Trailer for Isaac Florentine's 'Ninja'

[Biomorph]

The side somersault over the car WAS most likely composited. Meaning Adkins executed the flip with a box approximately the height of the car roof, so that his reaction during the flip would be proportionate.Then, without moving the camera,they drove the car thru the scene in the same spot He did the flip.The 2 shots are then "Sandwiched " together in post production, and because the lighting of the 2 shots is identical, it's very difficult to tell that they both aren't there at the SAME time.Watch Robert Rodriquez' "Once Upon a Time in Mexico",-10 min. film school for an in depth description of this technique, they used the same process during a carhit with a dummy that "looks" like they killed a stuntman to achieve the shot.

What I'm still trying to figure out is if He used a mini-tramp to get a little extra height,or did he just flip that high on his own?

[daisho2004]

Did this movie ever play in the Theaters or what? I have been waiting to see it, now its out on DVD next month, WTF!

[AlbertV]

It probably only played in theaters in California on a very limited release if anything. Something like that happened with Florentine's US SEALS II in 2001. I saw NINJA and Adkins was great in the film.

[LeRolls]

Picked this up recently on Blu-Ray. Fun movie overall and the Ninja outfits were badass! Some cool fight sequences and Scott Adkins handled the stunts/fights well.

[udar55]

This left me somewhat disappointed as it is a mixture of good and bad.

This marks the fourth collaboration between Scott Adkins and director Isaac Florentine following SPECIAL FORCES, UNDISPUTED II and THE SHEPARD. Honestly, this is the best 80s ninja movie made in the new millennium. The plot is bare bones just like those 80s flicks of Sho Kosugi and the villains appropriately goofy. They are only there to show off plenty of action. Adkins gets three great scenes to showoff his martial art skills with the temple fight being the best bit.

It is good, but not Florentine's best. He makes two crucial errors. One, doing the whole crash zoom/morph to a new shot technique. Terrible as he tries to mimic the recent look of action films. Two, the overuse of CGI blood. That last part is really rough. A few times it looks good but most of the time it looks pretty bad. Viewers should get a kick of the production using the same two blocks over and over in Bulgaria to try to recreate NYC. And their interpretation of what a NYC jailhouse looks like is hysterical (marble everywhere, yeah right!).

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Just got this. I agree with most of the comments I've read. Good but not great. I had a lot of fun watching it. I watched it with a friend and he didn’t like it much. Then about 10 minutes later he said that he did think it was pretty good. I don’t know what changed his mind. It may have been because I punched him in the face a few times, but, I don’t know.

How is Scott Adkins not a star yet?! Does Hollywood look down on people with amazing martial arts and athletic skills? Maybe they are just jealous. Hopefully he gets a better role one day than the crappy part he had in Bourne Ultimatum.

Got it at CD Tradepost for $10.99. Glad I didn’t get it at Best Buy where it’s $24.99! Also saw it at Suncoast for $14.99.

[ThunderScore]

IMO, while enjoyable - both NINJA and NINJA ASSASSIN are both about the same. While NINJA ASS (sorry) looks more expensive and has Sho Kosugi, NINJA is closer to what I love about these films. If NINJA had somebody from the 80s films in a supporting role, it would've edged the other film out...

[gorhama]

Ok so I finally go around to watching this tonight!! I gotta say maybe with all I read I went in with lowered expectations I enjoyed the movie. Again it's not great and in a totally different style than NINJA ASSASSIN, but I thought Adkins looked great in the action scenes. DUH!! I still wonder about the horrible decision to make him speak in an American accent???? Why not his normal cool sounding Brit accent.

Either way I had fun.

Also for those wanting to get this at Best Buy while in store it says $24.99 tell them to compare it to the website. It's $14.99 and they will match what their website says!!

[The Silver Fox]

I picked up Ninja on DVD the other day. I was pleasantly suprised-it delivers where it counts, I'm suprised it's gotten such lousy comments here.

It had actual 'fights' with some pretty dang impressive choreography whereas Ninja Assassin was just a blur of CGI blood hack/slash. Not that NInja didn't have some of that but on a much more restrained level. Adkins is really good in Ninja and comes across as very skilled.

