American Ninja 5
Tags: comedy, murder, violence, flashback

Plot synopsis:
Detective Tony Luca (Michael Biehn) is sent on a homicide investigation of a Yakuza leader after a bungled undercover sting to capture notorious gangster Rocco (Don Stark). After finding a folded origami lotus with the black lotus insignia Tony is assigned a partner, Detective Kim (Park Joong-hoon) from Seoul, South Korea. Kim is described by Luca's captain as an expert on the league of assassins known as the Black Lotus. Both Yakuza and Mafia gangsters are being assassinated all over town by the mysterious assassin known to Kim as Shadow.
After squeezing information out of Yakuza businessman Nakai (Hiro Kanagawa) and Mafia informant Mike (Brad Loree), the two detectives discover that the Black Lotus plans to ignite a mob war between the Yakuza and the Mafia and adopt their businesses. The two men responsible for the plan are Shadow and Rocoo, two men who haunt the pasts of the two detectives. With the two detectives now cooperating with one another, they collect the leaders of both the Mafia and the Yakuza and inform them of the plan of the Black Lotus and take them both to the police holding station to prevent their deaths and prevent further mob killings.
With both mob leaders in safe keeping the two detectives hunt down the location of Shadow and Rocco. Fights ensue with Kim fighting Shadow, and Luca having a shootout with Rocco. It all comes down to an epic standoff, leaving Kim and Luca the only two left alive. Luca and Kim say their goodbyes at the airport wishing each other the best, leaving as friends. As Kim walks up the walkway to the plane Nakai is shown having his ticket taken by the gate. Taking his ticket stub back, Nakai reveals his Black Lotus tattoo on the palm of his hand and leaves to take his flight, the same one Detective Kim is taking back to South Korea.

Review: The worst part of this horrible film are the ninja thugs that the hero beats up like it is an everyday hobby.
The thugs here dress up in the most cheesy and plain costumes and come out screaming loud and waving their swords and nunchakus like they think they know how to use them, only to be clobbered by the hero within a second or two.
This film is good if you are under 10 years old and like movies where none of the good guys die and all of the bad guys die.
It have turned from the action movie in to a family comedy and that is probably the worst thing about it.
It was funny and there still was a lot of ninja action and one or few chasing scenes.
So maybe American Ninja fans would't like this one but it should be enjoyable for a different audience..
so this movie isn't actually a part of the American Ninja series.so the people behind this movie are guilty of capitalizing on the name of and popularity of the American Ninja brand.so what.they're not the first.if you can look beyond that,there's actually a pretty good little movie here.it's rated PG, so it's fairly family friendly.i thought the fight scenes were actually pretty good.the acting was also decent enough.the story is a familiar one.there a bit of the Karate Kid thrown in the mix,and i think based based on what i've read,there may be elements of The 3 Ninjas movies in there as well,but don't quote me on that last one.if you can view this as a stand alone movie, you might like it.i did.and i really liked it,and i don't have any problem admitting it.for me,American Ninja V is an 8/10.
The plot isn't more ridiculous than many other b-action movies, what makes this movie worse than all others are the pitiful acting from actors whom never should have been allowed to enter a set.
I can live with David Bradley being a bad actor and all, but when just everything else is just as terrible as his acting, it starts to get real ugly.
American Ninja V is a great example of how some people just don't know when to stop.
This fifth outing in the American Ninja series is just as fine as the others, i got just what i expected.I expected a lot of ninja fighting and I got it, from the very competent David Bradley, It looks like he really knows his stuff and that`s always a big plus.The film opened with a bang with Bradley showing his stuff in a training studio, this was best in the film.
The way David Bradley swiftly knock out any ninja without even being hit once shows that he is truly a master of martial arts to be rivaled by none.
Each character uses their own abilities separately at the start of the movie to help each other out but then bond as one ninja super force when Joe teaches Hiro the way of the ninja in under a day.
They have nothing to do with this movie because David Bradley uses his amazing skills as a thespian to switch between roles in a series where hes already played as a prominent character.
