American Ninja 5

Garbage martial arts movie that has nothing to do with the previous four American Ninja films, despite the title. This was originally called American Dragons but Cannon changed the name to reap whatever limited rewards they could from having it associated with the American Ninja series. Note David Bradley's character name is different from his previous appearances in the series. The plot to this stinker has "American Ninja" Joe (David Bradley) teaming up with Hiro (Lee Reyes, brother of Ernie Jr.), a young man whose granduncle (Pat Morita) wants him to learn to be a ninja. The two must rescue a girl from a ponytailed villain called Viper. Stupid stuff. Lacks any of the cheesy appeal of the American Ninja movies that starred Michael Dudikoff. Not even Mr. Miyagi can save this one. Good for some mockery I suppose.

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 can live with David Bradley being a bad actor and all, but when just everything else is just as terrible as his acting, it starts to get real ugly. American Ninja V is a great example of how some people just don't know when to stop. After the third movie, this series has been nothing more than a piece of crap. This last movie is the worst of them all. The action scenes (fight scenes, mainly) are very bad. The story is childish, stupid and totally uninteresting. I almost fell asleep several times during the movie, and even the action didn't make it any better. What is Pat Morita doing in this disaster? I guess his quality control was out of function the day he signed up for this one.

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.