Wonderful character development!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Good concept, poorly executed.

Don't Believe the Hype

This movie has no connections with any of the previous four American Ninja movies. David Bradley plays a new character here. As bad as this sequel is, it's not even the worst sequel in the series. That dubious honor goes to American Ninja IV. Everything is just shoddily thrown together here, but what do you expect with something that is done by the now obsolete production company, Cannon? Everything just screams cheap here, from the tacky villains, the setting, it's all truly terrible. James Lew (The main henchman for the big villain Clement Von Franckenstein ) looked like a Power Ranger villain, with his ridiculous red & black silk cape, and a pendant hanging around his neck, and retractable spikes coming out of his hand like Wolverine. It was extremely cartoonish. He also conjures up ninjas out of nowhere to fight David Bradley. Sound familiar? The fight scenes themselves are rather bland. David Bradley is obviously a skilled martial artist, but there is nothing out of the ordinary, move wise with him. He's also an extremely wooden actor, despite a little bit of natural charisma. He's more in the Chuck Norris School of acting in my opinion. Adding a kid in this movie, was a terrible choice. Lee Reyes (Hiro the kid) was a complete and utter nuisance. He is given far too much screen time, and never shuts up. He seems to be skilled in martial arts, and knows how to cry on cue. That's about the only compliments I can give him. Anne DuPont (Lisa) couldn't act her way out of a paper bag as the love interest. Stars like Norman Burton & Pat Morita look embarrassed to be here. Morita's role is a glorified cameo, and it's weird to see him speak almost perfect English. The film shoddily tries to add emotional impact by revealing family issues at the end to fuel the good guys, but it failed miserably. Final Thoughts: This is a bad movie. I cannot recommend this to anybody, but at least it's not as bad as American Ninja IV. This movie is obscure for a reason, despite a DVD release. Don't waste any money on it!3/10

While this film isn't part of the actual 'American Ninja' cannon since it has nothing to do with the previous four films in the supposed series, I really didn't care. After all, NONE of these film have decent ratings (the highest current on has a score of 4.8) and they are all apparently sub-par. However, the most incredibly sub-par of them all is this film, "American Ninja V", which has the distinction of being so universally hated that it made the IMDb Bottom 100 list--and that is why I chose to watch it. You see, I occasionally like a really bad film--it gives you a good laugh at the filmmakers' expense! This film has one cliché that makes it hard to like. No, it's not ninjas--it's insufferable kids who come along to help the hero. Not only is this kid an annoying brat, but he also is a bad actor...like most of the folks in the film. This is a problem, as most folks coming to see the film probably ended up rooting for him to get killed! A modern ninja (David Bradley) is asked to watch some brat (Hiro--Lee Reyes). Almost immediately, they get sucked into an international conspiracy involving a crazed general, weapons of mass destruction, purple ninjas and some cartoon-like baddie in a black and red outfit with a cape! They end up in Venezuela (which might well explain the current state of poor relations between this country and the US) and get their butts kicked. Then, the mysterious Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita--and yes, I know he is not really playing Miyagi here) shows up an announces that the talentless kid is really the son of a great ninja master and that he has powers that have not yet been tapped--secret ninja training his dead father taught him when he was very, very young(???). And, there is a short montage with Bradley and Reyes training and BAM, the kid is a super-ninja! Well, at least that's what they want us to believe--neither appear particularly skilled in martial arts. And the two of them go on a rampage to rescue the girl (there always is one) and save the planet.This film has neither element needed in a good martial arts film. The story and acting are dumb. And, the martial arts action is lousy. In fact, I could easily see Asians watching this and becoming angry that the US could produce a film with absolutely no one with good martial arts skills. Well, perhaps not--as I have seen a lot of martial arts films and bad martial arts films are unfortunately relatively common. And this brings me to a problem with ranking this bad film among the horrid Bottom 100 list. The Asians have made a lot of martial arts films and have produced a few that are FAR WORSE than this film. For every Sonny Chiba or Bruce Lee film, there are others that simply are terrible. My favorite of these horrid films featured guys using 3 foot tongues to fight AND they had gorillas (guys in cheap gorilla suits) who also did wretched kung fu! So, no matter how stupid "American Ninja V" is, it isn't even close to the worst the Far East has to offer. The big difference is that "American Ninja V" has a much wider audience and therefore is easier to notice and hate! For the life of me, I sure wish I could remember the name of the film with kung fu gorillas and the guys with the huge tongues--I'd love to see it again! I remember how the punches and kicks often weren't even within a foot of the intended victim! It made "American Ninja V" look like "Gone With the Wind" in comparison!! If you can place the title, drop me a line. I am SURE it's a real film and I am not hallucinating about it! Cartoon-like villains and special effects

Remember how awesome the 90's were? This movie encapsulates the 90's completely in an all out ninja assault. What can I say about this cinematic masterpiece? The way David Bradley swiftly knock out any ninja without even being hit once shows that he is truly a master of martial arts to be rivaled by none. And the bond forged between his character Joe Kastle and his tiny sidekick companion Hiro is breathtaking and emotional. Each character uses their own abilities separately at the start of the movie to help each other out but then bond as one ninja super force when Joe teaches Hiro the way of the ninja in under a day. Forget Joe Armstrong and Sean Davidson! They have nothing to do with this movie because David Bradley uses his amazing skills as a thespian to switch between roles in a series where hes already played as a prominent character. Joe Kastle is the best thing to happen to this series, if you don't own this movie you'll get cancer and die in your own feces.

The original plot is scrapped for a tedious yarn involving David Bradley taking some youth prodigy under his wing, and teaching him the ways of the ninja while saving a scientist's daughter from Viper (James Lew) and his band of ninjas in this belated and worthless sequel. The main problem is of course that Michael Dudikoff and Steve James are nowhere to be found. (This was the appeal outside of the action scenes in 1 and 2) instead we have the charisma-free Bradley who stumbles through a series of lame one-sided fight scenes with the same expression on his face. The action scenes themselves are lame and even the David Bradley VS James Lew action scene, which I for one was looking forward to, comes off as utterly incompetent. Worst of all though, is that there's a whiny kid and that alone makes this deplorable. If you really want to see a white guy ninja movie, stick with American Ninja 2-the best of the series.1/5 Matt Bronson Review brought to you courtesy of Spike TV and their midnight airing.