American Ninja (1985) Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, Judie Aronson, Guich Koock, John Fujioka, Don Stewart Movie Review

American Ninja (1985)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Michael Dudikoff in American Ninja (1985)

Silent but Deadly

Joe Armstrong (Michael Dudikoff) finds himself in the army and in the Philippines, the lesser of two evils as his only other option was prison. But being a loner he doesn't really fit in especially when he is the only survivor from a group of soldiers escorting a series of vehicles transporting weapons and Patricia (Judie Aronson), the Colonel's daughter, who he manages to save. But as the only survivor the brass suspect he did so through cowardice not through kicking the butt of a group of ninjas sent to steal the weapons and kidnap Patricia. But whilst Joe manages to make a few friends, such as Jackson (Steve James), he finds that he is the target of those ninjas who are sent to take revenge on him.

A smooth operator when it comes to kicking butt whilst pouting as if he was James Dean, that is how Michael Dudikoff comes across in "American Ninja", one of those action movies from the 80s which is drenched in the sort of styling you got from a Golan-Globus Productions. As such what you really get in "American Ninja" is a very slim storyline, a few characters and in the middle of it is Michael Dudikoff as man of few words Joe who seems to be able to take on an entire army single handedly and be one step ahead of what ever they thrown at him be it a cargo net dropped from up high or hooks and chains expertly used to try and disarm him.

The thing is that whilst the storyline has some double crossing going on when it comes to bad guys there isn't anything else. Yet remarkably "American Ninja" ends up delivering enough to keep you entertained thanks to the over the top nature of the action and the snappy nature of these fight scenes.

What this all boils down to is that "American Ninja" is some over the top action fun, completely ridiculous yet some how highly entertaining.


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