American Ninja [DVD]

One of the best Martial Arts film by Michael Dudikoff started. His acting, lines and role was absolutely perfect. The others were terrific too. The story started as Michael Dudikoff played Joe. A humble martisl arts army got in trouble playing hero but made friends along the way with the army going after the bad guy ninjas. A great martial arts and action packed film. Highly recommend it.

Great Highly Recommended!

It was great

American Ninja was the other series of cult-classic martial arts/Ninja movies that were put out in the 1980s by Cannon Films and Golan-Globus Productions. The plot is set around the character of Joe Armstrong, played by Michael Dudikoff, in one of his early roles, a Private on an American military base in the Phillpeans. When a convoy moving not only weapons but the daughter of the base's colonel (played by Julie Aronson) is attacked by rebels and a band of evil ninjas, Joe is forced to fight to save the Colonel's daughter. From there, the movie becomes a mix of an action-drama, a romance story, and a story of a reluctant hero. The rest of the main cast includes Steve James as Corporal Curtis Jackson, Don Stewart, as a French arms dealer, Victor Ortega, Tadashi Yamashita (who had black belts in multiple martial arts styles) as the Black Star Ninja, and John LaMota, as Master Sargent Rinaldo.The blu-ray, which was released in 2016, got a decent A/V transfer, so it is definitely an upgrade from the VHS version, which many people who are old enough to remember the movie probably owned. There are a handful of extras that were made for the 2016 release, including a commentary track that is basically a conversation between producer Elijah Drenner and the director of the movie Sam Firstenberg (who also directed Revenge of the Ninja and Ninja III) that provides a lot of details about the production of the movie and a lot of interesting tidbits, including the fact that the movie was originally developed for Chuck Norris, who passed on the role because he did not want to have his face covered. Then, there is a 22-minute behind-the-scenes/making-of featurette that includes interviews with Dudikoff, Firstenberg, Aronson, one of the writers, and the stunt coordinator, Steve Lambert, and the theatrical trailer.Ultimately, this is a movie that is mostly an action movie that will appeal to those who were kids or young adults in the 1980s. The story is pretty cookie-cutter and the script was nothing to write home about. Dudikoff, who had no martial arts training before he was cast in the movie, actually does a very good job in the action sequences, and did a lot of the fight work himself. He actually looked very fluid and looked like he had practiced martial arts for years. The problem with this movie is that the script was pretty bad, and Dudikoff had to play Armstrong with almost no personality. Steve James and Phil Brock (who played the comic relief in the movie) probably had the best material to work with. It very much feels like a low-budget 1980s action movie and would probably not be made the same way today as it was back then. But, if you accept the fact that you are not going to see an Academy Award-winning drama and accept it for what it is, it is enjoyable.

This is a very action packed movie. Michael Dudikoff is a soldier in this movie and he is labeled as a troublemaker. He really isn't its just that a lot of other men see what he can do and try to take him on, even in the army there is another soldier that eggs him on. After he whipped him, they became good friends. This other soldier talks to him wanting to know more about these moves that he does and he does start to show him. This other soldier tries to help him from getting in trouble all the time. It shows that these two top ranking officer have it out for him and want to see him killed. That is because they are in with the wrong people that are stealing the army trucks. In the end when all the fighting is done is when you see the top officer is part of it. It to me is a very good my and I loved it.

While this movie is great the sequels suck a$$. They took away the Tai Chi smoothness of Joe (This gave him an invincible aura) and created an unoriginal flashy karate like Joe (with phony looking stuntmen doing the some of the fighting) with terrible choreography. They also have terrible ninja soldiers in these sequels that couldn't even beat the average army soldiers in hand to hand combat. While the ninjas in this film were ninjas (they had skills to even combat armed soldiers). This should have been the only movie made of the series. This is one of my favorite movies of all time. They had Michael Didikoff (an non martial arts master)looking more smooth and masterful than a real martial can be (like David Carradine in Kung-Fu). This movie singlehandedly made me want to be a ninja throughout my childhood (I still do, ha, ha).

Blu-Ray: 5/5Movie: 4/5Blu-Ray - The Blu-Ray comes with an audio commentary with the director and some guy and a "making of" stuff. The video transfer quality is great with nice picture, however the audio is a tad bit questionable as the sound gets loud at certain point but it's very uncommon.Movie: I use to hate these ninja movies because I was a PC f*** who felt that only Japanese actors should portray ninjas. Some time later in life I just didn't give a s*** and now I like this ignorant crap. American Ninja is very silly with nit-witted acting, clumsy yet appealing action with a plot of some sorts. Highly recommended to b-movie lovers.

Who doesn’t like bad movies from the 80’s

Awesome

Muy buena

This is the 'Original' cinematic sleeve to this classic ninja-movie; which will be an ideal-purchase for anyone choosing this particular version with this 'video-cover'. It was actually a very successful box office-cinema hit.

Product arrived well before estimated date, great service

Me gustaría dirigirme a la distribuidora que ha puesto a la venta esta película, ya que no se dónde dirigirme para agradecerles el trabajo realizado. Entiendo que al igual que ésta y otros muchos otros títulos como la "La Noche De Halloween", la "Noche De Halloween 2", "El Guerrero Americano 1,2,3 y 4, "Cyborg", "La Venganza Del Ninja", "Ninja 3 La Dominación", "Noche De Miedo 1 y 2", "The Quest" han sido realizados por la misma distribuidora independiente. Me da exactamente igual si es un Blu Ray R, sin prensar, como he leído en alguna otra opinión. Son los grandes título con los que crecí de niño y que hoy día no existen para su compra. Quería agradecerles el trabajo realizado ya que ninguna otra distribuidora se había encargado de traerlas a España en Blu Ray y en algún caso de las citadas anteriormente, ni tan siquiera en DVD. No me gustaría que terminaran aquí este trabajo ya que existen otros clásicos ochenteros/noventeros que no pueden faltar en una videoteca, del tipo "Al Final De La Escalera", "El Ente", "Congo", "La Justicia Del Ninja", "Mentes Peligrosas", "Aterriza Como Puedas", "No Matarás Al Vecino", "Esta Casa Es Una Ruina", "Critters 1-4", "Delta Force 2", "Sin Escape", "Buscando Justicia", "Perseguido, Presa De La Secta", "Ghost Ship", "Volcano"... que parecen olvidadadas y que bien merecen un Blu Ray en nuestro país y no se han editado todavía además de ser imposible encontrarlas en ediciones extranjeras con Castellano. Volviendo a este Blu Ray, contiene Castellano, y está fenomenal. Un saludo.