American Ninja
Encyclopedia : A : AM : AME : American Ninja
American Ninja is a 1985 film produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus's Cannon Films. Like most other films produced by that studio, American Ninja was a low-budget action film. It stars Michael Dudikoff in the title role, with Steve James as the black side-kick in the first three movies, and it was directed by Sam Firstenberg, who specialized in this genre in the 80s. The film grossed $10,499,694 at the domestic box office, spawning a competently-made but less successful sequel, in 1987. Three more commercially and critically unsuccessful sequels would follow with another lead actor, David Bradley. Dudikoff returned for a short cameo role in the fourth film in this franchise. The fifth and final film in the American Ninja franchise disregarded the series continuity and was a direct-to-video release.
Plot
Joe Armstrong, an orphaned amnesiac drifter with little respect for much other than martial arts, finds himself on an American Army base in the Philippines after a judge gives him a choice of enlistment or prison. The base comes under repeated attacks by local rebels who are after the military equipment that their leader, Ortega, plans to sell to the highest bidder. His top henchman is Black Star Ninja, who runs a training camp to train Ortega's private ninja army. In the end, Joe must use his secret martial arts skills to defeat the bad guys and rescue his girlfriend, with the help of his new buddies in the army and his long-lost mentor.Trivia
- Chuck Norris was originally offered the title role, but declined.
- The film was originally called American Warrior, but was changed to American Ninja prior to its release. The trailer (included on the DVD) contains the original title.
- Was the first of three films pairing Michael Dudikoff and Steve James, the other two being and Avenging Force.
See also
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.