Rank the American Ninja movies!

[Iron_Leopard]

One of the greatest 80s franchises of all time! Well sort of lol. Most boys my age grew up on these movies and still to this day hold them in high regard for what they are. 80s Extra Cheese. 

Let's rank them shall we? I'll go first.

5. American Ninja 5

Everyone knows this originally wasnt an American Ninja movie. It was a kids movie who at the last minute was given the name American Ninja 5 just to help it make an extra 10 bucks in rentals.

 

4. American Ninja 3: Bloodhunt

Steve James is DONE with this series. He phoned in his performance from Mars and I dont blame him. David Bradley isn't horrible but not even Harrison Ford could have saved this movie.

 

3. American Ninja 4: The Annihilation 

Rambo III called. It wants its movie back. Dudikoff returns and just seeing the guy as Joe Armstrong again elevates this slightly past Bloodhunt. Also gets a few extra points for James Booth's hilarious villain role.

 

2. American Ninja 2: The Confrontation 

Dudikoff and James at their peak firing on all cylinders. This movie throws everything at you AND the kitchen sink. Pure 80s action fun! Bonus points for having BEACH NINJAS and making it work. Take that SURF NINJAS!

 

1. American Ninja

If The Confrontation is Rambo II then that makes America Ninja First Blood. Well in tone at least. Not in quality.  Easily the best entry in the series. An instant classic that's still highly rewatchable today. Anyone else feel like Joe was based off Snake Eyes from GI JOE?

 

How do you rank them?

[DrNgor]

From best to worst:

American Ninja 2: The Confrontation

American Ninja

American Ninja 3: Bloodhunt

American Ninja 4

American Ninja 5

[sym8]

From worst to very worst(sorry but I hate them)1 then 2.I had had it with this franchise after 2 so that’s where it ends for me.

[Drunken Monk]

I almost bought the 88 Films box-set of these the other days (I haven't seen any of them). I will admit, the trailers I watched put me off. But if they're as fun as some people say they are, maybe I should give them a go.

[DrNgor]

The first two are pretty solid by 80s American MA movie standards. The third one is more karate than ninja. The fourth one is just kinda weird. And the fifth one is kids stuff.

[SMK]

21 hours ago, Iron_Leopard said:

It was a kids movie who at the last minute was given the name American Ninja 5 just to help it make an extra 10 bucks in rentals.

I've been loving all your posts lately, starting new conversations on topics that may have been discussed before, and ones that haven't, but this comment is gold. LOL. 


 

[SMK]

21 hours ago, Iron_Leopard said:

@SMK can you move this to Modern Martial Arts please?

Done. 

[FightingFool]

On 5/28/2020 at 9:11 PM, Drunken Monk said:

I almost bought the 88 Films box-set of these the other days (I haven't seen any of them). I will admit, the trailers I watched put me off. But if they're as fun as some people say they are, maybe I should give them a go.

Well, did you? It`s gone OOP now bought it last year tho still sealed. Seen movies several times tho in past from dvd+some on vhs.

1st is best then they gradually get worse. But only #5 is completely garbage. So bad it`s not even funny.It`s not on 88 set and actually glad about it. One day when rewatch movies no risk seeing it anymore.

[AlbertV]

I feel this was one of those franchises that did deteriorate as it went on:

5) American Ninja 5 (the less said the better)
4) American Ninja 4 (I felt Dudikoff was more of a extended cameo a la Hwang Jung Lee in Blood Child)
3) American Ninja 3 (to me, it was more of a American Ninja 2 clone replacing "The Lion" with "The Cobra" and replace Dudikoff's Joe with David Bradley's Sean even with Jackson saying he thought he was done with ninjas when he left Joe in the Army)
2) American Ninja 2 (loved the locales used but the villain being called "The Lion"? HAHAHA!)
1) The original American Ninja (which they originally wanted Chuck Norris, but according to sources, he didn't want to be under a mask, and even No Retreat, No Surrender's Kurt McKinney auditioned but was deemed too young for the role...hence, we got Michael Dudikoff. Ironically, McKinney was asked to star in AN3 but he didn't want to do four films in South Africa.)

