I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

American Ninja is a ridiculous action film, even worse by Cannon standards of the mid 1980s.Michael Dudikoff lacks charisma and screen presence as the mysterious Joe with a criminal past and elite martial arts skills but with no idea how he got them.He has arrived at an US Army base in the Philippines where he is a bit of a loner. Almost immediately on his first mission driving a convoy of trucks, the American soldiers are attacked by a group of filipino rebels who try to steal their weapons and take colonel's daughter, Patricia. Joe is to the rescue as Patricia just screams and irritates.Joe discovers that people in the US army base are involved in gun running with local mercenaries but not too many people believe him.A feeble B movie, with ineptly staged action scenes.

It was about a young man who was enlisted in the Army after given a choice of prison or the service, after nearly killing a man. The young man, Joe Armstrong, doesn't fit into the service at all in the Philippines. He quickly becomes a thorn in both his sergeant and his colonel's sides after he disobeyed a direct order to allow a group of rebels hijack military equipment. However, he wins over the colonel's daughter, after he saves her life from the local rebels and a group of Ninjas. He also befriends his drill instructor after the instructor tested out how good of a fighter Armstrong really was. An person he befriends is a Private named Charlie. Soon, Armstrong's sent off to drop off deliveries, and he realizes that he is a target of a Ninja Assassination Plot. It was a good plan to place the setting in the Philippines, because there was a lot of corruption going on. If you want to know how it ends, watch it to find out.

"American Ninja" does do its job as an action film, delivering excitement in respectable doses, whether it's in the form of firefights, chases, or fight sequences. It made Michael Dudikoff into a star in the genre, and gave rise to a series that lasted several years. The low key Dudikoff stars as Joe, a young man with no memory of his past who as a soldier in the Army is stationed in the Philippines. He gets himself into trouble by unleashing his deadly skills, eventually getting wind of a plot by traitors into supplying rebels with Army equipment. He battles a money hungry villain, Ortega (Don Stewart), and a formidable Black Star Ninja (Tadashi Yamashita) and is attracted to Patricia (Judie Aronson), the daughter of his Colonel (Guich Koock).Dudikoff fares better when he doesn't have to open his mouth, having a decent presence on screen but not possessing much in the way of acting chops. Aronson, whom people will recognize from either "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" or "Weird Science", looks absolutely great. Stewart and Yamashita are capable villains, but it hardly needs to be said that the performer in this movie that really commands your attention is the charismatic Steve James as Jackson, a fellow soldier initially hostile towards Joe but warming up to him after a confrontation where Joe proves his prowess.Fun location shooting, rousing music by Michael Linn, and a decent pace help to make this enjoyable, as well as the appealing performance by John Fujioka as Joes' mentor. The movie works even better, though, once you stop to think about all the little laugh-out-loud moments (not intended to be that way, of course) that create a very appreciable amount of levity while most everybody on screen does their best to look serious. It's the little things that truly help to make this movie a hoot.Six out of 10.

Now this is what we're talking about! Much imitated but never duplicated. A true classic of the action genre.Pvt. Joe Armstrong (Dudikoff) is a troubled loner sent to an American army base in the Philippines. He doesn't say much, and he really doesn't want to play hackysack with his fellow officers. On a routine truck convoy, baddies kill some of Armstrong's fellow officers, and Armstrong escapes with Col. Hickock's spoiled daughter Patricia (Aronson). While Patricia falls for Joe, the remaining officers on the base blame him for the tragedy. At first, they disparagingly call him "karate boy", but he eventually wins their respect and the friendship of Cpl. Curtis Jackson (James) due to his excellent fighting skills. He has been training since he was a boy, but has amnesia and doesn't remember a lot of his past.As it turns out, an evil gun runner, Ortega (Don Stewart) is in cahoots with some of the army brass (including the Fred "time to make the donuts" guy lookalike John LaMotta as Sgt. Rinaldo), and there is only one obstacle to his newest million-dollar deal: Armstrong! Fortunately for Ortega, he has a large Ninja training camp on his vast estate. So he sends his army of Ninjas after Armstrong, Jackson and Patricia. When Patricia is kidnapped, Joe goes into full ninja mode and it becomes ninja vs. ninja in a fight to the finish. Will they be victorious over the nefarious ninja army? It's no wonder Cannon and director Firstenberg put Dudikoff and James back together shortly after this in Avenging Force. (1986) They work very well together, especially here, with the gregarious, charismatic Jackson and the mysterious, belligerent Joe. The climax puts the Rambo-like machine-gun shooting of James with the smooth Ninja-ing of Dudikoff with his never-ending supply of clever moves. It makes for an excellent combination that can't be beat.That's what's great about American Ninja - it's high-quality action fun that seems to put pleasing the audience as its number one priority. Why can't more movies, especially today, do this one simple thing? Please the crowd! What's so wrong with that? Well, we're proud to announce American Ninja simply does just that. It's not uncommon when you watch it with people to hear yells of "Yeah! Awesome!" and the like. You've heard the title "American Ninja" so many times, for such a long time, you probably don't realize how good it is. You just have to watch it to see why it's withstood the test of time so well.Comeuppance Reviews fan-favorite Richard Norton appears in a short, small role - but in the credits he is only recognized for stunts. But if you watch carefully, you can spot him as a soldier in the film.For Fun with a capital F - go with this great classic that is deserving of its fame and status.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com