American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt (1989)

Jackson is back, and now he has a new partner, karate champion Sean, as they must face a deadly terrorist known as "The Cobra", who has infected Sean with a virus. Sean and Jackson have no ... See full summary »

Director:

Cedric Sundstrom

Writers:

Avi Kleinberger (characters), Gideon Amir (characters),

Stars:

David Bradley, Steve James, Marjoe Gortner

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Bradley	...	Sean Davidson 'The American Ninja'
Steve James	...	Curtis Jackson
Marjoe Gortner	...	The Cobra
Michele B. Chan	...	Chan Lee (as Michele Chan)
Yehuda Efroni	...	General Andreas
Calvin Jung	...	Izumo
Adrienne Pierce	...	Minister's Secretary (as Adrienne Pearce)
Evan J. Klisser	...	Dexter
Grant Preston	...	Minister of Interior
Mike Huff	...	Dr. Holger
Alan Swerdlow	...	Police Captain
Thapelo Mofokeng	...	Police Sergeant
Ekard Rabi	...	Sean's Father
Stephen Webber	...	Young Sean
Kevin Friedlander	...	Martial Artist

Storyline

Jackson is back, and now he has a new partner, karate champion Sean, as they must face a deadly terrorist known as "The Cobra", who has infected Sean with a virus. Sean and Jackson have no choice but to fight the Cobra and his bands of ninjas.

---

Plot Keywords:

ninja | fight | virus | terrorist | bo staff | 

---

Taglines:

Now his most deadly enemy ... is time.

---

Genres:

Action | Drama

---

Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA Canada South Africa

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 February 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

American Ninja 3

Filming Locations:

South Africa

Box Office

Gross:

$902,152 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Breton Film Productions, Cannon Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color (Rankcolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The score for the film is mainly just a sample from composer 'George S Clinton's previous score for Avenging Force, another Cannon Group movie which ironically was directed by Sam Firstenberg, and starred Michael Dudikoff and Steve James, the same trio which made American Ninja 1 and 2.

---

Goofs

When the Cobra is knocked down the first time, the back of his pants is wet, as if he has sat down on something wet. 30 seconds later, the first wet spot is gone and he instead has two new spots on the back of his legs.

---

Quotes

The Cobra: But I am glad that I can tell you that there will be no more inefficient hijackings, no more bungled kidnappings or mistimed bombings, because you see now terrorism can be scientifically focused to be totally effective!

---

Connections

Featured in Obscurus Lupa Presents: American Ninja 2 (2011)

---

Soundtracks

"The Cobra Strikes"
Written by George S. Clinton
Performed by George S. Clinton and Lisa Kauppi

User Reviews

No Dudikoff, not much interest...a failure!

American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt is the beginning of the end for this entertaining but fairly mediocre series.

This time, Joe, Michael Dudikoff is gone. Sean, whose karate fighter dad was killed in a robbery gone wrong, replaces him. Izumo raises him and teaches him the art of ninja. In comes Cobra a man who is manufacturing a virus to sell to terrorists. Also in the scam is general Andreas the man who shot Sean's father. In order to test the virus they organize a tournament to attract the best fighters of the world. Sean is then chosen as the best of the best and the virus tested on him. Not only that, his master Izumo is apparently also a prisoner of Cobra. So now, with the help of Curtis Jackson, Sean must avenge his father, save his master and get the antidote to survive this deadly virus.

David Bradley is obviously far superior to Dudikoff when it comes to the physical aspect. This helps a lot in the action scenes, where Bradley shines and gives us a good show. He is also a better actor at least at the time even if he was still incredibly bad. Unfortunately he lacked the original american ninja's charisma.

The movie suffers with that. Gary Conway who stared as "The Lion" on the 2nd part also writing it is again responsible for the script and the story is quite close the previous movie. Although stories don't really matter in these movies, I still got the feeling I was watching a worse remake of a bad film. Even the score is the same.

There's also not a real opponent to Sean so the final fight is against Cobra, and as could be imagined, it's a terrible scene. Quite simply the movie doesn't have a climax.

There are a lot of action sequences, some very well made but Michele Chan is a failure, with no beauty, no acting skills and no martial arts ability. And since Bradley couldn't be in every scene its up to Steve James to again steal the show with his power and talent. Funny, cool, Steve James was the man.

But the truth is Blood Hunt is a bad, almost boring film. It didn't catch my interest and I found it hard to keep watching it until the end.

Not much fun im afraid. If not for the great Steve James it would have been a complete loss. Too bad.