As others have noted, it has an 80's vibe but with modern production values. Good flick.

[The Running Man]

Again it's not great and in a totally different style than NINJA ASSASSIN, but I thought Adkins looked great in the action scenes. DUH!! I still wonder about the horrible decision to make him speak in an American accent???? Why not his normal cool sounding Brit accent.

This complaint, which I've seen Kung Fu Bob also state, makes no sense. He had an American accent in "The Shepard". He sported a Russian accent in "Undisputed 2". I didn't read any complaints when either of those films were released. I don't quite remember but I believe he also had a different accent in that (bad) movie "The Tournament".

So why complain about it now? And why is it horrible? It's a pretty good one and it's explained in the story that he is American.

He is an actor and the whole point of acting is that you play people that aren't yourself. I think it's great that he gives himself challenges in the acting and action departments.

[gorhama]

This complaint, which I've seen Kung Fu Bob also state, makes no sense. He had an American accent in "The Shepard". He sported a Russian accent in "Undisputed 2". I didn't read any complaints when either of those films were released. I don't quite remember but I believe he also had a different accent in that (bad) movie "The Tournament".

So why complain about it now? And why is it horrible? It's a pretty good one and it's explained in the story that he is American.

He is an actor and the whole point of acting is that you play people that aren't yourself. I think it's great that he gives himself challenges in the acting and action departments.

I bring that up because people mentioned how "wooden" he was in his acting scenes. I didn't think that at all, but at the same time why did he have to be American? I mean he could have worked on his actualy acting while using his real accent. I mean he didn't have to be American, I just think it would have been cool for him to act unhampered by making sure his accent wasn't American. I agree with you to me it wasn't a bad American accent...I guess in the end I figured why even bother? He's got a great natural speaking voice let him use it.

He's other roles didn't matter as he sounded super cool as Russian in UNDISPUTED 2 and didn't really say much in THE SHEPHARD.

Really to be totally honest I watch Scott Adkins for his martial arts skills, the acting are a plus on top of that. I think UNDISPUTED 3 will be his "breakout" movie.

[The Running Man]

I don't blame any "wooden" acting on him doing an accent. Although I find it superior to "Ninja Assassin" it did disappoint me as the script was weak, which even Florentine admits so. Apparently there were changes brought forth that weren't to Florentine's liking and it wasn't for the better.

Here's an interview with Florentine talking about that among other things: http://moviemavericks.com/?p=1258

I think it's great that Adkins is trying to do different things with acting while doing action movies. It shows that he gives a damn unlike a lot of other Western action stars.

[daisho2004]

OK I just finished watching this movie a few minutes ago and I had to write my review right away. 1st. off living in NY there is no way any streets are practically empty in the middle of the day. 2nd. The Subway trains do not like as nice as those in the movie. 3rd. The Police uniforms were wrong, sorry but yes I'm gonna knit pick a little here. And now for my review: How can you call a movie Ninja when there is hardly and Ninjas in it if any! And the subway fight scene was totally garbage. I wasn't trying to compare this movie to Ninja Assassin or even thinking about that movie while watching this one, but I did love Ninja Assassin. The Ninja outfit wore by Masasugi looked like something from Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell video game. And the acting was totally garbage all around. I don't think Adkins was the right part for this movie all he really did was throw jumping kicks through out the movie. I was hoping to see Ninjas kicking ass using all kinds of weapons but all you got to see was Scott throwing Kicks without his Ninja Outfit on. You might as well called this movie Stealth Assassin. I just felt this was a lame ass movie. And I was hoping for a rebirth of Ninja movies. The 80's Ninja movies were better than this. Know wonder it seems like it went straight to DVD!

[gorhama]

I don't blame any "wooden" acting on him doing an accent. Although I find it superior to "Ninja Assassin" it did disappoint me as the script was weak, which even Florentine admits so. Apparently there were changes brought forth that weren't to Florentine's liking and it wasn't for the better.

Here's an interview with Florentine talking about that among other things: http://moviemavericks.com/?p=1258

I think it's great that Adkins is trying to do different things with acting while doing action movies. It shows that he gives a damn unlike a lot of other Western action stars.

