Customer Reviews

American Ninja 5 [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I will state right off the bat that I have always been a fan of the American Ninja series. Yes I know they aren't art but I enjoy the cheesball action and performances. After viewing American Ninja 4, which was rather entertaining in its own B-grade way, I was looking forward to viewing American Ninja 5.

The hookey cover art through me for a loop at first. It's just a lame picture of the characters in the film in stupid poses and mist added in to make it look "mystic". I was hoping the movie would be more entertaining than the cover art led on. Sadly it wasn't.

Here we get the "PG-13/Karate Kid wanna-be" version of American Ninja. David Bradley (American Ninja 3 & 4) returns but this time he plays a different character. He plays Joe Castle and not Sean Davidson from American Ninja 3 & 4. I found that to be a little strange, but oh well. One of his friends (the guy from the Karate Kid series no less) drops off his grandson (named Hiro) for Bradley to look after. Bradley reluntantly agrees and even takes the kid on a date he has that night. His date gets kidnapped by, take a wild guess, a bunch of ninja and he and the annoying Hiro kid go off to South America to rescue her. This is where the story rips-off American Ninja 2. The Ninja are using Bradley's 'girlfriend' (even though he only new her for a day) as blackmail so her father will create a deadly gas. Snore, been there, done that, and better.

Another bummer is that now the great fight sequences are gone. The fights from the previous Ninja enstallments are more tamed down, kid friendly battle scenes with Hiro making stupid comments every now and then. It's as if the filmmakers were targeting fans of the Karate Kid series instead of fans the violent R-Rated American Ninja franchise. Mistake.

To top it off, the music is some of the worst I have ever heard and belongs more to a made for cable Disney movie than a martial arts film.

If you can't tell, this is the Disney version of an American Ninja film. Hell I thought any minute I would see Herbie the Love Bug driving down the street to great our heros. Only buy this DVD if your a completest. Otherwise your better off buying American Samurai, which would have been a far better American Ninja sequel than this tame junk.

When I heard of American Ninja 5 for the first time a few years ago, I thought to myself, I loved the first 4, I got to find this one. Well it's a good thing I didn't since I saw it one late night on Spike TV. Apparently it's a kiddie martial arts movie much more similar to 3 Ninjas than American Ninja. What made the people who made this movie decide to deceive people into thinking that this kid friendly ninja movie is a sequel to the rated R action of American Ninja 1-4? I suppose they wanted to capatalize on the success on 3 Ninjas and slap on the title of American Ninja at the same time actually thinking they would make more money or something.

It's not rated R, and David Bradley doesn't even play Sean Davidson this time. Maybe Michael Dudikoff wasn't available this time again like in part 3 and they thought, everyone wants to see a kid friendly movie instead of the 2 American ninjas teaming up again. What a joke. Instead they team up Bradley as a new character with a 10 year old who, although good at martial arts, but c'mon, he's 10. And if I remember correctly, there was actually ninja on rollerskates in this movie. Oh yeah, and the leader ninja actually wears a cape. Ninja don't wear capes. He looked more like an Asian Dr. Strange then a ninja.

I had heard the original title for this was actually American Dragons. It even had that title when it was on Spike TV. It must have done so bad that before they shipped it to stores they probably changed the title to grab fans of the American Ninja films. Luckily, I was not sucked in, I didn't buy this dvd, I wouldn't even buy it for a dollar. I might take it for free just to sell it to someone I hate. Actually, I wouldn't subject anybody to see this and would use it as a coaster instead.

I wish I could give this 0 stars because it makes me so upset. Please, I do recommend the first 4 American Ninjas which I have on dvd, but don't get this. Just look at the ridiculous cover and know it's terrible. There's a reason I only mention American Ninja 1-4 to anybody and never mention this. Because this is not a sequel! This has nothing to do with the first 4 films! Remember that! Actually don't! Pretend this doesn't exist like I do.

Too right, American Ninja 5 is clearly aimed at kids, with scarce violence, hiperactive martial moves and "mystical" ninjas flying around. Special effects are terrible, martial arts coreography is quite good (for a person who enjoys martial arts) and acting is very B, even Z, I'd say. Not a bad movie if you're 12 years old or really into martial arts. David Bradley is not that bad acting, I've seen worse martial arts actors, and I wreckon the kid who played Hiro sucked a little more. Ninjitsu aspect of the movie just goes to far fetched: ninjas of all colours, bad special effects, an invincible David Bradley, who finds all weapons effective and little-realistic blows. Lacks the magic of the first movies but still good for kick and punch fans.

Eight years after its creation, the "American Ninja" series released its fourth and final sequel, disappointingly ending its status as one of the more recognizable American martial arts franchises on a dreary note. "American Ninja 5" is a pretty bad, but contrary to its IMDb status, I wouldn't say it's one of the worst movies ever made. Aficionados of the first four films needn't bother with this one, though, and neither for the most part do regular action fans, but lovers of camp will be rolling for this one, and that ought to count for something. At least it's not a boringly bad movie.

