Critic Reviews
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Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
An entertaining ham and cheese sandwich...
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Brian Orndorf, DVDTalk.com
Ninja irritates far more than it thrills. Ninja pictures come around with all the regularity of Halley's Comet, making the complete uselessness of the feature all the more excruciating.
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Brent Simon, Shared Darkness
As long as there are strip-mall dojos and martial arts fans who wish to see their kick-fantasy shenanigans acted out on celluloid, there will be movies like Ninja.
Featured Audience Ratings
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I am officially i think 40 minutes into this . . i remember seeing this before . . American Ninja and the many Sho Kosugi flicks . . . the martial arts is solid but the acting is pure B maybe even D .. . If your looking to remember 80's Ninja flicks this might be one for you.
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Well this action takes you right back to the late 80's early 90's. If you picture 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' but with blood and for an adult audience then you have 'Ninja'. I won't lie to you I found this silly nonsense kinda fun to watch hehe it… More
Well this action takes you right back to the late 80's early 90's. If you picture 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' but with blood and for an adult audience then you have 'Ninja'. I won't lie to you I found this silly nonsense kinda fun to watch hehe it was full of totally ridiculous set pieces, hordes of blade fodder in the form of a never ending supply of henchmen all wearing identical outfits which is simply hilarious and some really over the top CGI blood spurting. Yes this was an epic slice of hokum.
I gotta admit there was some nice imagery throughout the film with the ninja suits, especially in the dark rainy parts and the dojo sequences at the start. Some cool fights, moves and some nice weaponry to boot...its a film about cool ass ninjas, think about it.
Totally predictable and extremely corny with all the regular goodie and baddie cliches but admittedly Adkins (the goodie ninja guy) has probably the best looking torso I've seen since Jason Scott Lee in 'Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story'!. As a man I must admit I was impressed! and this is one of his early films too, before he became even more buffed for the 'Undisputed' franchise.
I really didn't know they made films like this anymore hehe yet I'm pleased. Really brought memories of my teen years flooding back, the only thing missing from this Shinobi epic is Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa snearing his ass off, now that would have been the ultimate badassery.
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It's a cool, bloody as hell and kick ass action movie that delivers. It packs lots of kicks, punches and sword play into one fast, furious, fun and exhilarating adventure. A tremendously thrilling and eye-popping film. Scott Adkins is one of the coolest new action heroes around… More
It's a cool, bloody as hell and kick ass action movie that delivers. It packs lots of kicks, punches and sword play into one fast, furious, fun and exhilarating adventure. A tremendously thrilling and eye-popping film. Scott Adkins is one of the coolest new action heroes around and i hope we see more of him in lead roles. A movie that's all style and adrenaline. A pulse-racing and action-packed thrill-ride that you will love to watch. It's slick, stylish and delivers well-crafted action sequences in the tradition of old-school martial arts films. Director, Isaac Florentine and Scott Adkins keep delivering the goods when they work together.
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Me personally? I think the formula is a pretty simple one: the better the actor, the better the villain. No matter the strength of the script, if you pick a good actor for your villain, the day is saved. Automatically. If Morgan Freeman, even, had been cast as the villain, this… More
Me personally? I think the formula is a pretty simple one: the better the actor, the better the villain. No matter the strength of the script, if you pick a good actor for your villain, the day is saved. Automatically. If Morgan Freeman, even, had been cast as the villain, this would be a multiple-star experience. Sadly, however, that little, basic, simple, obvious formula has escaped team <i>Ninja.</i> Not to pick on Tsuyoshi Ihara. Everyone in this one except Togo Igawa, playing the sensei, is weak. <p> The last movie I saw in this genre vein was Rain's <i>Ninja Assassin.</i> See <i>Ninja Assassin</i> if you're looking for a slick ninja action flick. This one pretty much bites the big one. In a feeble kind of all gum and no teeth way.
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24/05/2010 (DVD)
Pretty awesome martial-art action for a B grade or lesser.
A very average plot with no serious acting and a little romance on the side as usual but nothing major.
