American Ninja DVD

 

TITLE-American Ninja

SOURCE-MGM DVD

I was sure I saw this back after it hit home video. Nope cause I remembered nothing of it when watching it the other day. Guessing I saw part 2.

Joe Armstrong is a Army soldier. He has no memory of his life from about 10 years before now. But he is a skilled Ninja. 

Start of the film a car with the General's daughter gets attacked by criminals. Oh yea this Army base is in the Philipines. The daughter is played by the brunette lady from Weird Science. Not not Kelly Lebrock this is Julie Aronson. She was in a Friday the 13th and I have noticed her popping up in lots of 80s films.

But anyways the car is attacked but thankfully Joe AMERICAN NINJA Armstrong is nearby to save her. He uses his ninja skills to dodge bullets and kick ass. 

They escape and he gets her back to the base. He gets in trouble. End up fighting the kung fu guy from I'm gonna get ya Sucka. After beating him they become best friends. 

This entire film is insane. Armstrong has agility above what a human could do. And it appears that some times he has Ninja Magic like this is the old Sega Shinobi arcade game.

If I had seen this when it came out as a pre teen I would have loved it. Seeing it now as a adult I love it but for totally different reasons. This feels almost like a bigger budget version of all those Godfrey Ho cut and paste Ninja movies. All Armstrong needs is a headband that says Ninja and the Garfield phone.

Not many 80s action movies can compare to the insanity and just pure,i'm betting cocaine fueled,wackiness of American Ninja. I totally see why this spawned a franchise. Rumor is Chuck Norris got offered the lead and refuses cause his face would be covered for the last third of the movie. I want to believe it was because Chuck wasn't bad ass enough to be AMERICAN NINJA!

American Ninja gets a A-

The Barbarians Blu Ray

 

TITLE-The Barbarians

SOURCE-Scorpion Blu ray

Oh Cannon,they never saw a hit they weren't ready to rip off. Conan was big. So Cannon wanted a Barbarian movie. Hired Peter Paul and David Paul (Known as the Barbarian Brothers) and made this cheap. It failed the Paul Twins made 2 more films then kind of faded away. Not that many years ago one of them passed.

The movie? It is your standard Conan the Barbarian 80s era rip off. Big muscle having hero,or heroes in this case. Attractive woman in little clothing as a love interest,being Eva Larue in this film. Then some crazy cult leader/magician villian,Richard Lynch in this film.

Watching this for the first time in decades,I am sure this is one of the many Cannon films I saw late at night on Showtime and TMC in the early 90s,I notice how the Paul Twins looked and were outfited in a way that made them look like live action versions of the Masters of the Universe figures that were huge in the mid 80s. Really this is a better He Man movie than the one we got so far.

The blu ray looks good sounds good. Extras is a pile of trailers. Then a commentary from Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson.

Oh crap can't forget got Michael Berryman as one of the henchmen of Richard Lynch. Dude was just made for a film like this.

Out of the three Barbarian Brothers films I have seen,the other 2 being Think Big and Twin  Sitters,this is the best.Yea it's dumb. But you knew that when you looked at the cover.

The Barbarians gets a B.