NINJA is a low-budget but kick-ass action vehicle for British martial arts star Scott Adkins, who continues to wow with his own unique brand of high-kicking, tough-punching martial arts fighting. The story for this one is simplistic and predictable in equal measure, with Adkins playing a "white ninja" (following in the footsteps of Franco Nero, Christopher Lambert and Richard Harrison!) who's tasked to protect a chest of rare weapons. Of course, various bad guys are soon after him.Anyway, don't worry about the story; focus instead on the plentiful action, both ninja and otherwise. I actually enjoyed the non-ninja stuff here more than the ninja fights, which are a little silly and sometimes use cheesy special effects. But the bits in the dojo early on are very good, and the highlight comes during a chase-cum-train-fight about halfway through which is really well handled. Of course, Isaac Florentine has directed loads of these things and I suspect he's starting to get rather good at this.The cast is about average for a DTV martial arts flick; Adkins is slightly wooden but an absolutely brilliant fighter, so you forgive him. Ihara's bad guy is readily menacing, while Mika Hijii (ALIEN VS NINJA) proves to be a delightful female sidekick/love interest/damsel in distress. Just watch out for Miles Anderson as a scenery-devouring cult leader and all-around bad guy. NINJA isn't perfect, and the flaws that do exist are pretty big, but it's more honest and exciting than the much bigger NINJA ASSASSIN.

This movie really is bad. Now, I am by no means saying that since I don't like the movie you shouldn't. But, since I prefer that if someone doesn't like a movie they explain why, I am going to attempt to put into words just how bad this movie is.The story is predictable and boring. A Caucasian man, an orphan, grows up in a ninja clan in Japan and learns to be a ninja. He has a rival that is reckless and mean and doesn't follow the full teachings of the master so the white guy is chosen and the successor for the school and protector of the ancient ninja gear. There is also a girl that the hero falls in love with by the end of the movie after the obligatory climatic fight scene.In addition to the above there are so many things about the plot that just didn't make sense to me that I can't remember all of them. Here are a few. The bad guy is after an ancient set of ninja gear so they try to hide it in NY at a university. Not very secretive. I don't know why they just didn't put it in another part of the country (Japan). Russian mob guys are after the hero and the girl and shooting recklessly at them through the city. The camera then cuts to a mob guy and he says: "Remember we want them alive." Then they continue to shoot at them. While staying at the home of the professor that is helping them "hide" the ancient ninja gear, the Russian mob breaks in and kills everyone except the hero and the girl (of course). The police investigate and name them as suspects. The fingerprints on the guns are all mob guys so shouldn't the police name them as people of interest for questioning instead of naming them as the killers? And why did the hero and girl flee the the shootout and go to a hotel? Why not go straight to the police? The dialog is actually funny. I know that it was written to be serious but its so bad it made me laugh or roll my eyes.The fight scenes are so-so. Not very believable at all. The ancient ninja gear is so precious and valuable that the hero wears it for the final climatic fight scene. Of course it gets damaged so all that effort to protect it and all those lives lost was for nothing.Anyhow, don't waste your time with this movie.