The story: when the presumptive girlfriend of ninjutsu instructor Joe Kastle (David Bradely, American Samurai) is kidnapped by an evil millionaire (Clement von Franckenstein, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger series) who is blackmailing the girl's scientist father (Aharon Ipale, The Mummy) to create a deadly chemical weapon, he must pursue her to Venezuela and deal with the legions of a deadly enforcer (James Lew, Balance of Power)...all while taking care of a rebellious young boy in his charge (Lee Reyes, "The Red Canvas").

Hearsay claims that this isn't a true sequel, that it wasn't even meant to be an actual addition to the series, but I'm not convinced: yes, the film introduces all-new characters and doesn't reference any of the previous movies, but I can't imagine that the familiar plot points, the presence of dozens of masked ninjas, and the fact that the phrase "American ninja" is actually uttered are all coincidental. Nevertheless, the movie does introduce a lot of alien ideas to the series, none of which work. Toning down the violence content to suit a PG-13 rating is disappointing, but even more so is the film's attempts at humor: as the first installment of the series to readily acknowledge itself as an action-comedy, the film goes slightly overboard with dummy antics, mostly supplied by kid star Lee Reyes. Mystical and quasi-magic elements are also introduced, most noticeably in that David Bradley and his young friend can spiritually summon their respective sensei and uncle (Pat Morita, who gets top billing but only has a total of three scenes) via meditation and a lot of white smoke, but also in that James "Viper" Lew can appear and disappear in a similar cloud of white smoke with greater ease and versatility than you'd think possible. Straight-arrow would've been better.

Speaking of James Lew, you really gotta feel sorry for him. As the American action industry's stalwart Asian villain and stuntman, he's done a lot of cool stuff in his career, but this role is pretty embarrassing. When compared to previous performers who had played similar parts in earlier entries to the series (e.g. Tadashi Yamashita as the Black Star Ninja, Kely McClung as the Super Ninja), Lew looks mighty stupid in his shocking red outfit and Dracula cape, like a Power Rangers villain. He's also much chattier than previous enforcer characters, therein lowering his level of mysticism further. You'd hope that he'd at least bring some acceptable fight scenes to the picture, but all of the six matches rate a solid "meh." They're not outright bad, just very boring, thanks to excessive cutting and less weapons-handling by David Bradley than I'm used to. He does, however, blatantly steal Jean-Claude Van Damme's trademark helicopter kick, which is kind of cool.

Depending on whom you ask, though, the real killer here is the film's lack of fluidity, due to some inauspiciously-blocked and -edited scenes, coupled with poor acting all around. A lot of these scenes really must have looked better in storyboard, is all I can figure. In this, the movie retains a certain kind of charm and lets you look forward to the next simple scene or exchange they're going to bungle, but it's not enough to make for a truly enjoyable film. Leave it, I say.

Not the best martial arts movie ever made, but I didn't want the best martial arts movie ever made. I wanted vast amounts of entertaining cheese. American Ninja 5 delivered! Don't even try to take it seriously.

The fifth part of this saga may not be the best one (the carisma of Michael Dudikoff was unique) but in my opinion, it's definately worth a look if you are a martial arts fan. To start off with, Michael Dudikoff was not a martial artist. David Bradley is, so the fighting sequences and coreography are a lot better than the first two movies. On the other hand, I have to agree with the other reviewers as it being a cheesey movie with a story that just wastes the cliché and certainly aimed at kids. In a nutshell, the perfect movie to watch on a Saturday after lunch. Very inoffensive but with good martial arts moves and in my opinion, except American Ninja 3, 4 and 5 are two very good martial arts films with an actor who is not so bad in front of the cameras.

This movie was ok but part 2 is the best of them all! They could have put a better plot in this film. Hey at least this is better than part 3. If you want to see this movie rent it do not buy it.

This movie is great, and is so funny I pi**ed my pants, and my friend had an asthma attack.

I saw this movie on TV, and I have to say that it's probably not the best movie in the world...but it's not the worst, either. So lighten up, peoples! The Martial Arts is actually pretty good, not as cheesy as Power Rangers style Martial Arts. I know that guy David Bradley isn't a very good actor (no wonder I haven't seen him in any other movie recently!), but the kid who plays Hiro is the only one (besides Pat Morita), with actual acting talent. Also, the kid who plays Hiro is actually pretty good looking. Anyways, if you've seen the other AMERICAN NINJA movies, then you can be pretty sure what AMERICAN NINJA 5 is all about. To put a long story short: Bad acting (for the most part), a cheesy storyline, OK special effects, and OK Martial Arts moves. This movie is the kind of movie you should see at least once, but not buy. If you can rent it or watch on TV, that is better than actually going out to buy the video or DVD, if they've made a DVD out of it. Could've been so much better!

AMERICAN NINJA V (5) is one of the more fun (family / kids) martial arts movies I have seen. Cute kid. Nice, compelling story of his journey to become a Ninja and a man. I highly recommend this for family viewing. My two sons loved it.