Such a frustrating disappointment

Great Film overall

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

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

I am groaning as I write this but during the early '80s with all the ninja craze as as a kid who practiced and loved karate, I loved this show. I never knew who Lee Van Cleef was prior to this TV show but my father did. He remember Lee in all the spaghetti westerns and would laugh that the villain of the cowboys was a good guy ninja now.You have to wince at some of the shows you liked as a kid but, you know, thats what makes the memories of your childhood so amusing if your lucky.Now, I am older and a father, and I appreciate actors like Lee more than the pinheads in Hollywood making $20 million + a picture. Actors like Lee kept us entertained and made guys like Clint Eastwood ("For a Few Dollars More") and Kurt Russell ("Escape From New York") look so good.When he died in '89 it gave me pause. He deserves to be remembered and I won't forget this weird funny show he did that kept me glued to the screen with all it's oddball fantasy.The 13-year old boy in me gives this a 9 star rating and a 10 star rating for the beady-eyed, hawk-nosed actor who played the lead.Rest-in-Peace, Lee, you are remembered.

I thought that the first couple of episodes of "The Master" (later released as "Master Ninja I') had some nice moments. Lee Van Clief may have been far too old, flabby, and frail to physically convince the audience that he could be a ninja master (amazing how "he" lost his gut whenever the stunt double stood in for him in the black ninja costume) but he did project a certain old school machismo and he could always deliver a good line. Yes, Demi Moore stuck out like a sore thumb in episode 1, and the wheelchair chick and the dancer from episode two delivered some of the worst lines in the history of television, but still...There were some decent stunts (for a TV series) and some energetic sword fights and a few decent attempts at wry East-meets-West humor. It was never 'great' the way "The Fugitive" was great, but it didn't actively suck...at first. And episode 2 had one great line (even though Van Patten flubbed it): "I knew the Master would find a way to get me up on a tightrope sooner or later." Given the situation, it was pretty funny. The problem lay in the fact that a) the producers rapidly ran out of ideas after the first few episodes, reducing the show to a buddy version of "Then Came Bronson", and b) Timothy Van Patten's mush-mouthed delivery and frozen faced acting got old quick and c) there was very little chemistry between the two lead actors. Anyone who wasn't a male adolescent with an obsession with martial arts would find very little to interest them, especially since the series producers watered down the 'ninja' content extensively - they seemed to be trying to increase the series' appeal to American audiences, but they only alienated that core element who was only watching the show for the ninja action in the first place.Especially annoying was the fact that Van Patten was supposed to be some kind of "Tiger Beat" teen-idol and had a different love interest in every episode, but the lack of chemistry between him and his female of the week was apparent even to a blind man. To be fair to Van Patten, the writers put him in some incredibly contrived situations and gave him some very dopey dialog to convey his hipness...I'm not sure Cary Grant could have pulled off some of those scenes.Although I spend a lot of time thinking about and practicing martial arts, I gave up on this series by episode 4, and every time I checked in on it for a minute or two (as the season wore on) I found even less to keep me going back. It looks like everyone else agreed, and the show sank without a trace. Too bad...but the series was a day late (to cash in on Bruce Lee) and a dollar short (wasn't willing to live up to the potential of its concept).

I liked this show when I was about twelve, it was a pleasant memory. Then I re-watched it as the MST3K episode Master Ninja 1, in which they slammed together three or four of the episodes to make a horrible movie. I admit, I was tearing up more than laughing watching it, because i really did like this goofy show when i was a kid.Lee Van Cleef as a ninja was just sad. They had better stunt doubles in Power Rangers, when the girls were clearly played by much shorter men. I mean, you could clearly see that Lee hadn't studied any kind of martial arts, which is kind of like those 70's sword swinger b-movies where the actor would just randomly swing his or her sword and 'kill' people. The fight choreography was obviously done by Stevie Wonder while he was heavily medicated. The Master's 'student', played by the gratingly annoying Timothy Van Patten, is a total idiot who drives around in a van randomly. No real ninja would take this guy on as a student. He'd just slit his throat and be done with it, a few moments after meeting this twerp. He certainly wouldn't enlist his 'help' in finding his daughter or anything else, for that matter. The movie dragged off, since it was made from t.v. episodes so they couldn't have any kind of real denouement. I am not looking forward to Master Ninja II, and in fact may avoid it altogether. Another pleasurable childhood memory down the drain.

This was good. Lee Van Cleef was very and Van Patten was good.The one with a very young Demi Moore was exciting. This was an excellent ninja show!If you like ninjas and are able to watch it and haven't yet do so because its good!