American Ninja

American Ninja! Stay away from meeeeeee.

The moment Michael Dudikoff opens his mouth all the cool badassness he was trying to build up is lost. VOICE SOFTER THAN DOVE SOAP.

In this 80s masterwork Michael Dudikoff stars as an all-American plank of wood (also soldier and ninja) on a quest to find an alternative expression for his face. Will he succeed? I think you can guess. On the way he meets a whole bunch of uninteresting people (at least some of them ninjas) and punches them. SPOILER ALERT! Also I think there was a plot. Tagline "The deadliest art of the Orient is now in the hands of an American" did at least make me feel warm and secure inside.

A franchise designed for the eight year olds of the 80's. It's awful right down to the core, but it's the kind of gratuitous awfulness that children and drunkards don't seem to notice, hence the multiple sequels.

There's a reason why you'll see this movie played on your local small-town affiliate station at 2 in the afternoon on a Sunday when your local sports teams are off: They couldn't afford the rights to a good movie.

There are only two kinds of eighties movies, and this is one of them.

Ridiculous yet somehow very entertaining, thanks in large part to the quick pacing and constant action.

Oh, please, Criticker. This is what all action films should strive to be. Just watched this for the first time, and I'd be hard pressed to think of a recent movie I've seen that I found more enjoyable; might be second to only SF: The Movie in my list of dumb action movies that are actually awesome. Action-packed and with hilarious acting and characters. Hell yeah. 08/05-2011

During the 80's, just as slasher movies overran the horror genre, "ninja" movies sprouted like weeds in an attempt to cash in on the popularity of 80's action and martial arts films. Proof being an entire franchise of "American Ninja" movies. Unfortunately the lead action star, Michael Dudikoff, is a black hole of charisma, but if you can completely turn your brain off to any part of the script, the movie has enough fun ninja action schlock to enjoy.

It manages to have two most annoying things that can happen to a B-movie. 1) There is an attractive unclothed female in the story and they never show her boobs. 2) Lots of unviolent violence. There is a high body count, lots of katana/gun/shuriken etc. action but hardly any blood and no gore. Why would I want to watch it then?

Hilarious 80's trash when Hollywood was trying hard to cash in on the martial arts film craze. There are some nostalgic reasons to watch this but the choreography and everything about it is completely terrible. The whole concept of there even being a white ninja is ludicrous enough that this movie will be remembered for its B-movie value

I think I learned this guy's entire repertoire of moves as an orange belt (3rd belt) in jiu jitsu. The fights were just too basic. The rest is pretty typical low budget 80s action stuff. To its credit, it's got some great pacing and some hilariously bad stereotypical characters, so I think it's worth a watch. But only one watch.

Dudikoff SUUUUUUUUUUUCKS.

A surprisingly action-packed film, but not worth watching in entirety, because the terrible acting and ridiculous premise will give you a headache, but Michael Dudikoff sure does put some ninjas in their place. If you stumble upon it on television sometime, watch a few minutes, but no more than fifteen. Crap!

Overall, American Ninja is some great 80s cheese with fun action and a complete lack of logic. Definitely worth checking out.

This is a very good film disguised as a terribly silly acton flick. The true face of the state and the dirty businesses behind war, some very crazy non sense fight scenes, and the cutest girl ever, are just some of the reasons this picture is much better than it could have been.

Decent enough action picture from the days when Cannon was cranking out one of these a week

Ninjas have kidnapped the President! Are you a Bad enough Dude to save him?

Obviously even worse than I've rated it in terms of any legitimate artistic merit whatsoever, but there's very clear so-bad-it's-good cheese value here. The terrible acting and dialogue and corny action scenes and American military macho vibe and insanely 80s musical score make for a shit movie that's fun and easy to sit through. Oh and Judie Aronson is super hot, though unlike in Friday the 13th 4 her boobs sadly remain private throughout the film's duration.

As a 8 year old child I loved it.

It's not good-bad or bad-bad, it's in-between.

Pretty enjoyable action flick. Dudikoff was hiliariously bad - He has the same expression the entire film: no matter if someone died, someone said "I Love You" or "It's a boy!".

Some of the martial arts fighting is kind of entertaining, but it spends so much of its time with the garbage plot and equally useless sideplots. Combine that with bad acting and the bad well outweighs the good.

It's a bloodless, glossy, beautifully filmed, charming, American family values, ninja movie! If that's a type, then it's the best of its type. It has the tropical beauty of Magnum PI and the ultra-safe violence of the A-Team. It mesmerises me as much now as when I was a kid so I genuinely can't find critical distance from it. It's joyous and engaging and I only wish I had seen it on the big screen when it was released.

sådan var 80'erne...desværre

Not my vibe, but I do love Steve James and his motorcycle

The end battle is fantastic (especially the escalating weapons of the evil ninja), the rest is a little slow but mostly charming. There is too little forward momentum as the main character leaves the base returns and leaves and returns again. The fight choreography is clunky much of the time, but the energy at the end makes up for it.

A little too long for what I want out of this and it’s a lot of repetitious sequences but they aren’t without their charms. Funny to think about how our rogue military action stars went from fighting ninjas and shit to the realistic stuff we have now

crap

When I was 10, ninjas were my shit. Now...I just don't know. But Steve James will always be pretty damn cool. The climactic battle is a thing of beauty. I was especially impressed with how they incorporated the ninja obstacle course into the final fight between Joe and the Black Star Ninja.

Is this a good movie? No. Does this really deserve a 8.0? Probably not. But I can't watch this while being lifted back to my childhood when this was among the best movies ever made!, so while I can see all the major flaws which will lead many others to rank it much lower I still enjoyed this immensely despite (and partly also thanks to) all its stupidities.

To echo grimsooth, I enjoyed this flick when I was 10. Now I'm trying to figure out if these are truly grown men dressing up as ninjas and whooping each other up. Wow! Definitely something you find in the faded, dusty section of the video store.

The director of "Breakin' 2: Electric boogaloo" movies goes for the action flick jugular and hits the wrong person. it does look like he's directed nearly the ENTIRE "Dude (ikoff)" back catalogue

Whatever became of one of my childhood heroes Michael Dudikoff? Someone give that guy a chance at a comeback!

An 80's action movie between cult and insignificance.

This was my favorite movie as a kid. Now I'm not sure why, it's really reaching and generally terrible... but I still have a fondness for it.

This is the stuff kids were watching in the 80's.

It's a Cannon film called American Ninja, what the hell do you expect?

nostalgia points