Incannerax
What a waste of my time!!!
BootDigest
Such a frustrating disappointment
Phonearl
Good start, but then it gets ruined
HottWwjdIam
There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.
Harriet Deltubbo
When a scientist's daughter is kidnapped, American Ninja (David Bradley), attempts to find her, but this time he teams up with a youngster he has trained in the ways of the ninja. The characters in this film have a lot of depth, and that makes all the difference. In the end, the audience gets a casserole of film elements and little of the satisfaction that comes from watching these types of movies. The film is dark, brooding, intense and most of all violent. It's meant to be goofy, then there are fisticuffs back and forth with those who claim to work for justice. That said, the main plot of the film was constantly being interrupted!
MartinHafer
While this film isn't part of the actual 'American Ninja' cannon since it has nothing to do with the previous four films in the supposed series, I really didn't care. After all, NONE of these film have decent ratings (the highest current on has a score of 4.8) and they are all apparently sub-par. However, the most incredibly sub-par of them all is this film, "American Ninja V", which has the distinction of being so universally hated that it made the IMDb Bottom 100 list--and that is why I chose to watch it. You see, I occasionally like a really bad film--it gives you a good laugh at the filmmakers' expense! This film has one cliché that makes it hard to like. No, it's not ninjas--it's insufferable kids who come along to help the hero. Not only is this kid an annoying brat, but he also is a bad actor...like most of the folks in the film. This is a problem, as most folks coming to see the film probably ended up rooting for him to get killed! A modern ninja (David Bradley) is asked to watch some brat (Hiro--Lee Reyes). Almost immediately, they get sucked into an international conspiracy involving a crazed general, weapons of mass destruction, purple ninjas and some cartoon-like baddie in a black and red outfit with a cape! They end up in Venezuela (which might well explain the current state of poor relations between this country and the US) and get their butts kicked. Then, the mysterious Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita--and yes, I know he is not really playing Miyagi here) shows up an announces that the talentless kid is really the son of a great ninja master and that he has powers that have not yet been tapped--secret ninja training his dead father taught him when he was very, very young(???). And, there is a short montage with Bradley and Reyes training and BAM, the kid is a super-ninja! Well, at least that's what they want us to believe--neither appear particularly skilled in martial arts. And the two of them go on a rampage to rescue the girl (there always is one) and save the planet.This film has neither element needed in a good martial arts film. The story and acting are dumb. And, the martial arts action is lousy. In fact, I could easily see Asians watching this and becoming angry that the US could produce a film with absolutely no one with good martial arts skills. Well, perhaps not--as I have seen a lot of martial arts films and bad martial arts films are unfortunately relatively common. And this brings me to a problem with ranking this bad film among the horrid Bottom 100 list. The Asians have made a lot of martial arts films and have produced a few that are FAR WORSE than this film. For every Sonny Chiba or Bruce Lee film, there are others that simply are terrible. My favorite of these horrid films featured guys using 3 foot tongues to fight AND they had gorillas (guys in cheap gorilla suits) who also did wretched kung fu! So, no matter how stupid "American Ninja V" is, it isn't even close to the worst the Far East has to offer. The big difference is that "American Ninja V" has a much wider audience and therefore is easier to notice and hate! For the life of me, I sure wish I could remember the name of the film with kung fu gorillas and the guys with the huge tongues--I'd love to see it again! I remember how the punches and kicks often weren't even within a foot of the intended victim! It made "American Ninja V" look like "Gone With the Wind" in comparison!! If you can place the title, drop me a line. I am SURE it's a real film and I am not hallucinating about it! Cartoon-like villains and special effects
revolvingdoordecapitation
I hate this movie. It has absolutely nothing to do with any of the other American Ninja movies. It still has the mindless, bumbling ninjas that attack the star in usually poorly choreographed fight scenes, except now everything has been toned down for PG-13, smarmy, Kodak moment/comedic schtick.David Bradley should be ashamed of himself. He is not cast as "Joe Armstrong" of the other movies, but as "Joe Kastle." An entirely new character that had nothing to do with any of the other movies. Not as "Sean Davidson," his previously dopey character. Did the writers think that we wouldn't notice this?Most of the young Reyes kid's stunts are done by a big fat white guy stuntman. The reason I know this is because the camera makes it painfully obvious every time. The dialogue is corny, and David Bradley's comedic lines are absolutely wretched. The plot almost exactly mirrors part 2's plot: Mean rich guy with an accent that deals with other evil rich guys with accents has a "brilliant" scientist (with an accent) working for him to make some super chemical that will allow him to rule the world. Scientist with accent cannot quit or runaway because mean rich boss with accent has kidnapped his daughter (who does NOT have an accent.) American Ninja gets wrapped up in this fiasco by incredible luck and circumstances.The "Super Ninja" of this movie is a vampire looking guy (James Lew) that farts everytime he appears or disappears. Pat Morita rounds out the cast in three scenes where his presence is entirely useless to the plot.Most importantly, this movie suffers the most from one very large flaw, just like part 3: Micheal Dudikoff's entirely unemotive acting and hilarious fight sequences are not present. Thank Goodness he had the smarts to end it with part 4.
Hprog
Many years ago I saw parts 1 and 2 of the series and they were average action movies without great plots going on, ok but they were fun to see. Out of casuality, I was looking for info on the sequels here and read the terrible comments on this one, and out of casuality again, they showed it on local tv a few days ago. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING in this movie is good except for the landscapes of my country, which made me wonder how much did they spend travelling here to film such a piece of garbage. Terrible acting, laughable absurd fighting, predictable crappy plot, and it doesn't connect to the series at all. Oh boy, if any of you is reading this whithout having seen the movie, please don't see it EVER.