American Ninja 4: The Annihilation (1990)

The two American Ninjas, Joe Armstrong and Sean Davidson, team up to do battle against a terrorist and his band of Ninjas.

Director:

Cedric Sundstrom

Writers:

Gideon Amir (based on characters created by), James Booth (as David Geeves)

Stars:

Michael Dudikoff, David Bradley, James Booth

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Dudikoff	...	Joe Armstrong
David Bradley	...	Sean Davidson
James Booth	...	Mulgrew
Dwayne Alexandre	...	Brackston
Ken Gampu	...	Dr. Tamba
Robin Stille	...	Sarah
Frantz Dobrowsky	...	O'Reilly (as Franz Dobrowsky)
Ron Smerczak	...	Maksood
Kely McClung	...	Super Ninja / Delta Force Team
Jody Abrahams	...	Pango
Anthony Fridjhon	...	Freddie / Treddle (as Anthony Fridjohn)
David Sherwood	...	Gavin
Sean Kelly	...	Norris
Jamie Bartlett	...	Segal
Deon Stewardson	...	Delta Force Team

Storyline

CIA agent Sean Davidson and his sidekick Carl are sent into the stronghold of sadistic British ex-soldier Mulgrew to rescue some Delta Force commandoes who have been captured and tortured. When Sean, Carl and pretty doctor Sarah run into some problems, Peace Corps vet Joe Armstrong is lured out of retirement to stop Mulgrew's plan to explode a nuclear device in New York City.

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Plot Keywords:

ninja | ex soldier | delta force | battle | terrorist | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 March 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

American Fighter 4 - Die Vernichtung

Filming Locations:

Johannesburg, South Africa

Box Office

Gross:

$358,047 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cannon Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

David Bradley claims that he had lobbied the producers to have his and Michael Dudikoff's characters work in tandem throughout the film, but his efforts were frustrated when Dudikoff agreed to appear only on the condition that his character would save the day on his own, and clearly be shown to be the superior fighter.

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Goofs

In the first scene when Michael Dudikoff appears, he is teaching a group of children in a church, as he starts the class, he writes "environment" in the board and reads it out loud, but he reads "en-vi-OR-ment" when it should be "en-vi-ROn-ment".

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Quotes

Mulgrew: Do not kill them... They shall give far more pleasure to Allah and myself - alive.

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Connections

Follows American Ninja (1985)

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Soundtracks

Fight Fire with Fire
Written by Nic. tenBroek & Jenny Meltzer

User Reviews

A really good sequel to the series!

In American Ninja 4, we get two American Ninja's, David Bradley of Part 3 & Michael Dudikoff of Parts 1 & 2. The story has a Delta Force team abducted by ninja's on an island & tortured by a nasty Arab & his partner. In comes SEAN (BRADLEY) & his partner to try & rescue them but when their caught, the original American Ninja Joe (Dudikoff) flies into action to save his friends, whom will soon be facing death by burning at the stake, unless he can fight off hordes of ninja combatants to save them. Ameican Ninja 4 sounded to much like a good thing, two American Ninja's teaming up to take out the baddies, I mean with both of them together, you half expect them to at one point team up in the movie & fight the bad guys off, but if that's what you are expecting to see you'll be greatly disappointed, Dudikoff & Bradley don't fight together in this & the villains although better written & acted than the previous ones, don't put up much of a fight against our two hero's at the end of the film, once again we get another Super Ninja, that prepares for the final battle against Dudikoff's character as stated at the back of the box art, but the actual Super Ninja is not part of the main film, he only has a very small & non speaking part in the film & is really no tougher than the ninja's that Dudikoff & Bradley have to go through in the first half & the fight between the Super Ninja & Dudikoff lacks excitement & is nowhere near as good as the box art made it sound. That said American Ninja 4 is still a pretty exciting movie & I can't see why out of a lot of reviews by fans & critics & such that it was given such a poor rating, everything from GOLDEN TURKEY, BOMB one star etc. has been used in describing this movie, I mean sure it's not a masterpiece, but I thought it did the series justice, the acting & directing was good & the martial arts fight scenes were pretty good but suspenseless, I mean I admit they could have had the two ninja's fighting together & they could have made the ninja's, especially the Super Ninja a little bit tougher as to prompt our hero's to break a sweat, but it works well with what it has been given. Despite returning in American Ninja 5, David Bradley does not play the same hero as he did in this one & Part 3, despite a possible set up at the climax for another sequel with his & Dudikoff's chartecter.

***1/2 stars