If you see it for what it is, it is a mindless no thinking action movie.
A plus for the movie is seeing the legendary Pat Morita, even though only for a small part, but it is nice to see the old martial arts expert on film again..
Nice if you like David Bradley, but the worst of the 5.
The quality of acting and sites are good, action wise not bad, but its those childish jokes that makes it the worst.
Still better than nothing, enjoyed Bradley acting and another ninja movie.
It has absolutely nothing to do with any of the other American Ninja movies.
It still has the mindless, bumbling ninjas that attack the star in usually poorly choreographed fight scenes, except now everything has been toned down for PG-13, smarmy, Kodak moment/comedic schtick.David Bradley should be ashamed of himself.
Scientist with accent cannot quit or runaway because mean rich boss with accent has kidnapped his daughter (who does NOT have an accent.)  American Ninja gets wrapped up in this fiasco by incredible luck and circumstances.The "Super Ninja" of this movie is a vampire looking guy (James Lew) that farts everytime he appears or disappears.
Pat Morita rounds out the cast in three scenes where his presence is entirely useless to the plot.Most importantly, this movie suffers the most from one very large flaw, just like part 3:  Micheal Dudikoff's entirely unemotive acting and hilarious fight sequences are not present.
And it has some of the worst action scenes ever put on film.
These scenes look likes they are coming straight out of an old karate video game.
American Ninja V is an instant classic that I had hoped would go down in history as one of the great action-comedies.
When a scientist's daughter is kidnapped, American Ninja (David Bradley), attempts to find her, but this time he teams up with a youngster he has trained in the ways of the ninja.
In the end, the audience gets a casserole of film elements and little of the satisfaction that comes from watching these types of movies.
It's terrible...but there are other martial arts films that manage to be worse!.
While this film isn't part of the actual 'American Ninja' cannon since it has nothing to do with the previous four films in the supposed series, I really didn't care.
However, the most incredibly sub-par of them all is this film, "American Ninja V", which has the distinction of being so universally hated that it made the IMDb Bottom 100 list--and that is why I chose to watch it.
You see, I occasionally like a really bad film--it gives you a good laugh at the filmmakers' expense!
Not only is this kid an annoying brat, but he also is a bad actor...like most of the folks in the film.
A modern ninja (David Bradley) is asked to watch some brat (Hiro--Lee Reyes).
Then, the mysterious Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita--and yes, I know he is not really playing Miyagi here) shows up an announces that the talentless kid is really the son of a great ninja master and that he has powers that have not yet been tapped--secret ninja training his dead father taught him when he was very, very young(???).
And, there is a short montage with Bradley and Reyes training and BAM, the kid is a super-ninja!
And the two of them go on a rampage to rescue the girl (there always is one) and save the planet.This film has neither element needed in a good martial arts film.
In fact, I could easily see Asians watching this and becoming angry that the US could produce a film with absolutely no one with good martial arts skills.
So, no matter how stupid "American Ninja V" is, it isn't even close to the worst the Far East has to offer.
The big difference is that "American Ninja V" has a much wider audience and therefore is easier to notice and hate!
It made "American Ninja V" look like "Gone With the Wind" in comparison!!
In fact it has less violence than today's cop shows and less adult situations than some stupid comedy on evening TV.In fact I think the movie is up there with the Ninja Turtles.
Garbage martial arts movie that has nothing to do with the previous four American Ninja films, despite the title.
Note David Bradley's character name is different from his previous appearances in the series.
The plot to this stinker has "American Ninja" Joe (David Bradley) teaming up with Hiro (Lee Reyes, brother of Ernie Jr.), a young man whose granduncle (Pat Morita) wants him to learn to be a ninja.
Lacks any of the cheesy appeal of the American Ninja movies that starred Michael Dudikoff.
Many years ago I saw parts 1 and 2 of the series and they were average action movies without great plots going on, ok but they were fun to see.