Ninja is as simple, effective and to the point as its cover suggests. The word hangs at the top of the DVD cover all alone, avoid of such descriptors such as American, assassin, mutant, red, shoguns, teenage, turtles or warriors. Its only companion is a picture of a single man in a black costume wielding a sword that may very well be in mid swing. In both title and image, this cover tells you this flick delivers ninja…period, and that is no lie.At the heart of Ninja are bitter rivals Casey (Scott Adkins) and Masuka (Tsuyoshi Ihara). Casey is an all around good guy who, despite being a westerner (P.C. for white), just happens to be a top student at a prestigious ninjitsu school in Japan. To ensure we see him as sympathetic, the movie reminds you he's an orphan every fifteen minutes or so. Masuka is the other top student and (surprise, surprise) hates Casey with a passion usually reserved for pedophiles and fascists. When Masuka goes as far as to try and murder Casey during a sparring match, the school's headmaster sends him packing and sets things into motion.There are a lot of things which occur during the 86 minute running time of Ninja. There's a trip to New York City to retrieve an artifact for the school. There's also a secret society that feels straight out of a comic book and comes off as 1/2 cult and 1/2 mafia. There's even the budding romance between Casey and Namiko (Mika Hijii), the headmaster's daughter. But all of this is background to what we all want to see in films like this; ninja and action starring ninja.While there are only two ninja in the film, the sheer amount of badassery present dares you to feel shortchanged. Most of the action deals with Casey fighting members of a mysterious cult who're in league with Mazuka, and these scenes deliver. Name a martial arts move and, odds are, it's used to great effect here. Scott Adkins is the real deal and is effortlessly able to tread that thin line between believability, practicality and style often lacking in more mainstream action flicks. While the scenes with Mazuka take a back seat, they still do a damn good job of establishing him as an extremely viable threat and a reason to keep the lights on at all hours. While Ihara's not a martial artist in real life, you'd truly be hard pressed to know it by how well he compares to Adkins' physical performance.Between Casey and Masuka, more asses are kicked around the Big Apple than in the typical play through of Arkham City. And, I have to say, the beatdowns seen here veer dizzyingly close to being a live action version of that game. No matter how good that may sound to you, believe me, it looks even better in action. However, it all comes down to a bloodfued between two ninja that can only end with one left standing. When the finale comes around, this is when Ninja's ninja really starts to shine through. The hand to hand takes a backseat to the likes of caltrops, shuriken, katanas and even poison. Things definitely get ramped up as the two rivals leave an impressive trail of bodies in their wake as their final conflict looms. And, that climatic showdown does not disappoint. By film's end, there is only one ninja left standing. But, at several points, it felt like it could have gone either way.Now, while Ninja is everything you've been trained to believe a film with ninja in the title can't be (namely good), there are a few points of contention I had with it. First, the costumes looked like a cross between the Power Rangers and something from an old Sho Kosugi flick. While they worked within the context of the movie, I personally find the more traditional shozoku robes to convey a much more powerful image on screen. Then there's the ending. I think this movie would've benefited greatly by ending immediately after the final confrontation between Casey and Mazuka. It would've made a better, longer lasting impression by being more brutal, final and cutting edge (pun intended). Also, it would've kept things open for potential sequels. American Ninja was like smallpox on celluloid, yet it spawned four sequels. Relative Oscar bait by comparison, Ninja is easily of enough quality to warrant at least one follow up treatment as it's a sincerely entertaining film. All in all, Ninja stands heads and shoulders above the likes of similar fare such as the theatrically released Ninja Assassin. Also, I just want to say Scott Adkins may very well be the single best Bruce Wayne ever and, sadly, one we'll probably never get to see on screen. Still though, one can only hope someone at Warner Bros. might take notice of the obvious match between looks, age and skills, coupled with some solid acting chops, and have that proverbial light bulb go off over their head.

As we are taught by this movie the Japanese ancient art of espionage, covert ops and murder has evolved and has now become a respectable martial arts focused on the spiritual perfection. As we all naturally know becoming a good person always involves learning the traits and usage of a multitude of deadly weapons, poisons and such. In one such respectable establishment (Dojo) the noble art of killing is taught by Sensei (Togo Igawa) and amongst his students are his daughter Namiko (Mika Hijii), the ultimate pupil Masazuka (Tsuyoshi Ihara), an American orphan Casey (Scott Adkins), and a lot of cannon fodder.Namiko is probably the strongest and most potent fighter of the three easily beating Casey in combat in the beginning of the movie. Unfortunately she also has a severe weakness: in various key life threatening situations she forgets she is a trained deadly martial artist and indulges into the age-old tradition of screaming her face off playing a helpless female victim (albeit maybe this is a sinister ninjutsu ploy to distract the opponent and to make enemies ignore Namiko?).Masazuka is set to take over the dojo from Sensei, but envious of the attention Casey receives from the ninja master, he loses himself during a training combat and attempts to kill the hapless American. This ends in Masazuka being expelled from the institution, as killing is not accepted in the ninjutsu code of murder. Or something like that.Naturally Masazuka turns bad and becomes a prominent assassin for hire. One of his best clients - the Temple Corporation, who has a secretive para-fascist organisation, which loves shooting people in broad daylight. However still stricken with regret and full of spite he decides to take over by force the legacy of Sensei's ninjutsu, Yoroi Bitsu, an armoured chest that contains the weapons of the last Koga Ninja.Fighting ensues, carpets of blood and bodies populate the streets of the movie and the good guys fight the bad guys...The plot is totally nonsensical. Extravagantly nonsensical. But unlike the very enjoyable "Ninja Assassin" it fails to take a tongue and cheek approach and just feeds us a bad movie with a bad plot with some exceptionally terrible acting... all of these flaws are supposedly supposed to be glossed over by the impressive fight sequences and good tech credits of the movie. Alas... in this time and age my expectations are not so low as that.Despite some terrible acting (fronted by Scott Adkins and Mika Hijii) which reminded me of a Nigerian nollywood movie I watched a couple of days ago I must however commend a very convincing Tsuyoshi Ihara, who does a great job as the main protagonist.