I totally agree with you about Adkins and trying to grow as an actor, that's totally cool. But that being said or wrote in this case his real accent is just as well so why not let him use it from time to time.

Script was weak for sure and it's good that Florentine can admit to those things.

Either way I had hoped it would have been the staring role that Adkins deserves as I think he's a good actor and martial arts screen fighter. Here's hoping UNDISPUTED 3 is that movie for him.

[KUNG FU BOB]

This complaint, which I've seen Kung Fu Bob also state, makes no sense. He had an American accent in "The Shepard". He sported a Russian accent in "Undisputed 2". I didn't read any complaints when either of those films were released. I don't quite remember but I believe he also had a different accent in that (bad) movie "The Tournament".

So why complain about it now? And why is it horrible? It's a pretty good one and it's explained in the story that he is American.

He is an actor and the whole point of acting is that you play people that aren't yourself. I think it's great that he gives himself challenges in the acting and action departments.

Dude, sometimes you're such a bore.

So sorry I dared to complain about it at a point where you've deemed it irrelevant. I'm not even going to bother explaining. Gorhama already explained it perfectly. You know what bro, you often seem contrary simply for the sake of being contrary. I hope that's fun for you, because then at least one person is enjoying it.

[The Running Man]

Kung Fu Bob,

you need to relax. You're taking things to seriously and more dramatic than it is.

Scott Adkins has been doing other accents other than his own, including an American one, before in other roles. To complain about it in Ninja especially when it is explined in the movie doesn't really make much sense. That's all.

[gorhama]

Ok ok...Running Man if we want to comment about Scott Adkins accent that he was forced to use that's totally cool. If it didn't bother you that's cool. Never once did I call Scott Adkins talents into question or did I say it was a bad American accent, all I'm stating is my opinion, that it wasn't needed. He didn't have to be American is all. He sounds super cool in his own accent.

Trust me Kung Fu Bob is one of the most relaxed and not dramatic guys I know. But I think others would agree that the writing style you use does come off as though you are trying to be negative and start "stuff". Please don't take that personally I'm sure some of the things I've typed were taken the wrong way.

We are all passionate about these movies and passionate about different area of the films. Some member are great with the technical stuff. Others care about SUB or DUBtitles more, other's just want to talk about fight scenes. That's what's great about this forum, but I think we would all like everyone to be respectful and mature.

Ok my long boring rant is over......back to talking about the topic at hand.

[KUNG FU BOB]

Kung Fu Bob,

you need to relax. You're taking things to seriously and more dramatic than it is.

(...Yawn...)

[One Armed Boxer]

So I decided to check this out 4 years after everyone else did, having recently gone for a US Direct-to-DVD action movie triple bill, along with 'Enemies Closer' (which I posted my lukewarm reaction to here - http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20331&page=3) & 'Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear' (hopefully saving the best for last!).

I think watching a movie a few years after its come out (with all the negative comments about it ingrained in your thoughts) can do wonders for your enjoyment, as I had a pretty good time with this (the same things seems to be happening for 'Special ID'!). Sure 'Ninja' isn't a mind blowing action spectacular, but it's a solid enough flick which is decently paced, and has nicely choreographed action scattered throughout.

I always like modern actioners, so little touches like the guy who gets kicked out of the train window only to get hit by the train coming in the opposite direction, & Adkins facing off against Ihara who's clinging to the top of a moving car, are really cool for me. It would have been nice to see some more exchanges against evenly matched opponents, most of the clan guys seemed to be relatively useless without their guns, but this is a minor complaint.

All in all, stripped of all the hype and anticipation that it came with at the time, 'Ninja' gave me a fun 90 minutes. Now let's see how I enjoy the second installment!

[Secret Executioner]

Recently started seeing DVD copies of this one. Guess I should pick it up, though the second one seems better.

Yeah, I know, I'm a fan of Ninja flicks but haven't seen this...

[ShaOW!linDude]

Some good thoughts there, OAB. Glad you enjoyed it. I, too, thought it had its moments. I've watched it a couple of times since. I find it's worth revisiting occasionally.