Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This is a fascinating & kick-ass movie for anyone interested in Japanese swordplay, & especially great for us stupid Americans (gaijin) who don't know our butts from a brick about the subject, because it's a film ABOUT a gaijin who gets caught up in the middle of a generations-old violent family dispute over a mysterious pair of very important & impressive swords. Scott Glenn (Silence of the Lambs) is an American boxer recruited to smuggle an ancient sword into Japan. Upon arrival he is taken by thugs who explain that the sword he was hired to smuggle is one of a pair of swords known as "The Equals"-- swords passed down from generation to generation in a powerful Japanese bloodline. During the last passing-down ceremony, one of two brothers bloodily ambushed the ceremony, wanting The Equals for his own. Banished, he has become a ruthless & powerful modern business warrior. The other brother has stayed true to his ancient heritage & now trains others in tradition & a myriad of ancient fighting arts, including mastery of the sword. Glenn is forced to choose between the brothers to reunite The Equals & bring an end to this long and bloody feud, one way or another. Along his journey, he(& thus vicariously the viewer)is taught a wealth of knowledge about the ways of both ancient & modern Japanese power and lifestyle. It's a fascinating education that never leaves your intelligence insulted. On top of all this, the action scenes are at once brutal, graceful, thrilling, inventive, never escaping the realm of realism, & just damn astonishing. An outstanding film, The Challenge is one of my all-time favorites.

This is a captivating picture that is deeper that your average martial arts picture. This is a story of honor and culture that takes no prisoners.Scott Glenn starts out as a down and out boxing trainer who gets caught up in a plot to smuggle a samurai sword into Japan. During this film he goes from a washed up slob to an warrior steeped with honor.Toshiro Mifune is such a presence here, simply riveting performance as the teacher who turns Scot Glen into the warrior.The film has such a minimal feeling, filmed in quieter parts of Japan, not in the glitz of the Ginza. The only extravagance it the ultra modern office building where the final scenes take place.There is violence, lots of it, but none of it is gratuitous. It is part of the story. From the beginning with the hijacking of the handicapped van (where they throw one of the couriers out of the back to the office scene at the end...and what a scene it is. Scot Glen and his nemesis (Mifune's evil brother) go at it with two samurai swords. In a large office suite they slash and pummel each other like you can't believe, including usage of staple gun into one's forehead, the knocking down of a very large wall unit, and electrocution via a power cord ripped out of a computer terminal. And of course the final devastating blow at the end where Scot Glen kills his opponent by splitting his head in half.The final scene where Scott Glen emerges from the office bloodied and battered presents the two swords (finally united as a pair)to Mifune, who nods in recognition - talk about saying a million things without saying a word - such power! I first saw this on cable in 1983 and have loved it ever since. It is compact, taught and unflinching. We learn about Japanese culture regarding honor and tradition and how one can redeem themselves and earn honor and respect. A great piece of film making especially the Stephen Segal martial arts choreography.

Scott Glenn, Toshiro Mifune, Atsuo Nakamura, the list goes on, it's like a whos who of eighties martial arts movies. This movie starts of fast and is a pretty decent ride right up until the end. The first time I saw it it was called "The Sword of the Ninja" and I was about 13 years old but the fact that there were no black clad "ninja" in it didn't disappoint me at all. To top it all off the choreography was done by none other than Steven Seagal before he made it big as an actor and it shows. The end fight in the office building is quite brutal and bloody for an eighties film. Actually, there is quite a bit of gore throughout this movie. I think the final showdown/sword fight between Scott Glen and Atsuo Nakamura is one of the most realistic and well choreographed Japanese sword fights I have ever seen. Nakamura is clearly an expert who "underestimates" the gaijin opponent and Glenn is the American who will do anything including using a stapler to stay alive. I wish this would come out on DVD

No one should except to see an Oscar worthy film here, but this movie simply ran with the standard "white man learns to love Asian culture" script, and it doesn't even pull that off well. Everything Scott Glen/"Rick" learns to love about Japan is just a cliché. Instead of showing the American audience what there is to love about Japanese culture (which could fill 16 hours, easy), we're reduced to stereotyped figures and situations.I love Toshiro Mifune, and it pained me to see him have to dull his acting and swordplay in this film to suit the rest of the cast. Scott Glen is about as good of an action hero here as Ben Aflect is in "Dare Devil"... and that's bad. I normally like Mifune and Glen, even in his bad movies, but this time it was just painful."The Last Samurai" was successful where this turkey flopped- it explored the differences between two cultures that were clashing. It did this by refusing to boil everything down to simple stereotypes, as "Sword of the Ninja"/"The Challenge" did.By the way, where was the ninja? I counted a few Bushido warriors (samurai), but no ninja. Hmmmmm... "Crap Storm" is a nice title...