Edited July 11, 2021 by AlbertV

[Iron_Leopard]

2 hours ago, AlbertV said:

I feel this was one of those franchises that did deteriorate as it went on:

5) American Ninja 5 (the less said the better)
4) American Ninja 4 (I felt Dudikoff was more of a extended cameo a la Hwang Jung Lee in Blood Child)
3) American Ninja 3 (to me, it was more of a American Ninja 2 clone replacing "The Lion" with "The Cobra" and replace Dudikoff's Joe with David Bradley's Sean even with Jackson saying he thought he was done with ninjas when he left Joe in the Army)
2) American Ninja 2 (loved the locales used but the villain being called "The Lion"? HAHAHA!)
1) The original American Ninja (which they originally wanted Chuck Norris, but according to sources, he didn't want to be under a mask, and even No Retreat, No Surrender's Kurt McKinney auditioned but was deemed too young for the role...hence, we got Michael Dudikoff. Ironically, McKinney was asked to star in AN3 but he didn't want to do four films in South Africa.)

As bad as it is there is still something about American Ninja 4 that I like. It's just something in the atmosphere I guess.

[AlbertV]

11 hours ago, Iron_Leopard said:

As bad as it is there is still something about American Ninja 4 that I like. It's just something in the atmosphere I guess.

Nothing wrong with that. Little AN4 trivia: Actor and martial artist Kely McClung played 2 roles in the film: one of the kidnapped Delta Force soldiers and the "Super Ninja" who fights Dudikoff in the final fight. 

[DrNgor]

22 hours ago, Iron_Leopard said:

As bad as it is there is still something about American Ninja 4 that I like. It's just something in the atmosphere I guess.

It had a brutal atmosphere that I liked. I enjoyed the fights. I thought the finale was a little underwhelming, but it was better than I thought it was going to be.

[DrNgor]

My capsule reviews of the series:

American Ninja (1985) – This was the movie that put Michael Dudikoff on the map, and I’m actually rather surprised at its 1985 release date, which means that the other Canon ninja classics, Enter the Ninja and Revenge of the Ninja had preceded it. You all (should) know the story: Joe Armstrong (Dudikoff) is a quiet army guy with a Troubled Past stationed in the Phillipines. While escorting some weapons and the commanding officer’s cute daughter, some rebels and surprisingly enough, ninja, attack the convoy. Armstrong saves the daughter, but his colleagues are murdered. He finds himself at the mercy of his commanding officers, at least one of whom is in cahoots with the main bad guy, an arms dealer with an army of ninja. The only people on Joe’s side are the girl and fellow soldier Curtis Jackson (Steve James). 

The action isn’t quite as frequent as one might expect, but it’s pretty good. Dudikoff wasn’t much of a martial artist, so his moves are simple (judo throws, take downs, swordplay), but he sells the strong-silent-type character. Steve James isn’t give too much to work with, but even when he’s not fighting, the man has a special epic-ness about him. Tadashi Yamashita, aka Bronson Lee, shows up as the head ninja bad guy, and we get the first of many obligatory “bad ninja kills the lower ranking ninja to show off how powerful he is” scenes throughout the series. The fight choreography was by Mike Stone, who was Franco Nero’s stunt double in Enter the Ninja and apparently Elvis Presley’s karate teacher. It’s not bad, and the final fight is pretty good. 


American Ninja 2: The Confrontation (1987) – Did you ever notice that these American ninja movies almost never actually take place in America? Joe Armstrong and Curtis Jackson are now back as Army rangers who are sent to a Caribbean island to investigate the disappearance of several marines stationed at the local embassy. They turn up a drug dealer who has kidnapped a cancer researcher and is forcing him to genetically engineer an army of super ninjas (incidentally, they are just as easy to kill as normal ninjas) to…er…I guess fight back against the Third World government entities who had been increasing their bribe values. That’s really an excuse for Joe and Curtis to kick some serious ninja butt for 90 minutes. 

There’s a big fight sequence about once every 10 minutes and we get more ninja tricks and weapons on display, plus more fight action from Steve James. Look for choreographer Mike Stone as the head ninja, who squares off against Armstrong in the finale. In one of the most inexplicable moments of the series (which is saying something), Armstrong is kicking the spit out of the big bad ninja, who then whips out a sawed-off shotgun (out of nowhere) and starts firing it at Joe. He misses every shot, because Joe Armstrong occupies the same plane as Steven Seagal and Jet Li’s Wong Fei Hung in this. Highly recommended 80s action shlock. 


