Saturday, March 6, 2010

American Ninja 5 (1993)

Good god, this is awful. From the title, I expected another sequel in the American Ninja series, but I was sadly mistaken. Instead of a martial arts flick, what we have is a family film with bad comedy overtones. David Bradly doesn't even play the same character, although technically he is American and he is a ninja.

The story line revolves around ninja Joe, who is entrusted with the care of his friend's 12 year old ward, Hiro, a wise cracking orphan. They stow away on a plane heading to South American in an attempt to rescue Joe's girlfriend Lisa who has been kidnapped.

Lisa's dad is a scientist who is working on a chemical that will kill living creatures but leave everything else intact. Sadly he does not realize that he is working for an evil man who plans to use this knowledge to take over the world. Why doesn't anyone ever consider that if someone is going to fund this type of project, it may not be used for peaceful purposes?

Glock, the evil guy, has an army of ninjas and a super ninja named Viper who dresses in a red satiny cape. In order to combat this army, Joe teaches Hiro ninjitsu. Hiro must be a natural because within a day or two he is competently beating any ninja that comes his way.

The dialogue in the film is more suited to a poorly written children's movie than an action movie. The music is something out of a happy fun time comedy, which is really inappropriate in chase scenes. So if you're looking for a kid's movie, then perhaps this is for you. Otherwise if you're thinking this is another American Ninja movie, you'll be sadly mistaken and rue the day you wasted your time.

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