American Ninja 2: The Confrontation

This 1987 sequel to the 1985 "American Ninja" movie is essentially the same as the first movie, just with a different villain and location. But the rest of the story and movie was pretty much the same.

So is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well, that depends on if you liked the first movie or not. If you did like it, then you will like part two as well. And if you didn't like part one, then you will not like part two either.

Again, you got all the campy ingredients; cheesy storyline, generic characters, stereotypical villain, worthless henchmen, wonderful dialogue (you see the irony here, right?), action, martial arts, explosions and, of course, ninjas! Lots and lots of ninjas.

The acting was every bit as strained and wooden as in part one, but isn't that just part of the charm of these movies? One of my favorite things in "American Ninja 2: The Confrontation" was this particular piece of dialogue delivered by the commanding officer who requested the help of the US rangers: "I don't know who you are, what you are, or why you are here". Wait, what? Didn't he himself request the help?

Story-wise, well with little deviation from part one, it is about American ninja Joe Armstrong who is on a Caribbean island to solve the mysterious disappearances of US marine personnel, when he is confronted by a ninja syndicate.

While not a masterpiece, "American Ninja 2: The Confrontation" is as enjoyable as the previous movie. Equally campy, cheesy and requires little brain activity from the audience.

This violent art-martial film is the second entry about our heroes, the Rangers duo, Sergeant Armstrong(Michel Dudikoff)along with his proficient sidekick, Sergeant Jackson(Steve James) who are assigned a difficult mission at Caribbean Island( at the original film was Philipines). Five marines have disappeared and must investigate their location, being helped by marines captain(Jeff Weston). The prime suspect is a villain, drugs dealer named Lion(Gary Conway, also screenwriter), he has abducted a scientific who manufactures mass-produced an army of violent Ninjas by means of genetic engineering. The super-Nijas dressed in black, hooded, a blade on the back and using Shinkaisen, a metallized star they throw. Our protagonist go to Barbarroja island where take on the heinous nasty, the biggest heroin dealer of the planet. There they'll wipe out a passel of violent Ninjas.

This is plenty of action,adventures, fights,suspense in a comic book style. Dudikoff who is beefy as ever plays a two-fisted ranger utilizing efficiently his deadly skills. The movie is co-starred by Steve James(1952-1993), a corpulent fighter, he usually acted partner to tough stars, Michael Dudikoff(three times), Chuck Norris and David Carradine, but sadly he early deceased.Besides appear a flashbacks scenes with John Fujioka, the coach who trained Dudikoff on the art-martial world. Atmospheric musical score composed by synthesizer is made by George S Clinton. As always the film is produced in middling budget by Yoran Globus and Menahem Golan, Cannon Productions.The film is professionally directed by Sam Firstemberg, he's a low-grade expert about art-martial and Ninjas sub-genre and in Delta Force rip-offs. Followed by several sequels, starred by Dudikoff substituted by David Bradley and Steve James and mostly directed by Firstemberg and Cedric Sundstrom; such as ¨American Ninja 3 Blood Hunt¨, 'American Ninja: Annihilation¨ and American Ninja V.

Okay here's the deal. You are either gonna expect one or two things from this. 1.)A solid action movie about an American fighting ninjas or 2.)You're gonna laugh till you hurt. Well this movie definitely falls into #2. You see its quite ridiculous. Ninjas with bones made of metal and feel no pain? Yet, when they're attacked you hear bones crack and them yell out in pain? Or the fact that these superninja's are taken down by a Vanilla Ice/Guile look alike who needs a serious fashion update. Its comedic relief for all! Or the fact that this bad to the bone lazy eyed Asian man pulls out a shotgun from out of nowhere. Or the black man, named Jackson, pulls out knifes from no where. I think to really sum up this movie its one of those things that'll either end up on Mystery Science 3000 or be in the $3 bin at Wal-mart to buy. Which is how i got my copy! Regardless this is more of a cartoon than a action movie.....sad. It is funny to watch ninjas get shot down by Marines in hawaiian shirts! Oh the fun!

American Ninja 2: Ninjas in Paradise--I can't quite endorse it as much as the original. It's still a solid bit of fun though. The American Ninja films are notorious for movie mistakes, but this one takes the cake. Michael Dudikoff is onscreen aside Steve James as they meet the C.O. of the base, then cut to behind as they leave the room and it's a completely different dude. It's not Dudikoff at all!! It's the most blatantly obvious goof I've ever seen. But it also made me laugh out loud so they score points there. Other mistakes include rubber swords, dead guys that get up and continue fighting, and guys that are supposedly stabbed in the stomach but are really just holding the sword to their side. No matter how dumb the director may be, Michael Dudikoff and Steve James still kick ass and that's what the first two movies are all about. American Ninja 2, or Episode II as I like to call it, is about Joe Armstrong's encounter with genetically enhanced clones. Hum...sound familiar? Ninjas basically are Jedis, right? I could be wrong, but then again maybe George Lucas owes a bit of credibility to the genius behind American Ninja 2: The Confrontation. Dudikoff isn't in the third film so you can skip it; after all, he IS the American Ninja.

American Ninja 2: The Confrontation was a fairly good B film. The action was non-stop but far-fetched and the choreography was sometimes quite unrealistic. Michael Dudkioff and Steve James played pretty good roles and their acting was substantial. One cool aspect of the film was where the fightings took place,for example, at the beach and in the bar. The ring scene was also interesting but the choreography somewhat ruined these scenes. The choreography was only good in about the first-half of the film. The plot was also very plain which also brings the film status down a little bit. Basically the fight scenes were unrealistic for the fact that the Ninjas were just plain stupid. Also in the bar scene,Steve James has about twelve or thirteen guys on top of him and he throws them all off with one single burst of power. In my opinion this movie is worth watching even though some of it was a little phony. The acting was fair and the fight scenes for the most part were pretty good. On a scale of 1-10 I would rank this film about a 5 just for the effort. As for my advice I would rent this film whenever you get the chance because you just might enjoy it. Thank you.