It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Blistering performances.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Blistering performances.

Sho Kosugi, the undisputed king of ninja flicks, helms this second entry in Cannon's unofficial "ninja trilogy," following a ninja, who, after losing the majority of his family in a ninja raid, swears off violence and moves to America to open an art gallery. Alas, he is caught in a web of intrigue involving the local mafia and a mysterious, demon-masked ninja. Kosugi, perhaps not the greatest actor who ever lived, is unmatched in his martial arts skills on display, performing most of his own stunts in and out of his badass black gi. Come for the action, and stay for how utterly awesome and unrelenting it is. A must- see for any fan of martial arts movies.

The follow up to "Enter the Ninja", sees Cannon productions this time set the action mostly in America for "Revenge of the Ninja". Quite an improvement over the original, but still a clumsy and cheap low-grade b-affair. However that doesn't knock just how much fun it is to watch. Ninjas doing their stuff are truly a sight to behold… even though the stunt work here was less than graceful. At least it did up the ante, numerous carnage and frenetic set-pieces. Shô Kosugi returns, but this time the leading man and also playing the good guy. His character Cho is forced to leave Japan with his son and mother, after his family was slaughtered by a band of ninja assassins. He flees to America with the help of a friend who becomes his business partner, but unknowingly to him he's being used with his valuable dolls being used to traffic heroine. Although his mother did warn him "I do not trust this man, my son". The plot is rather slight, unassuming and secondary to the on-screen damage (gushing blood and ripped clothing) and dramatic ninja combat. So it delivers on what you want. Some scenes are rather humorous (unintentional of course) and random. Plenty of child beatings. Like the sequences of his young son practicing his martial arts on bullies… well just say every scene where it has the kid battling on (and squealing while doing so) is quite rib-tickling. What we wait for is the ultimate battle… and it is a good one too. Friend vs. friend. In costume, swords, ninja stars and wait a flame thrower. It's quite a long, legendary standoff. However we do not have wait around as it still comprises of some enjoyable exchanges where Cho goes after some thugs who steal his dolls. This makes him upset. There he battles Chief. An American Indian who bestows some tomahawks. Chief vs. Ninja. "If anyone gets in the way, scalp them." After that ordeal, he doesn't look all that great. Tattered and bruised with his clothing hanging off him, after literally going for a ride, but still better dress than the next group of thugs he takes on. Which leads to some violence in a kid's playground being condoned, where four bad-ass posers (with questionable fashion sense) hang out and get their asses whipped by Cho. It's an on-going cycle, but hard not to admire.Everything moves by at a fast clip, even though the editing is somewhat jaunty, but the cinematography is masterfully judged, the shonky electronic score is addictive and the slow motion is beautiful. Slow-mo and violence is always a win-win. Can't go wrong with a hobo informant getting a ninja star in the face and then diving into a water fountain… while being caught in slow-mo. Just beautiful. The performances are lifeless, but honestly who cares here. A serious looking Shô Kosugi equips himself well enough, Keith Vitali hones down that evil cackle and Ashley Ferrare is the eye-candy under hypnosis.Silly, over-the-top and entertaining b-grade ninja hokum.

When his family is butchered in Japan by ninjas, Cho moves to America with his young son and mother to escape the conflict and start anew. He opens a Japanese doll shop and continues his training without ever having the need to use it. Unbeknownst to him though, his imported dolls are being used as a cover for heroin smuggling by his "friend" and business partner Braden – who is also secretly a deadly and powerful ninja. With Braden knocking off his mobster partners, the police turn to Cho to help them identify the martial arts secrets being used, drawing Cho back into a deadly battle he had sought to escape.Someone pointed me to this film as "a great ninja movie" and, despite that, I approached it with a certain amount of caution mainly because I think few things highly praised live up to the hype. So it was with Revenge of the Ninja but not to the point that it wasn't actually a pretty enjoyable film for what it was. The first thing to point out is the very thing you will not need pointed out – it is dated. Really dated. If you were a film designer looking to set a film in a cheesy version of the early 80's then you would do well to watch this film and take notes because it really is of its time. This is not its fault of course, it is only down to its age but it is unavoidably a problem with watching this film today. It is not just visually that the film is cheesy though, because the film is dated beyond just costume and style. The plot is a simple affair but I was pleasantly surprised by the action sequences they produced. Yes they are delivered to terrible TVM musical accompaniment but they are done reasonably well with quite a violent edge to them that belies the 80's presentation. They are not helped at all by director Firstenberg's TV direction but they are still quite enjoyable in a cheesy way.The cast match the cheese with their performances. Shô Kosugi has got moves but he is straight from the "intense stare" school of martial arts acting. Roberts helps make him look good with a performance that highlights when his stand-in was used. Behind the mask in the action scenes "he" is impressively fluid and natural, take those away and he is a big bit of beef and as wooden as you like. The rest of the cast follow this lead, all being pretty poor at acting and generally there because they (a) are Oriental, (b) are muscular goons or (c) are blonde, have 80's underwear and are willing to show their t*ts to camera.Revenge of the Ninja is terribly dated and cheesy but it is hard to deny that it does deliver some solid ninja action. More of a guilty pleasure than a pleasure mind you but genre fans who know what they are in for should find it worth seeing.

Incredible! Just incredible! Funny how just about every movie you loved as a child seems so stupid once you're an adult. But this film seems BETTER somehow! Most likely this is due to the fact that I took it seriously as a boy. Now, in addition to the incredible martial arts and stunt work, I can also appreciate the so-bad-they're-hilarious moments. I tell you I didn't want this movie to end. I was either gasping at the stunts or violence, or howling with laughter at some of the ridiculous characters and dialog. Let's put it this way: the past 90 minutes are some of the most entertaining of my recent life.The film deals with a ninja warrior played by veteran martial arts star Sho Kosugi who travels to America with his mother and son after the rest of his family are massacred by an army of ninjas in the opening scene. He intends to go into business with an American partner selling Japanese dolls in an art gallery. But this business partner named Braden is up to no good. He has the dolls stuffed with heroin and plans to use the gallery as a front and sell off the opiate to the mafia. When the mafia tries to double cross Braden, we find that there is much more to him than meets the eye. He is also a ninja! A bad-assed ninja, at that! He begins to carve up some of the mafia guys, and then eventually turns on Kosugi and his family. This sets up a spectacular duel between the two ninjas in the film's final ten minutes.But getting there is also very fun. There are absolutely no dead spots in the film. There is action in virtually every moment. The body count has to be close to or exceeding 100. In addition to ninjas and the mafia, our hero must also deal with some street thugs that look like rejects from the village people! In one scene, a guy dressed like an Indian (moccasins and all) breaks into the studio with some buddies and tries to steal the dolls for the mafia. Kosugi, while kicking these guys' butts, makes Jackie Chan look like a wussy. Jumping over cars, dodging bullets, you name it. In a later scene, Kosugi and a police buddy roust a group of additional village people types in a park as onlookers watch with amazement! The moves, the weaponry, the situations.... I just cannot describe how entertaining this movie is! Though it takes place mostly in Los Angeles, it was filmed in Salt Lake City. That looks like a beautiful place to live. In many of the scenes you can see the Wausach Mountains in the background. The acting is pretty bad, but it only helps to add the one's enjoyment of the film. And the guy who plays Braden looks kind of like Will Ferell in the scenes when he's unmasked! And when he's dressed as a ninja, he wears this evil-looking silver mask. Really adds to the character. Not much more I can add. If you're into martial arts flicks you simply must see this. It hasn't been on TV for years. 10 of 10 stars.The Hound.