I'm into the whole ninja thing so it didn't bore me but it's one of those films that… More
24/05/2010 (DVD)
Pretty awesome martial-art action for a B grade or lesser.
A very average plot with no serious acting and a little romance on the side as usual but nothing major.
I'm into the whole ninja thing so it didn't bore me but it's one of those films that feels more like you're watching a T.V series.
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Silly, solid B-movie that has it's formula down tight. Fun to watch with your brain off.
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While reading a user review of Assassination Games I wondered who in the world was Scott Adkins. So I went to Simon who works at a local video store and he gave me this stupid mess of a movie starring Scott Adkins.
Ninja is about a westerner named Casey (Adkins), studying Ninjutsu… More
While reading a user review of Assassination Games I wondered who in the world was Scott Adkins. So I went to Simon who works at a local video store and he gave me this stupid mess of a movie starring Scott Adkins.
Ninja is about a westerner named Casey (Adkins), studying Ninjutsu in Japan, is asked by the Sensei to return to New York to protect the legendary Yoroi Bitsu, an ard chest that contains the weapons of the last Koga Ninja. Do I have to tell you that the story is bad, the title has Ninja in it. A majority of the time if the movie has the word Ninja in it it's going to be bad. It has it shares of pointless violence and dumb moments. I like it how evil Ninja needs night-vision-goggle to see in the dark even though the other characters could see just fine without them and it's never really that dark in the movie. My favorite dumb moment is when the Ninja fights his old Sensei in a temple and our Ninja cuts out the light. This leaves the Sensei unable to find the Ninja even though the temple is not really that dark and the Ninja is in front of him.
So clearly I found the story to be stupid and pointless, which is a shame when you actually have solid action scenes. Now these are some impressive action scenes, but it's pointless and mindless as we're never given a solid reason to get behind it. It adds no tension to the action and it comes tired when the movie has a ton of them. The acting on the other hand, is almost deserving of a Razzie nomination. Scott Adkins especially, he's not interesting as a leading actor and he's not really entertaining when he's not fighting anyone. Though to date this movie has probably the best looking Ninja suit to date and it's not the cliche Ninja suit we're use to seeing.
So what we got left is a movie with a boring leading actor when he's not in action mode, a poorly told story, and really bad acting. Now I could understand the appeal to Adkins from watching this movie as he really does some impressive action scenes, unfortunately he just doesn't have the acting skills for me to be a fan.
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This was okay...I had the expectation of alot more to it. The movie had action but the presence of a made for tv serial taste and feel to it. If you can get this as a bonus or free movie this is worth it for that measure.
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Some pretty entertaining action here! I want some good fights in my direct-to-video action and 'Ninja' doesn't disappoint there! Whereas the much hyped 'Ninja Assassin' bored me terribly, just plain 'ol 'Ninja' delivers enough fun and mindless… More
Some pretty entertaining action here! I want some good fights in my direct-to-video action and 'Ninja' doesn't disappoint there! Whereas the much hyped 'Ninja Assassin' bored me terribly, just plain 'ol 'Ninja' delivers enough fun and mindless plot to keep me satisfied!
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This movie rocked something fierce. I never had even heard about it I just put in "Ninja" when I was searching for "Ninja Assassin" and found this first not realizing. Best mistake ever. It was like a western take on classic eastern martial arts films. It had… More
This movie rocked something fierce. I never had even heard about it I just put in "Ninja" when I was searching for "Ninja Assassin" and found this first not realizing. Best mistake ever. It was like a western take on classic eastern martial arts films. It had plenty of eastern influence but there was just enough westernization that it feels like a heartfelt homage. You got the typical gaijin (white guy) at a ninja training school. The school is about preserving the ancient art of the ninja but making it more pure and not as ruthless as it use to be. Then you got the prodigal son who was there first and feels entitled. Of course the two have to fight and the prodigal son loses it thus getting him banished from the school. This of course leads to vengeance needing to be taken. The blood effects were definitely that of the old school martial arts movies as geysers go squirting whenever someone gets cut. Then there was this epic scene in the subway with a crutch that was just awesome. For anyone that enjoys good martial arts films this is definitely worth a watch.
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