Another nugget of movie-making gold from the crazed minds of Godfrey Ho, Joseph Lai, and the must-be-fictional IFD script unit. This time our pal Richard Harrison (who is unnerving without his trademark moustache, just like a young Burt Reynolds or a post-Fawlty John Cleese) returns as Ninja Master Gordon to train a young lad named Billy in the mystical arts of ninjitsu.Unfortunately for Billy, he hasn't reckoned on the lack of job prospects for 18th century Japanese assassins down at the local labour exchange, and finds himself returning to his home town without money or gainful employment, and facing a gang of extortionist thugs threatening his poor old mother that if she doesn't find any cash they'll "burn down your f***in' house"!!! Class.Whilst young Billy wrestles with the domestic soap opera aspects of ninja existence, his master Gordon is entangled in conflict with the startling Ivan the Red (Dave Wheeler), who possesses an amazing costume, a ludicrously macho and husky dubbed voice, and a truly sensational bass-lead theme tune. Seriously: if they release "Ivan's Theme" i predict it as Christmas number one with full confidence. Ivan's challenge to Gordon to fight to the death for NINJA SUPREMACY is spurned, and so Mr. The Red decides to take out a number of random ninjas clad in outfits of varying ludicrousness as they "train" (jump about a bit) in various neighbouring fields. Obviously, we're all waiting for the final showdown between these two ninja colossi, and we aren't disappointed.Well, we are, to be honest, but as with all of these movies, it's the journey , not the destination, that matters. And when we've encountered such hilariously inept dialogue, thrillingly pounding basslines, and dubbing so bad it may well make you mentally ill along the way, who can possibly complain? Only the type of person who wouldn't even "revenge" their own mother.
... View MoreIts called The Ninja Squad...where's the ninja squad in this film? All we see are individual ninjas cruising round fighting each other, because they've got nothing else to do besides meditate and wave their swords around to the same individual sound effect. Then again I bought this film for a pound; so what do you expect? We see the protagonist, Billy, being trained as a young boy to become the world's greatest ninja. After several shots of generic ninja training Billy has become a grown man and an ultimate ninja! Then he starts complaining about how he can't get a job, as there's little work for ninjas in his hometown. Its an unwritten rule that ninja's financial issues aren't addressed in ninja films, but maybe director Godfrey Ho was trying to kick some realism into the formula. If he did, it fell flat on its face with the dubbed Australian and Texas accents against the faces of people clearly from an Asian background. But at least Billy is inconspicuous. His fellow ninjas parade round in what looks like cheap, camp, fancy dress, with a headband bearing the title'ninja', just to clarify. Its terrible. This is why I love this film and you have to watch it!!!
... View MoreThe Ninja Squad is another Godfrey Ho Ninja flick that's so bad it's entertaining like the previous ones and the ones that came later. The Ninja squad is entertaining for several reasons, one is that the Ninja's costumes all have headbands with the word "Ninja" on, it's like they're pointing the obvious to the audience, another thing is that the Ninja's are all white males, no Japaniese Ninja's just white Ninja's which is funny since the Ninja originated from Japan so you'd think they'd have some Ninja's from Japan. Another thing is that the main character Billy has spent all this time being a Ninja yet he doesn't even dress up or use any Ninja skills, he just beats them up or uses Machine guns. The reason for this is simple, apparently Godfrey and Joespeh Lai found reels of unreleased Hong Kong movies so to make a quick bit if money they shot some Ninja scenes and edited it in to other films then re-dubbed the unreleased movie they was using to make it like it was connected to their Ninja movie, it does make sense since why does the films always have a Ninja plot and a non Ninja plot, wouldn't it just have one plot like American Ninja. That was a very interesting bit of information I found out because it does make more sense when watching these Godfrey Ho Ninja movies. One thing you've got to put your hats up for is Richard Harrison, he's been in so many of these Ninja movies I lost count. He must of been a good sport to star in these low budget movies, he must of known they were cheesy but he still did a great job and starred in them. Later he stated that it made him feel like a prostitute but he was in that many you can't blame him, most of them was shot in the same year. The film sees a young boy named Billy training with Ninja Master Gordon (Played by the great Richard Harrison.), years later Billy returns home to his family. Billy needs to find a job since being a Ninja doesn't qualify as a paying job, it makes you wonder why Billy decided to spend all that time training with Gordon if he's told to get a proper job but again the whole Billy plot was from another movie. Meanwhile Gordon gets a threat from a Ninja named Ivan the Red who challenges him, he declines so Ivan then goes around killing other Ninja's to make him the ultimate Ninja Warrior. The Ninja's in this movie get killed way to easy, just a slice in they're stomach and they're dead and the funny thing is there's no blood. I guess they couldn't afford fake blood effects, there are some movies where a guy gets stabbed and he's still alive. Anyway Billy meets a group of thugs and beats them up and so because of that the kill his mother so Billy decides to get his revenge, Billy also has other problem since his girlfriend's father doesn't like her being with him since "He's a Ninja and a very dangerous man." Ivan the Red keeps discarding these Ninja's until he gets to fight Gordon then he will try and kill Billy, Gordon gets ready to face Ivan the Red and stop him from becoming the ultimate Ninja Warrior.The Ninja Sqaud is another cheesy, low budget Ninja movie that's entertainingly funny and should be seen if you're in the mood for a laugh at some Z-grade fun. Check this out. 10/10
... View MoreRichard Harrison returns once again (albeit unwittingly if you know the history behind these films) as a ninja master yet again named Gordon (but ostensibly not the same character in each film)At the inception of the movie we see Gordon training a young student named Billy in the ancient warrior art and explaining to him it's historical origins. The film then inexplicably jumps forward in time some years to when Billy is grown up (and strangely sporting an Australian accent!) and has returned to his native home (The Phillipines?) where he manages to get on the wrong side of a gang of heavies and their vicious boss who are extorting money from the villagers amongst other criminal activities.If you're familiar with the 'Cut and Paste' 'Masterpieces' synonymous with the names of director Godfrey Ho and producer Joseph Lai then you'll know exactly what to expect here.The segments showing the 'grown up' Billy in this film are in fact footage taken from a completely separate film with the newer footage of Harrison's character and the other ninjas spliced into it at irregular intervals.Anyway, back to the 'plot' at hand....Whilst Billy is experiencing problems involving the gangsters, Gordon is having some trouble of his own in the form of an evil Ninja calling himself Ivan the Red (Dave Wheeler) whose aim is to challenge Gordon to combat in order to prove his fighting supremacy and to wrest the supreme 'ninja power' from him. When Gordon initially refuses to participate in any such confrontation Ivan resorts to challenging and subsequently killing other ninja in order to goad Gordon into battle.Having dispatched of each opponent Ivan removes their (rather crappy) Ninja headbands which he then sends to Gordon as proof of his kill (although I've seen exactly the same crappy Ninja Headbands for sale for about £2.00 in martial arts shops so he might as well have bought a few from there and saved himself some hassle)Finally Gordon is forced to accept the challenge to stop the bloodshed (although as per usual with these films despite ninja being sliced/stabbed etc there is not one drop of the red stuff in sight!!!) I'm sure that you can guess the final outcome. What can I say about this film?Well the acting/dubbing is atrocious and to call the link between the ninja footage and the footage involving the character of Billy as tenuous would be overly complimentary (it's completely none existent!)....so in other words it's all brilliant fun! If (like me) you are into bad movies then you'll no doubt be able to derive a good laugh from this one.The fight scenes are especially energetic here with lot's of flips and acrobatics and oh, did I mention that our hero wears a pink ninja uniform? Hmmmm intriguing indeed.....
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