Readers of my user comments will see that I reviewed the first four "American Ninja" movies years ago, but I only got around to reviewing the last entry just now.
Speaking of waiting, it wasn't worth the wait for me to track down and watch a copy of this movie.The action, the main attraction of a movie like this, is very lame.
When the action does start coming, there is nothing exciting or special about the martial arts sequences.
There are signs that footage is missing from the movie - either it was lost or never filmed, leaving to some question marks such as how Bradley's character severs the chain on his handcuffs.
But even if the missing footage was here, the movie would still suffer from a badly written screenplay - there's barely a plot here, and it crawls at a snail's pace, with plenty of scenes seemingly only there to pad out the running time.I suppose Bradley gives one of his better performances, though he's still not a very compelling actor.
American Ninja 5 though, is far too good for that list.
Sure, the dialog is stupid, the plot is stupid, the action is lame, and he actors can't act but it's fun.
American Ninja 5 is in essence a "so bad it's good" movie but doesn't quite get there..
I have no idea what to say about this movie.It's clearly it's own idea just added the title just to lure American ninja fans to buy this razzie movie.David Bradley is back but not as Sean but as Joe, and this Joe is not found in the jungle, he has miyagi as his teacher and he use to have a brother named jimmy witch was never mentioned in the other movies.And to top it all, he has to take care of miyagis nephew who is a home alone wannabe, what is with the early 90s movies to make kids annoyed and better than adults.
Funnily enough, the first American NINJA movie I've watched is the fifth instalment and last of the series.
I have no idea what it has to do with the other movies in this franchise, although judging by other user comments on here, it's not a lot.This is a straightforward, family friendly martial arts adventure film with added ninja action.
Sure, it's cheap, and there are some laughable moments in it, but that's par for the course for this particular genre of film.I tend to enjoy action B-pictures from the 1990s because they have a certain fluidity of approach, combined with a refreshing simplicity that makes them easy to watch.
The viewer can simply sit back and watch as the protagonist and his annoying child sidekick go around and fight off various ninja attacks, gradually working their way up to the final boss.The action choreography is acceptable rather than striking, but there's a wealth of random ninja attacks to enjoy.
David Bradley, who previously appeared in the last two films in the series, is an adequate leading man, pretty wooden in the acting stakes but good in his fights.
You have to go into these movies knowing they are low budget, weak plotted movies with weak dialog The movie has action, and fighting scenes.
I have seen far worse martial arts movies.There's some hilariously bad scenes.
Damn IF YOU EVER SEE THIS MOVIE FOR SALE FOR LIKE A DOLLAR, DON'T EVEN BREATH ON IT...This whole movie is about some scientist who is going to create something this world never seen before...I believe we already saw that in American ninja 2 and 3, he doesn't obey and his daughter is now being kidnapped which happens to be David Bradleys girlfriend WHAT A SMALL WORLD WE LIVE IN!And what's even more funny David Bradley character in this movie is called JOE...what a???
Isn't that name from Michael Dudikoffs character in American Ninja 1, 2 and 4.
Damn couldn't they come up with another name or at least keep his own name from American Ninja 3 and 4 (Sean Davidson) ...what a hell happened with him?So now "Joe" has to rescue his girlfriend and a little kid comes along who can't stop whining and who is not afraid of weapons and the whole situation.And this kid later becomes "JOE'S" little brother somehow I don't know.you see this kid beat up 3 buff guys at once and he himself never gets beat up...BUT THAT'S Alright I GUESS CUZ HE'S STILL A KID AFTER ALL.then when they're on a plane trying to escape the evil you see this kid sit down calm and fly this plane...yes this kid is ACTUALLY FLYING A PLANE HE CAN DO ANYTHING HE PUTS HIS MIND TO.
having fun as he flies it...what a joke...who does he think he is CJ from San Andreas?and the ninjas are much more stupid they deserve Oscars...they fly 10 feet up in the air of one punch...and waste all their bullets as they miss "JOE" the little kid and his girlfriend.real bad acting I don't know what they were thinking when they made this movie...letting the kid look up the American embassy to come and rescue them all...yes what does a little kid know about that...and this kid is so smart he even knows the way to the embassy knowing he is on the other side of the globe."JOE" and this kid beat up everybody that comes in their way and the funny thing is they not even bothered about the whole situation they beat up these ninjas like it was a joke.
