American Ninja (1985) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by Todd Gaines ★★★ 5

  Michael fuckin' Dudikoff as the American Ninja Joe and Steve fuckin' James as his badass mother fuckin' sidekick Jackson in a battle against a whole bunch of non-American ninjas. Hacky sack. A convoy. Resistance. The Screwdriver of Destruction. Timber! Bad guy ninjas dress in black. Fuck you arrows! A fuckin' Army brat. Body bags. Insane dubbing. A fruity truck. The Gipper. Joe fuckin' Hero. The mute pool boy. Ninja training. Mutual respect. Trash duty. Jackson's badass motorcycle. Amnesia. Jackson's laugh. Love letters. The pussycat sergeant. Ninja ambush. Bulletproof Joe. The slammer. Ninja blackout. Ninja acrobatics. Jackson's swagger. The way Joe leaps through a window. Crash and Burn. The Duke. Ninja kidnapping. DYNO-mite! Ninja arsenal. Ninja magic. Sometimes good guy ninjas…

• Review by BeardofTsu ★★★ 2

  When Jackson confirms according to witnesses' testimony and evidence, that this massacre was the work of ninjas is the greatest line of dialogue in any movie ever and I will die on that hill!

  Dumb as it gets with ninja-related ridiculousness and cartoon-like violence throughout. As stupid and silly as it is it's still pretty entertaining for what it is. Dudikoff is terrible though, like was nobody else on Earth free? A broomstick could have done a better job. Anyway, go out of your way to watch this entertaining trash.

  Just don't follow the bushido no matter how much your elderly master insists. Ninjas don't do that, old man!

• Review by Travis Lytle ★★½ 18

  Make no mistake: "American Ninja" is not a good film. It is ludicrously plotted, funkily edited, and somewhat dubiously performed. The film, however, is executed with such an earnestness and commitment to itself that it can not help but be genuinely entertaining.

  Taking place at an exotic, American military base, the story revolves around what the title suggests: an American ninja. This particular American ninja, played with a handsomely steely stare by Michael Dudikoff, gets caught up in a local plot involving the base's leadership and some nefarious citizens. Kidnappings, romance, and impromptu ninja-skills showcases punctuate the narrative.

  As ridiculous as the story is, and as roughly executed as the film may be, "American Ninja" still provides an exciting ride.…

• Review by Jeff ★★★½ 6

  About an half hour into American Ninja I started feeling kind of bad about how much I was enjoying it. Luckily, I pretty quickly realized why: we aren't going to get any more action movies that have zero interest in making sense, but are still completely void of self-conscious irony.

  This is the third Sam Firstenberg movie I've watch in the last two months (the others being Revenge of the Ninja and Ninja III: The Domination), and what I think I've figured out about the man is that he just doesn't give a fuck. He's got a checklist of things to cram into a movie and no time to deal with fact checking, continuity, or second takes. I think that's…

• Review by Blake Bergman "Various Spaghetti" ★★★★

  "American Ninja" is a 1985 Action film directed by Sam Firstenberg. There really is no illusion to the production you're going to get looking at both the cover of the film and the title that comes with it. In that sense of things, the film is pure saturated gold of action schlock. Michael Dudikoff plays Private Joe Armstrong, everyone's favorite orphan turned ninja, then turned army recruit. He carries much of the film with a distant far-off stare when people talk to him in common conversation, but it's probable that he is just trying to reconnect with his missing past due to his bought with amnesia. He's stationed at an army base in the Philippines due to a court order…

• Review by Justin LaLiberty ★★★

  admittedly goofy, oftentimes teetering very close to juvenile fantasy territory as a mash-up of Reagan-era machismo, racial appropriation and good old fashioned Canon sanctioned jingoism — yet it feels much more restrained, and dorky, than something like The Delta Force, like patriotism for dudes who wear sweatpants and buy nunchucks at flea markets, which isn’t meant to be dismissive as much as it is to hone in on its bizarre frequency which was likely much more palatable in 1985 than it is now; but I’m always down to watch Dudikoff beat up ninjas, who’s above that?

• Review by Blair Russell ★★★

  Goofy schlock... but at least it's also entertaining schlock.

  This was another watch on Prime for me; I had seen American Ninja before, albeit long ago. Even at the time I found it to be rather absurd, trying to believe that Michael Dudikoff was trained as a kid by a Japanese adopted father in the ways of the Ninjutsu and due to circumstances, he's in the Army as his only other option was jail... it is easy for me to scoff as many aspects of this Golan-Globus production, but I won't.

  The Duikoff plays the titular American Ninja, serving in the Philippines and he happens to stumble upon an insidious plot-which involves members of the military-to do an 80's movie…

• Review by matt lynch ★★★

  I like how I can go "racist cultural appropriation" or "adequate Cannon fodder", or both!

• Review by Bob McQueen ★★★ 2

  Not sure why I got it in my head to watch this series today but here I am. Brainless Cannon Goodness.

• Review by Kevin Majestyck 2

  “Have you ever heard of Ninjutsu, sir?”

  “Of course I have!”

  And just like that, AMERICAN NINJA spares the audience any further ninja exposition (ok, there’s a few more lines). Cannon had previously made the Sho Kosugi “ninja trilogy”; anyone coming into AMERICAN NINJA knows the deal with the assassins we saw attack an army convoy. In the hyper-reality of Cannon, ninjas are a known element, thank you. As it should be.
  
  Michael Dudikoff is Joe, the titular Ninja Americano. As a kid, he was orphaned in the Philippines, where a Japanese soldier holding out in the jungle since WW2 adopted him…and taught him the ways of shinobi-jutsu.They get separated, and Joe gets amnesia. Miraculously, his enlistment in the US…

• Review by Keith G ★★★★ 19

  Cool dude amnesiac Joe Armstrong (Michael Dudikoff) finds himself in the army because the judge said it's the army or the joint. Posted to the Philippines he soon has to show what he's made of, when the convoy he's driving in is set upon by a mixture of local rebels and Ninja. Turns out Joe "possesses great skills", though he doesn't know where from, fighting off the Ninja and rescuing the base commander's daughter (Judie Aronson) in the process. Despite his actions contributing to a few American deaths, he is slowly warmed to by Jackson (Steve James), who teaches martial arts/self defence on the base. The plot is that the Ninja are trying to steal army weapons, sold on by…

• Review by Elwood B. ★★★

  The most ridiculous movie I've seen in a while. Steven Seagal would be proud of those fight scenes, though.