American Ninja

Starring Michael Dudikoff, American Ninja follows Dudikoff’s Joe Armstrong as he’s reluctantly drawn into a fight against a myriad of dangerous opponents – including dozens of well-trained ninjas and their deadly, notorious master. It’s an unapologetically over-the-top premise that is, for the most part, employed to woefully underwhelming effect by Sam Firstenberg, as the filmmaker, working from Paul De Mielche’s script, delivers a sluggish and perpetually erratic actioner that boasts few, if any, overtly positive elements – with the arms-length atmosphere compounded by seriously low-rent visuals and Dudikoff’s wooden (and far from athletic) turn as the bland central character. (It often feels as though the actor is purposefully draining his performance of charisma and personality.) And while Firstenberg has peppered the proceedings with several violent set-pieces, American Ninja‘s predominantly incompetent vibe prevents such moments from packing the visceral, exciting punch one might’ve expected (and hoped for) – with the frenetic yet entirely uninvolving climax emblematic of everything that’s wrong with the picture. The end result is a forgettable bit of 1980s excess that rarely manages to deliver the goods, which is disappointing, to say the least, given the massive potential afforded by the setup and even the title itself.

** out of ****