Ninja Strike Force (1988) User Reviews

Ninja Master Gordon vs The Sword Of Catastrophe!

[HaemovoreRex · 6/10 · 25 May 2007]

Richard Harrison returns once more as golden ninja Gordon in this typically wacky IFD cut & paste ninja epic.

This time our hero is facing the evil leader of the black ninja clan, who to make matters more perilous, has stolen the mighty Sword of Catastrophe! Tradition has it that if said sword tastes the blood of the leaders of all the other ninja clans, then it and who ever wields it will become all powerful.

With this in mind, our villain wastes no time in challenging each of the said leaders to combat where upon their deaths, the sword becomes mysteriously redder each time as if engorged with their life's blood.

Will our man Gordon manage to defeat said fiend or else is his blood also doomed to infuse the blade?

Not only this, but will Mickey Mouse (I swear I'm not making this up, there really IS a character in this film by that name!) and his new found friend Jim make enough money to survive?

Well, you'll just have to watch to find out!

Released in the UK under the alternative title of Ninja Operation 2: Way of Challenge, for fellow fans of (bad) ninja flicks, this is a must see!

Another slice of goofy cut and paste nonsense

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 31 December 2017]

NINJA STRIKE FORCE is one of the more enterprising of the Godfrey Ho/IFD cut and paste ninja movies of the 1980s. It seems to me that the ones which feature Richard Harrison are always the best of their kind, while the others with the likes of Bruce Baron struggle to keep up. The film that's pasted into this one is a typical low rent crime thriller but the picture quality is a little better than most and it's one of the ones you wouldn't mind watching in its entirety. As for the new ninja material, it's a real hoot. An evil black ninja goes around bumping off all other colours of ninja, until Harrison steps up and takes the battle to him. Expect goofy camera tricks, ninja headbands, characters randomly shouting "ninja!", and lots of unintentional hilarity.

That Headband Thingy...

[Vermy · 2/10 · 19 March 2001]

I saw this movie late night on a Spanish channel's million dollar matinee. If you are into cheap martial art flicks, this could be one worth viewing. The story has two parts, one that is completely boring and filled with a man who is sick, the other has great stereotypical action. Who can argue with a black ninja, who like all other fighters in this movie, we can tell is a ninja as it clearly says "NINJA" on his headband. His sword even works as a ninja death thermometer which goes red as he kills. I wont lie, the parts with the dying villager make little sense (not like any of this movie does), but I have to forgive it when I see cheap camera stops to make people vanish. Not to forget, a ninja in pink was rather enlightening to see, though fairly disturbing. Overall, I feel they could've done a lot more with this film, such as cut out the villager's story and replace it with the much better fighting. So I would say, don't rent it, and instead wait for it to come on late one night to keep you from having to watch Thundercats reruns.

Ninjaaaaaaa!!!

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 17 March 2023]

This is one of those Godfrey Ho/Joseph Lai ninja films where, just in case anyone was in any doubt, all of the ninjas wear headbands emblazoned with the word 'Ninja' and a little ninja silhouette. It's also another example of Ho and Lai combining an old film -- in this case a tedious, downbeat drama about two men, Jimmy and Micky, struggling to survive in poverty -- with totally incongruous ninja footage featuring Ho/Lai regular Richard Harrison.

Harrison plays Gordon the Golden Ninja, whose master is killed by the Black Ninja, who steals the legendary Sword of Catastrophe, a weapon that becomes more powerful with each life it takes. Gordon must find Jimmy, the only man who knows the secret of defeating the Black Ninja.

Directors Lai and Ho's lame attempts at assembling a coherent movie are laughable: Ninja Strike Force never feels like anything but a bad exercise in cut and paste, the overwrought drama of the old movie and the martial arts action mixing like oil and water. The result is 90% Jimmy and Micky washing cars, buying balloons and going to the zoo with their mentally disabled 'brother', and 10% men in colourful ninja suits leaping through the air. And never the twain shall meet.

3/10. There are many better ninja movies out there, even from Ho and Lai.

Ninja Master Gordon = Jesus

[victoryblade · 10/10 · 7 February 2006]

Perhaps one of the greatest epics of our time! This film is unquestionable as a true masterpiece of cinema. Godfry Ho does his very best work as he creates a cinematic paradise of sword wielding ninjas and tuberculosis infested sadness. Godfrey Ho and Joseph Lai are masters of their craft and deserve accolades and nothing but respect for what they have created for the entire world to cherish. They have created a landscape that is equal to no other their choice of costumes music and actors create a fantasy world that is so immensely sweeping that it touches my heart even thinking of it.Watch this film you'll laugh, cry and most importantly; get pumped and flip out!!!!

