This is, surprisingly enough, an interesting, well-made action picture, an astonishing feat for something coming from Cannon Films (especially the "well-made" part), tightly directed by Sam Firstenberg, who handles the action scenes expertly. Michael Dudikoff and Steve James work very well together as American soldiers stationed in the Philippines who stumble upon a racket involving corruption, murder, black-market deals between Filipino gangsters and American officers and a ring of ninja assassins. Well acted by Dudikoff and James, but Judie Aronson is annoying as their commanding officer's daughter who inadvertently gets mixed up in the goings-on, playing her as a spoiled Valley girl--after a murderous attack by ninja killers on an army convoy, she's more upset that she got her expensive shoes wet than at the fact that a dozen or so GIs had been killed. The fact that Dudikoff and James finally drove off the ninjas, thereby saving her life, means nothing to her, and in fact she gets angrier at the two of them than at the ninjas responsible for the massacre. It's a totally unrealistic portrayal, and she doesn't get any better during the rest of the film. Her annoying performance is a small price to pay, however, as the rest of the film is quite good, although it does tend to lag in spots. Firstenberg keeps the pace exciting, though, and the many action scenes are extremely well done. The success of this picture inspired Cannon to come out with a string of sequels, none of them anywhere near as good as this one and most of them adding to Cannon's well-deserved reputation for turning out cheap, sloppily made swill. This film is definitely an exception to that rule, however, and more than worth a look. Check it out, you won't regret it.
Review of American Ninja