And what was the old man from karate kid doing in this movie...I'm not even gonna leave a comment on that.SO EVERYBODY OUT THERE IF YOU'RE A FAN OF American NINJA DON'T SEE THIS MOVIE, STOP WATCHING AFTER THE 3RD ONE CUZ THIS MOVIE IS AWFUL...0,5 OUT OF 10.
It had no story, no substance, no central idea and a lot of fake action.Movies like this give movies a bad name..
David Bradley returns for the (thankfully) final time (Probably because Dudikoff wanted no part of this downward spiral of a series) to train a new pupil (The irritating Lee Reyes) in Ninjitsu and defeat the viscous Viper (James Lew) in this inept and utterly awful sequel.
American Ninja V offers somehow less than what you would expect and martial arts fans such as I don't expect anything but lots of action.
David Bradley is of course a dull actor and he isn't helped by a lame script or for that matter an irritating kid who's whining never stops.
Indeed this feels more like a rip off of 3 Ninjas than an American Ninja sequel.
American Ninja 5 is of course brain dead but also lacks the simple structure that a stupid martial arts movie should have.
Pat Morita shows up in a cameo but let's face it his career jumped the shark after the Karate Kid films.
The worst movie of the series and i'm a fan of the first two.1/2* out of 4-(Awful).
The original plot is scrapped for a tedious yarn involving David Bradley taking some youth prodigy under his wing, and teaching him the ways of the ninja while saving a scientist's daughter from Viper (James Lew) and his band of ninjas in this belated and worthless sequel.
The action scenes themselves are lame and even the David Bradley VS James Lew action scene, which I for one was looking forward to, comes off as utterly incompetent.
If you really want to see a white guy ninja movie, stick with American Ninja 2-the best of the series.1/5 Matt Bronson Review brought to you courtesy of Spike TV and their midnight airing..
Is it trying to be a kids movie, akin to the MUCH better Surf Ninjas or TMNT?
Is it trying to be an action packed movie, featuring a good stunt actor James Lew?
Did you know there is an American Ninja FIVE?
Apparently there is, even though it was meant to be something called American Dragons and perhaps they didn't want to confuse it with the other, better movie of the same name.In this anti-climactic ending to the American Ninja franchise, David Bradley plays Joe Kastle (not Armstrong as in prior A.N. films), a guy who lives on a boat and likes to work out.
Along the way, Joe and Hiro forge a friendship based on the ways of the ninja.Rather than be loyal to the fans that have followed the series through the years, Cannon pawns this juvenile, watered-down, PG-13 rated dreck on the audience like Pat Morita does his bratty relative onto David Bradley in this patience-testing exercise.Bradley is likable enough and he looks like a young Craig Ferguson, although he is your classic action movie dumb-dumb.
Plus the whole daughter/scientist father aspect was already done in American Ninja 2 (1987).
It's director Leonard's only movie to date and you think he would be familiar with past entries in the series, but maybe he never watched them.
Having American Ninja 5 be the only movie on your resume is indeed a bizarre way to enter movie history.
The whole Karate Kid aspect of the film is even further enhanced by the presence of Pat Morita.
It's an ignominious way for this beloved series to go.Even though this movie came out in 1993, it looks and seems older, but maybe that's because it's pretty lame and impotent, not to mention way overlong.You'd have to be a die-hard fan of the American Ninja films or any of the actors involved to sit through this insult to people who followed the original four films in this series.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com.
This movie has no connections with any of the previous four American Ninja movies.
He also conjures up ninjas out of nowhere to fight David Bradley.
I cannot recommend this to anybody, but at least it's not as bad as American Ninja IV.