Ninja: American Warrior (1987) Poster

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4/10
Ninja nonsense that only entertains at the climax
Leofwine_draca30 November 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Ninja: American Warrior is more crazed ninja nonsense from Godfrey Ho and his team at IFD. If this film feels more confusing than all of the rest of Ho's ninja movies, that's because the original film which has been pasted into the scenario has absolutely nothing to do with ninjas at all, and the efforts to bind the new ninja footage and the original film together are clumsy at best. In truth, the old footage is rather nondescript and boring (fancy having a master villain called the Shrew!), while the new footage is as silly and cheesy as you'd expect. It only really entertains at the climax, the usual ninjas-fight-in-the-woods craziness with bizarre deaths, crude special effects, and silly weaponry.
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6/10
Another masterpiece by the Albert Einstein of HK cinema! GODFREY HO
rottingcarrot26 August 2005
Warning: Spoilers
The year is 1987 and Godfrey ho aka God had created another ninja extravaganza! Movie lovers around the world camped out for days in front of theaters hoping to get a glimpse of the latest work of passion from a director who always delivered.

The curtain was pulled back and audiences were greeted with some soccer mom with bad eighties hair fighting ninjas in a field. Her kung fu is absolutely pathetic but she somehow kills them all. She then puts on a cheap rubber mask and we cut to footage from a totally different movie God probably fished out of the dumpster behind the local fish market.

In this movie some lady fighter named amazonia is battling the Shrew; a ruthless lady crime lord. these scenes are rather boring. There's some adequate action but it just lacks the touch of God to give it ninja life.

The Ninja movie God directed on the other hand (which is spliced together with scenes from the dumpster movie) is anything but boring! This movie is about some white criminal guy who is trying to smuggle cocaine across the ocean in a rowboat. The cops try to stop him but he won't have it, he kills them and sets up an open air drug lab on the concrete foundation of a demolished building.

The police become desperate to capture the bad guy So they hire some white police guy who is also a ninja to capture him.

Amazonia is supposed to be white ninja's partner on the case (the only link between the two movies.) They manage this by showing a woman who looks a bit like amazonia in a couple scenes with white ninja. By this point God has confused the viewer so badly that they really have no idea what's going on anyway.

If you're still awake after the dumpster plot line is over then get ready for some classic ninja action God style! White ninja infiltrates the villains "drug lab" and confronts the villain who recognizes white ninja from back when they fought together in Vietnam. They have an action packed flashback where white ninja and villain showcase their extreme overacting.

Villain is outraged at the way his country treated him when he got back from nam and invites white ninja to be his partner in crime. White ninja declines and they eventually have a big fight between white ninja and villain and his army.

Some highlights: white ninja carrying a toy pale as he makes booby traps white ninja uses a slingshot to explode a grenade an enemy is carrying. they literally dressed a department store mannequin, put a couple m 80s in its hand and blow it up. the wig goes flying off and the mannequin awkwardly falls on its side.

inexplicably, villain now has some red and gold ninjas in his gang (i guess they thought they better throw some in for good measure) one of the ninjas uses rubber hoops as weapons!? The hoops turn out to be magic and can hover.

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. The dumpster movie was pretty boring but the ninja movie parts are everything a fan of trash could ask for! Over acting to the extreme, half baked dialog, and extremely low budget or no budget props and sets! One thing i'm confused about though is why this movie is banned in canada? This movie could have been rated PG.
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7/10
Hilariously inept ninja shenanigans
HaemovoreRex14 January 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Yes indeed, it's yet another of those hilariously unfathomable cut & splice ninja outings from the 1980's!

I must admit, that this is a particularly confusing entry in this all too little appreciated genre to say the least, for just when you think that you have been introduced to a main protagonist, they are invariably suddenly killed off in some violent manner!

In relation to the aforementioned deaths - they are noticeably rather more 'politically incorrect' (perhaps somewhat of a misnomer in this context I admit) than is generally allowed to be shown here in the west….here we witness such atrocities as a child being strangled to death and in another scene, a pregnant woman brutally stabbed to death in front of her husband!

Even the ninja hero in this is not exactly above a bit of sadism it seems in fact as demonstrated when in one rather bizarre scene he hurls a shuriken into a woman who trades her husbands life in exchange for some jewellery (!!!) and then proceeds to call her and I quote 'You ungrateful bitch!' and a 'Sh*t!' He then slices off her ring finger (with the ill begotten ring still on it!) with another star!

As expected, acting and voice over work is hilariously god awful in this (a factor that always adds to the charm!)

For me though, there is one scene near the end of this that pretty much sums up the joyously carefree ineptitude prevalent throughout the entire film.....

Our hero manages to restrain his nemesis with some fighting hoops...however still not entirely ready to admit defeat the bad guy suddenly launches a sneaky kick, knocking our hero down before attempting to make a break for it......as he turns you can clearly see that he is in fact holding a cigarette in his hand at the time!!!! What the hell?!!! Where did it come from?! Well presumably the actor playing the part was having a puff between takes and in true Ed Wood style film making, the director being too lazy to do another take hoped that no one would notice!!! Incredible!!! Still such complete incompetence only serves to elevate the fun factor here as with other films of it's ilk and so I must wholeheartedly recommend this to all bad movie lovers everywhere! Rejoice my friends.....this is indeed truly craptacular!
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