More unintentional Ninja comedy!

[midibullets · 8/10 · 6 July 2007]

Well, time to sit thru another Godfrey Ho/Joseph Lai Ninja movie, with a shaved Richard Harrison. You know a picture is going to be good when Richard shaves for it. Expect the Ninja masks to be pulled down to reveal their face in every battle scene :) And once again, we have caucasian Ninja's with commercially made 'Ninja' headbands, swords that are far too flexible, multi color feathered blow guns, and plenty of disappearing to the sound of a laser zap.

Gordon's master gets owned, and the Black Ninja's take away the Sword of Catastrophe. Legend has it you will be the most powerful Ninja if you kill other master Ninja's with it. I have to say, this is one of Ho/Lai's more intelligent plots, and thats saying a lot! But without missing a beat, this movie will still make no sense at the end, and it really doesn't have to :) This movie has more of those parts with a Red Ninja, sparring by himself in the middle of a soccer field, this time attacking the ground with a triple chained staff, when out of nowhere, a Black Ninja with blue sequin chest-plate and arm covers jumps out and challenges him.

The movie they use to cut & splice in the Ninja parts, is some tacky Indonesian/Chinese movie with a disco soundtrack. A guy in between jobs, that ends up hanging out with the wrong people in the Asian underground, and winds up getting Ninjas involved involuntarily. Plenty of British overdubs for all the voices, hilarious.

Basically, if you are aware of the treasure of Godfrey Ho/Joseph Lai productions, you will definitely love this movie as well.

Definitely worth buying :)

Godfrey Ho – The gift that gives on giving

[t_atzmueller · 10/10 · 27 January 2014]

1988 was a good year for workaholic director and producer Godfrey Ho, having churned out no less than 17 cut-and-paste epics (as a director alone, mind you. How much he committed as producer remains nebulous).

Where lesser directors are only capable of producing one film, Godfrey Ho in his genius gives us (as always) TWO in one! As always, the shorter segments give us the various Gwailo-actors (transient Caucasian actors for hire), whom Ho dresses up in bright colorful Ninjas suits (it says so on their headbands), only to replace them with Chinese stunt-men for the fight scenes. The longer part of the movie seems to have been culled from a Thai or Philippine action-soap-melodrama, concerning itself (from what I could make out) with poverty, disease, dirt, misfortune and p**s-poor gangsters who steal from those who have nothing. Rarely has the stink of squalor penetrated the screen like it has here – even though we have no idea who these people are and what they could possibly want (other than a warm meal and perhaps vengeance for something).

As always, Richard Harrison steals the scenes – a veteran of the Ninja cut-and-paste sub-genre if there ever was one and by now, staring cross-eyed into the camera, Harrison looks like he's been drinking on the set (or even been forced to drink by Ho? God knows, we could not even blame him – Harrison that is, not Ho).

And only the sharpest of viewers may have noticed Hos' sly, yet subtle tribute to one of his heroes – yes, one of the main characters IS called Mickey Mouse! What else can one say about this epic film, where "The Last Samurai" meets "Salaam Bombay" and the "City of Joy"? Really nothing – we can only stare in awe and amazement and bestow the highest possible number of points because it doesn't violate IMDb's guidelines.

PS: As with every other review concerning the labors of Godfrey Ho and associates, this review too should be taken with a pinch of sarcasm.

are words enough?

[jessegehrig · 8/10 · 10 July 2013]

To begin with this is two movies edited together. The first movie was some cheap Hong Kong kung-fu drama, actors paid nothing forced to work with a worthless script struggle for pathos. This first movie likely lost all its money in mid-production so its put on the shelf. Time passes, the seventies become the eighties, American kids love ninja crap and the Far East film market unloads shelved movies to American producers. This is where the second movie comes in, American producer films a handful of ninja movie scenes splices these over the once-shelved first movie and with a little Hollywood magic, in this case voice-over and editing, Ninja Strike Force thus born. No its not a good movie, in fact it is quite terrible, but somehow marvelous because of its soulless cobbled together feel.