Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Comeuppance Reviews Casey Bowman (Adkins) is the lone white student at a dojo in Japan, among a class studying the ancient art of Ninjitsu. His father was stationed in Okinawa as a G.I., and this is the only culture he knows. When a fellow student, Masazuka (Ihara), attacks Casey in anger during a sparring exercise, he is banned from the school by the sensei. Naturally, that drives him to become an evil ninja who uses hi-tech weaponry and does the bidding of an evil cult in America. Meanwhile, the sensei entrusts Casey and fellow student/love interest Namiko (Hijii) to protect something called the Yoroi Bitsu, the historical ninja outfit and weaponry. They travel to New York City and proceed to fight waves of baddies to protect their honor and the Yoroi Bitsu. Things get complicated after Casey and Namiko are arrested by NYC cop Det. Traxler (Jensen), but eventually the inevitable happens: the final showdown between Casey and Masazuka. Who will be the ultimate NINJA? Entertainment and good times abound with this throwback to the 80's Ninja Boom. Fan favorite director Florentine is at the top of his game as he delivers action-packed fights and well-choreographed action (along with his trademark "whooshing" sound effects), while frequent collaborator in front of the camera and fellow fan favorite Scott Adkins is also in fine form. Adkins is always enjoyable to watch, and when he's put in roles like this, he can really shine. No wonder there was a Ninja 2 (2013) - fans clearly wanted more, and we can see why.Like any good action movie, Ninja actually has a strong, central hero in Adkins (and his trusty sidekick Hijii) as well as a super-evil baddie. Ihara makes a great foil for Adkins as he plays the bad ninja - the guy who was expelled from the dojo and proceeds to break from ancient ninja tradition by using cheats like night-vision goggles. Ninja - the movie - deserves credit for actually trying to imbue the plot with history and true ninja tradition. There's a (comically fast) scroll at the beginning informing us of the history of Ninjitsu, and a few re-enactments as well. This sets the stage for the action we are about to see.Ninja delivers the goods - cool ninja violence and a panoply of engaging fight scenes. If we have ONE criticism it's the over-use (or use, period) of CGI - and because it's Nu Image, we all know what this looks like - but Ninja gets a pass because all the rest is good, and because it's in that Florentine style we all know and love: exaggerated motions and big, oversized actions. And there's plenty of real Martial Arts and stunts as well. So, it's all good. We'll let the CGI stuff go in this instance.Plus, Masazuka is the first Cyber Ninja we've seen since…well, Cyber Ninja (1988). He's also a Cyber Ninja with a machine gun. This is awesome. We haven't seen a ninja with a machine gun since Ninja III:The Domination (1984), so, it was more than welcome. We also liked the wackier elements of the plot, such as the Temple cult. What made it great is that it wasn't needed at all, but it was totally welcome. A final observation: in the on screen title at the beginning of the movie, in the word NINJA, the "A" is a throwing star. We need more clever, cool details like this in movies. Though due to their censorship and hatred of throwing stars, it's likely that in the UK this movie is called NINJ. We're imagining it crudely crossed out with a crayon.In the final analysis, this particular Florentine/Adkins collaboration has cranked out another winner and kept DTV from going into the doldrums for the time being. Not everyone could have pulled from the Ninja Boom well and done it so successfully, so, they deserve credit. It's a fun and enjoyable watch, and we recommend it.

Anssi Vartiainen Ninja is one of those movies where the individual aspects are seriously unequal in quality. It has a great lead martial artist/actor in Scott Adkinds, but it has a really weak and unoriginal story. Its action scenes and fights are inventive and fun to watch, but the villain is nothing new or exciting. And the music, the cinematography and all the technical aspects are merely average.I'd still call this one a successful film. Adkins is such a good lead for a movie such as this one that you'd watch it solely for him. The man is in great shape and totally sells the character of Casey Bowman, an American orphan raised in a Japanese dojo to become a ninja warrior. It's not an Oscar-worthy performance, but it has a surprising amount of depth, given how clichéd the actual story is. And no, the story isn't actually that bad, it just isn't anything we haven't seen before, neither is it examined in a new light. The same with the villain (Tsuyoshi Ihara). Not a bad character, per se, just clichéd.I'm also not sure what to think about Namiko Takeda (Mika Hijii), Casey's love interest and a fellow dojo student. On the other hand she has some really good action scenes and can handle herself. That is until the script needs Casey to save her, at which point she starts to suffer from heavy damsel in distress syndrome. Not the worst offender I've seen, but it's still aggravating when she was shown to be clearly capable in previous scenes. And those previous scenes are very impressive.It's an uneven movie. If you've liked Adkins in any of his other movies, then this one is definitely worth a watch. It's also recommended for those that are looking for a martial arts movie with good fights.

S_Craig_Zahler this is a warning to fight film fans who are looking for good martial arts. adkins is very talented...but (as in undisputed II and {dacascos} drive), most of the fights are sped up or slowed down.there are about 2 good minutes of fighting towards the end when he is attacked by a crew of dudes in the evil group. otherwise, the ego/stylistic hijinks of isaac florentine get in the way of the real time delivery of choreography (or cover up things that weren't actually working on the set). and lots of bad looking cg gore only adds to the overall feeling that this piece is trying to be like big budget Hollywood, which is not an admirable attempt either. other than a few blood capsules, it looks like none of the actors stained their clothes making this picture-- almost all of the bloodletting is a digital add on.i'm still waiting for adkins to get his own stellar showcase piece like michael jai white's 'blood and bone' and donnie yen's 'ip man' & 'flash point' or jeff wincott in 'martial outlaw.' whenever that gets made, it won't be directed by speed 'em up florentine.

loogenhausen The highest praise I can heap upon Ninja is that there is absolutely no fat on this thing. It's lean and mean and gets right down to the point: ninjas! It's a scientific fact that ninjas are way cooler than pirates and robots combined. Even dead people know this to be true. That's why it's hard to even muster the energy to attempt to try to bag on a movie like Ninja. The script is flimsier than a leaf in a hurricane, the dialogue is spotty at best and trying to make sense of every plot detail just outs you as an unpatriotic ninja hater. What the movie does do well is show you ninjas killing the crap out of everyone on screen. Scott Adkins and Tsuyoshi Ihara have a hellacious final duel and everything leading up to it is paced faster than a one hundred yard dash. Let's be honest, you didn't have any interest in this movie for its stern position on global politics and the humane treatment of thoroughly owned ninja victims. You came here for ninja-on-ninja action. It's way better than Casper Van Dien's suckfest Mask of The Ninja and in my opinion slightly better than Ninja Assassin. It is not, however, better than Chris Lambert's The Hunted. That one is the high water mark for trashy non-Japanese ninja movies.