American Ninja 5 (1993)

When a scientist's daughter is kidnapped, American Ninja (David Bradley), attempts to find her, but this time he teams up with a youngster he has trained in the ways of the ninja. The characters in this film have a lot of depth, and that makes all the difference. In the end, the audience gets a casserole of film elements and little of the satisfaction that comes from watching these types of movies. The film is dark, brooding, intense and most of all violent. It's meant to be goofy, then there are fisticuffs back and forth with those who claim to work for justice. That said, the main plot of the film was constantly being interrupted!

I bought this movie for me and my daughter to watch and what can i say, this movie was funny, action packed, and full of really clever zingers which had me laughing non stop. American Ninja V is an instant classic that I had hoped would go down in history as one of the great action-comedies. The expertly choreographed fight scenes keep your heart pumping and your mind at all times completely at a loss for who is fighting who and why. This unique style is both ground breaking and a pleasure to watch. The dialogue is very witty and surprisingly full of rich subtext. For example, when the male and female leads are escaping from an army of ninjas, the female comically remarks, "Ladies first!" (Ba-Zing!). This seemingly one-dimensional and inane one liner actually reveals the film's deeper message of female empowerment and social equality. Another example of this emotionally layered narrative is the small Asian child's swift transformation into a fat white man during the stellar chase sequences. I recommend American Ninja V to everyone I meet. It is one of the classics that redefined the way I watch films.

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.

Remember how awesome the 90's were? This movie encapsulates the 90's completely in an all out ninja assault. What can I say about this cinematic masterpiece? The way David Bradley swiftly knock out any ninja without even being hit once shows that he is truly a master of martial arts to be rivaled by none. And the bond forged between his character Joe Kastle and his tiny sidekick companion Hiro is breathtaking and emotional. Each character uses their own abilities separately at the start of the movie to help each other out but then bond as one ninja super force when Joe teaches Hiro the way of the ninja in under a day. Forget Joe Armstrong and Sean Davidson! They have nothing to do with this movie because David Bradley uses his amazing skills as a thespian to switch between roles in a series where hes already played as a prominent character. Joe Kastle is the best thing to happen to this series, if you don't own this movie you'll get cancer and die in your own feces.