American Ninja(1985), starring Michael Dudikoff as the main character Joe Armstrong, is cheesy yet entertaining. This action/romance film is directed by Sam Firstenberg who specialized in "ninja action films" in the 1980's. Found alone and unconscious with total amnesia on an island in the Pacific Ocean, orphan 16 year old American Joe Armstrong(Michael Dudikoff) has joined the Army rather than go to jail for nearly killing a man. While transporting military weapons and the colonel's daughter his convoy is attacked by ninja. After saving the girl Joe must find out who is behind these attacks and discover who he really is along the way. The main bad guy, Senior Ortega(Don Stewart), steals and sells military grade weapons with the help of someone on the inside and his own personal ninja army. When things start going wrong for him he starts to get desperate. Ortega tries to kill Joe multiple times, but he doesn't know that there is someone in his midst that is helping Joe. This enjoyably cheesy movie follows Joe Armstrong as he battles Ortega and his ninja army while trying to figure out his own past.Sam Firstenberg made some of the best movies I've seen to date so check out a few of his other movies such as CyberCop and American Ninja 2: The Confrontation.

Superficially, we have a made-in-the-Phillipines B movie with the Golan-Globus imprint. Just to be clear, in case you are new to the chronicles of B movies, Golan-Globus was a came-from-nowhere production team which tried (with some success) to emulate the feats of similar come-from-nowhere studios which, in the 50s especially, in the teen sub-genre, were astonishingly capable at stealing Hollywood's lunch. This review is not the place to review the oddball list of their productions, except perhaps to note that it included some films LIKE THIS ONE which enjoyed a financial and critical notoriety far beyond what the production values would have suggested. The story is worthy of note. An American is "trained" by a master in the ancient Japanese art of Ninjitsu. Not necessarily new as such (something similar was on the table in Bloodsport for example) but at the time, when western audiences were just beginning to understand that their notion of a "fight" was vastly inferior to what eastern audiences had been watching for decades, it was, in its own strange way, noteworthy. Two more points. The film, warts and all, had its moments. Not talking Spielberg, of course, but parts of it were fun. And even more interesting was how the theme would not die. Run an IMDb search for "american ninja" and you will be deluged with all finds of later iterations on the same theme. In other words -- and this was a peculiar talent of Golan-Globus -- they connected with the audience on a scale beyond the actual offering. For this reason, I gave this film a higher rating than most, and suggest it is worth a watch, especially for students of the genre.

while this 80's martial arts cheapie from Cannon films(produced By Golan/Globus) won't win any awards,it's a decent enough time killer with some good if not spectacular action sequences.it's not boring at all.in fact,it moves along at a pretty good pace.and as long as you know what you're getting you shouldn't be disappointed.Hamlet,it ain't,but it doesn't pretend to be,and none of the actors involved in it do either.it's just cheesy fun.and as far as Cannon films and producers Golan/Globus go,there are a lot of movies in the stable much worse than this.i for one,quite enjoyed it for what it is.for me,American Ninja is a 7/10

Just when you thought director Sam Firstenberg could not take ninja films any further, we were treated to this spectacularly brilliant cheese fest in 1985. Michael Dudikoff, fresh off his stint in Bachelor Party, was cast as "Joe".... The American Ninja!!! Did it matter that Mr. Dudikoff had absolutely no martial arts training before this film? Certainly not. They only wanted a guy who looked like James Dean, didn't have to say much, and could act like he had a chip on his shoulder. Dudikoff more than fits those criteria. You have to feel for Steve James, though. He actually was a great martial artist, but had to play the sidekick role. At least in the two installments of this series I've seen.The story centers around our hero the mysterious "Joe" who is a newly arrived private at a U.S. Army base in the Phillipines. At least that's where they filmed this. Most movies about the military refer to their characters by their last name. Not here. I don't recall us ever learning what Joe's last name is. But nobody knows much about the young man. He was found on some Pacific Island as a young boy with no family or memories of one. Raised in reform schools until he "almost killed a man at age 16", Joe clearly needed some discipline, and the army is where he ended up. Curious however that the army has no knowledge of Joe's date of birth, yet they know how old he was when he almost killed a man! The film is filled with goofs like that! Anyway, Joe was apparently trained as a ninja while still a boy! And could you believe the guy who trained him actually works as a gardener on a plantation near Joe's army base??? As Elaine would say on Seinfeld.... GET OUT!!! Turns out the owner of this plantation is also stealing arms from Joe's base and selling them to the highest dirty bidder, too. And this plantation is also the training ground for an army of evil ninjas, too!!! Sounds like we have a Golan/Globus production here! Can Joe stop the sale of these arms and defeat the ninja army and their leader??? Honestly, you get what you pay for with this movie. There is a lot of action, and some of it is compelling. Despite Dudikoff's lack of training, he almost pulls it off. At least we get to see Steve James flex his muscles between stealing every scene. Judie Aaronson of Friday the 13th IV and Weird Science fame is here to provide a plucky love interest. She does fine with her character and comes off kind of like Jane in a Tarzan movie. The musical score is made from old Missing In Action pieces, and some outrageously over the top horn playing. Some of it sounds like Chuck Mangione's Feels So Good on crack. The film even has jeeps that will explode after slightly tapping a palm tree. Trust me. It's an hour and a half of your life that you probably didn't need, anyway! 5 of 10 stars.The Hound.