American Ninja

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3/5The Film

The deadliest art of the Orient is now in the hands of an American. Sure, Michael Dudikoff had been in a few movies before this one (hey, how can you not remember him from his brilliant turn in Bloody Birthday?) but it was American Ninja that made him the household name of eighties action heroes and it was American Ninja that made us all love and respect him. Or something like that.

For the uninitiated, American Ninja is the story of Joe (a role originally developed for Chuck Norris), a brooding and somber G.I. stationed somewhere in the South Pacific, where they soon head off convoy style escorting the Colonel and his Daughter, Patricia. Once they move off the base, some ninjas and guerilla fighters who want the weapons that are stashed on the convoy attack them.

The Colonel has his man put up no fight and as he doesn’t want any trouble, but one of the guerillas takes advantage of his generosity and decides he ought to put the moves on Patricia. Joe is definitely not cool with this action, so he grabs himself a tire iron and a screwdriver and starts kicking ass, ninja style.

It turns out that the ninjas are part of a larger terrorist group run by a French arms dealer named Ortega (Don Stewart) who has recently been pillaging the convoys that have been running through the area for stock in his illegal weapons trade operation. Ortega is an interesting man, with his phony French accent and on-site ninja training area, always full of ninjas whooping it up in different colored ninja suits at any given moment.

In addition to Ortega, there’s a mysterious and sinister Black Star Ninja running around who isn’t too cool with Joe. Seems that Joe, who can’t remember his past, my pose as some sort of threat to whatever it is that the Black Star Ninja is all about, and it’s probably best for ol’ Black Star to just make sure Joe isn’t around to interfere in any of his evil ninja plans.

Joe’s not alone in his fight against evil ninjas though. Lucky for him, Curtis Jackson (played with amazing enthusiasm by Steve James) is on the scene and more than happy to help Joe in his battle. They become quick friends after Joe beats the crap out of him with a bucket on his head. Maybe Joe had to teach Curtis that he was the real deal or something. It’s Curtis’ own fault though, cause he went and started the right in the first place and called Joe ‘bad ass Karate boy’ in a really mocking tone, basically forcing Joe to put the bucket on his head and kick his ass. Anyway, they’re friends, and it’s up to them to save the world.

So yeah, we’ve got a rather rotund Black Star Ninja running around, and we’ve got Ortega and his cache of illegal weapons and an army of ninjas. Looks like the free world is in pretty rough shape, right? Right. So Joe puts on his ninja suit and Curtis dresses up like Rambo and they head off to kill what has to be about four hundred ninjas and save the day.

Sure, American Ninja may seem a little convoluted in the plot department, and in many ways, it is, but it’s unintentional hilarity and non-stop ninja action make it one of the ultimate low budget eighties actioners. Dudikoff can’t act his way out of a paper bag but that doesn’t stop the man from trying his damnedest and Steve James overacts enough to more than compensate for the two of them.

Numerous goofs and technical mishaps are clearly evident on screen and totally add to the films replay value, making it very much like a fine wine – improving with each subsequent viewing.

Plus it’s got oodles and oodles of ninjas in it. Everyone loves ninjas. The film makes a great double feature with Revenge of the Ninja, featuring Sho Kosugi and also directed by Sam Firstenberg.

3/5Video

2.5/5Audio

1/5Extras

3/5Overall

Film Rating		DVD Rating
Director:	Sam Firstenberg	Film:
Writer:	Paul De Mielche	Video:
Released:	1985	Audio:
Cast:	Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, Judie Aronson	Extras:
		Overall: