An action-packed slog

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

"Blood Hunt" is a terminally dopey third entry in The Cannon Groups' "American Ninja" series. Replacing Michael Dudikoff as the hero is a charisma-free David Bradley, cast as Sean, a young white man trained in the ways of the ninja. Along with series regular Steve James (boosted to star status with this entry), he must battle the minions of a nefarious scientist (the inimitable Marjoe Gortner) dubbed "The Cobra". The Cobra has devised a biological weapon (a virus) and needs a superhuman such as Sean in order to carry it.Scripted by director Cedric Sundstrom, based on a story by Gary Conway (who played the bad guy in the previous sequel), "Blood Hunt" gets by basically because it's amusingly stupid. The action scenes are decent enough, but the script is truly insipid. And speaking of insipid, hero Bradley and annoying comedy relief performer Evan J. Klisser are the working definitions of that word. Perhaps the most ridiculous sequence has James, Bradley, and Klisser setting off to locate the bad guys' lair, with Bradley and Klisser appropriating some aircraft.Helping to make up for the less appealing performances is the coolness factor of James, and the brightest moments in the movie definitely belong to him. (They don't all involve action scenes, either.) Gortner is a hoot as the evildoer, although we have no doubt that Bradley will wipe the floor with him when it comes time for the inevitable showdown. Michele B. Chan is cute as female ninja Chan Lee, and she looks good while kicking ass.The absolute lowest point? Having to listen to that truly horrible theme song if one sits through the end credits.Five out of 10.

American Ninja 3 is almost universally hated by fans of the first two films, probably because Michael Dudikoff does not reprise his role as Joe Armstrong and 'new blood' was cast instead. Perhaps it failed because it dared to carry the American Ninja name instead of trying to be a stand alone film. Then again maybe people only watched it because of the name!In any case, American Ninja 3 is my favourite of the series, mainly because it drops the military fetish of the previous films in favour of pure martial arts action. The acting is neither above nor below the first two films and shouldn't be a factor in this genre anyway. Where American Ninja 3 excels is the action. The fight scenes are so much better choreographed than the clumsy action of the first two films. David Bradley is obviously a real martial artist and this casting makes a tremendous difference to the choreography. Gone are the simple throws and tight camera work tailored to mask Dudikoff's lack of martial skill and now we have lots of fast wide angle fights with flashy kicks and some meaty sound effects. The 80's style and fashions of the film only help to make me smile and of course the fantastic Steve James (the real star of the show) makes a welcome return.I guess it's all down to taste. I was brought up on Eastern Martial arts films with fine choreography from an early ages so when the American market started their attempts in the 80's the fights just weren't up to scratch for me and the first two films were a disappointment in that area as well as being more A-Team than Ninja. American Ninja 3 addresses these points and gets the focus of the film (the fights) right and that's all anyone can ask for in this genre, because if you are looking for moving acting or tremendous plots you are looking in the wrong genre.Not a patch on Hong Kong films but s solid martial arts film in it's own right!

The American Ninja series has a limited appeal to begin with. But I think it's safe to say most fans of the movies like them because of the special brand of weird charisma Michael Dudikoff brought to the table. You take Dudikoff and his "blue steel" gaze away and you're left with this: a generic martial arts action movie. Even the inclusion of Dudikoff's sidekick Steve James is no help. David Bradley is Dudikoff's replacement and he's just awful. You have to be bad when you're in a movie with Marjoe Gortner and he outclasses you. The whole thing is lifeless and unenjoyable. That there were two more American Ninja sequels after this boggles the mind.

When I found out that Dudikoff was not going to feature in this sequel, my heart sank immediately but still, I decided to give this one a chance. Sadly, it didn't live up the expectations that I had hoped forFirst off, I thought that the character Sean Davidson written for newly American Ninja star David Bradley here was kind of out of place. Hands down to David for an impressive performance here but I felt that he was portrayed more of like of the grown up version of Daniel from karate kid and has no Ninja background within him whatsoever which for me seemed out of placeApart from that, I felt that the script for film was quickly rewritten after Dudikoff's exit. Rumors had it that he and the director (and probably Steve James) had some kind of argument backstage which led to Michael's departure from the franchise. James did a decent job in trying to make the film entertaining but in the end the film failed to impress me due to the fact that the title itself didn't really connect to the filmI think that if the crew took time in developing Bradley's character better (by giving him a more convincing ninja background), then it would have made the film better than what was given here