the sequel, which unsuprisingly is a significant improvement over this entry.

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.

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.

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.

Yes this is unrealistic and far fetched and whatever word you wanna call it, but its fun. Dudikoff is a speechless loner in the army. In the first five minutes a convoy is hijacked and big Mike defends everyone all by himself, one of many good, if unbelievable, sequences in the movie. Several times Dudikoff is asked to dispatch small armies of ninjas and even though its too Superman-ish, they're nicely choreographed, so you just sit back and shake your head smiling. There's also good chemistry from Dudikoff and James, his buddy through the whole thing. And this probably sets a record for most crushed testicles in a movie, as there are several moments when theyre grinded with heels, knees, or palms. I still laugh 14 years later when James gives the "saw" to a bad dude (or was he saying "sir?"). According to Joe Bob Briggs, this set a record for most deaths in a movie with over a hundred. Even without counting that wouldnt surprise me, though some movie expert claims that Chuck Norris' "Invasion USA" holds the record for most dead, which came out the same year. What a double-bill that would be. This gets my vote for best martial arts film of the 80s.