American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt (1989) – So now Dudikoff has been replaced by David Bradley, who actually has some legitimate karate moves and MA training. Bradley plays Sean Davidson, who was taught ninjitsu by his father’s karate trainer after his ol’ man was gunned down by terrorists who felt that karate tournaments were the best places to rob in order to get the big bucks. Your guess is as good as mine. Davidson goes to another Caribbean island for a karate tournament, where he meets Curtis Jackson, who is there to show off his shuangdao skills, even though that weapon is clearly a kung fu weapon and not a karate one. The host of the tournament is an insane scientist (Marjoe Gortner of Starcrash fame) who has developed a deadly virus and wants to find the best physical specimen to inject with it…because…er…reasons. Crazy Televangelist scientist has also employed an army of ninja led by Chan Lee (Michelle Chan, who’s married to a billionaire in real life), although we never know why he chose ninja instead of the usual mercenaries. Davidson is eventually captured and injected with the virus, and he, Curtis and another guy must fight through legions of ninja to find the antidote because…er…reasons. 

On one hand, the action is probably a step up from the last two movies, mainly because Bradley is more skilled than Dudikoff was. He does more interesting kicks and is just better to watch. However, his character barely registers on the charisma scale, and even worse, he doesn’t do much ninja-ing here. He beats up a lot of ninja, but Dudikoff made you believe that he was The American Ninja. Bradley is late 80s/early 90s karate hero #4029. Steve James does get a few fights in, but I felt gypped that the big karate tournament was limited to one onscreen fight (Bradley vs. some British guy). Michelle Chan gets to beat up her subordinates, but she’s not all that impressive. You could also see the budget dropping this time around and the story frequently doesn’t make much sense. 


American Ninja 4: Annihilation (1990) – Apparently this was going to be a big team-up between the two American Ninja, but Michael Dudikoff had an ego attack and the movie becomes a bait n’switcher about Sean Davidson, now a CIA agent, and his black partner flying to Lesotho to rescue some Delta Force commandos from a maniacal British army officer and Muslim fundamentalism jihadist Sheik…and their army of ninja. Davidson is eventually captured, so his friend(!) Joe Armstrong is sent in to rescue Davidson and stop the bad guys from sending a small nuclear device to New York. 

I actually liked this one a lot more than the third one, even though there was less action and the finale was weaker than I was expecting (I wanted to see Dudikoff and Bradley kill 200 ninja in tandem). Michael Dudikoff reminds us as to why he was cast as the American Ninja, while Bradley is still the generic Karate hero #4029. The villains here, especially the British guy, were probably the most intimidating bad guys of the entire series and there are some pretty brutal moments here, moreso than any of the other three movies. The ninjas also come across as being more dangerous than they were in parts 2 and 3, as seen in the opening action scene where they hunt down the fleeing Delta Force commandos. Mike Stone handles the action again and it’s pretty solid. In a bizarre twist played with a completely straight face, Joe Armstrong is assisted at the end by a gang of ex-cons who look like refugees from a Mad Max film…and it’s glorious. And you know what? The black guy…who’s engaged to be married…actually survives the entire film! Heck yeah! 


American Ninja 5: Little Ninja Man (1993) – David Bradley returns, but this time as an American ninja named Joe (not Armstrong) who trains at a dojo run by Pat Morita and Bronson Lee himself, Tadashi Yamashita (who also choreographed the action this time around). Morita asks Bradley to take care of his grandson, a troubled youth named Hiro (Lee Reyes, Ernie Reyes Junior’s brother), who has bounced from one foster home to another after his father was murdered by an evil ninja named Viper (James Lew). Viper currently works for an insecticide magnate named Simon Glock (played by a man with the last name of Franckenstein—I swear I’m not making this up). Glock has employed another scientist to make a powerful insecticide that leaves no traces after it kills, with the intent of making a powerful biological warfare/bomb/thingamajig with it. To motivate the scientist to finish the project on time, he has Viper and his army of ninja kidnap his daughter, who happens to be having a date with Joe (and a tag-along Hiro) at the moment. She’d kidnapped, so Joe and Hiro fly to Venezuela to rescue her and maybe overcome their own personal demons while they’re at it. 

The movie was PG-13, and we know how watered down the action in a 90s PG-13 movie could be. It’s not quite as goofy or played for laughs as the action in Surf Ninjas (which I assume this movie was piggy-backing on, considering the fact that Lee Reyes spends most of the movie carrying around a Game Gear) or 3 Ninjas, but it’s a far cry from the brutality of the other movies, especially part 4. The big showdown between David Bradley and James Lew, who dons a red superhero costume with a black cape, is pretty weak and I’ve seen both of them do better work elsewhere. Reyes throws some decent kicks at the end and Bradley isn’t bad, but the action (and the film on the whole) is ultimately forgettable. I didn’t hate it, but it’s definitely the weakest in the series.