It’s American Ninja 4: The Annihilation, the final theatrical release for the series, and yet another entry which stars newbie “American Ninja” David Bradley, in the role of Sean Davidson. Returning again is director Cedric Sundstrom. Absent now is writer Gary Conway, meaning The Annihilation has the freedom to be about something other than bio-engineered mutant ninjas. A good thing, because variety is already hard enough to come by in a series about pajama-clad martial artists, third world warlords, and charisma-challenged Caucasian superstars.
It’s been one year since American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt, meaning little shakeup in the Cannon Group’s way of creating films, though the fact remains that the company was on the way out, and The Annihilation is one of their last hurrahs. Perhaps given this air of financial apocalypse, Sundstrom & Co. grew the cojones to be a bit more atypical in their formulaic ninja actioner. Against all odds, Part Four is infinitely superior to Part Three, entirely earning its 3.0 rating on IMDb. It’s weightier, I suppose, certainly in visuals. Budget setbacks again, a shocking boon to an action film, as it demands nothing but location photography, as Sundstrom lacks the funds to create sets – and seeing as Blood Hunt’s interiors looked like something out of the am drams, that’s most welcome. That pastel sheen of eightiesness is gone, too, as are some of the more particularly egregious idiocies.
Plus, ninjas are threatening again! “Again,” did I say? I mean “for the first time in this series,” excepting those of American nationality. There’s nothing more bracing than an opening scene of ninjas triumphing, easily getting the better of SEAL Team Six – excuse me, the Delta Force, out in the deserts seeking America’s greatest Muslim terrorist enemy and – okay, how is it American Ninja 4 is reminding me of recent events?! No matter, these elite U.S. commandos are captured, and lest you think there is actual gravitas to all this, keep in mind ninjas remain (by franchise definition) as unlikely as ever. Though it’s dangnably fun to see ‘em, armed simply with swords, dodging machine gun fire in a way that resembles me on the dance floor.
The Delta Force is now captive of one Scoff Mulgrew (James Booth, and a quick scan of his résumé reveals the mighty flick known as…Rentadick?!). Mulgrew has turned a “whatever nation” into his own murderous fiefdom, and in the interest of Cannon’s foreign relations, this nation is never revealed. (It seems they filmed in South Africa again.) Mulgrew is generically bad, obsessed with killing and power simply to satisfy genre terms. Providing antagonistic motive is his counterpart, Sheik Ali Maksood (Ron Smerczak), who proves just how dedicated Israelis Golan and Globus were to caricaturing the Arabs. If you said “Muslim,” particularly to someone in the Bush compound, they’d picture Maksood, in full turban, sheik-shrieking to no end about “true believers” and “the Great Satan” and “jihad” this and “Allah Allah Allah Allah!” that. It’s as if the generic Middle Easterner villain in the background of so many Cannon efforts was promoted to lead, without a shred of artfulness. I cannot stress fully how ridiculous Maksood is…Mulgrew too, for that matter.
This wicked duo has given a week (and weak) deadline before they arbitrarily execute the commandos. No negotiations or anything; that’s simply how long an action hero needs to resolve the situation. Oh, and M&M also have a suitcase nuclear bomb, with which they inarguably intend to destroy New York City, shortly following this same week. Why doesn’t the UN or some such doesn’t simply bomb their known compound?! It’s ruled out in fear of their mighty nuclear retaliation, except…except they’re gonna bomb New York anyway…oh, and that bomb’s there in the compound now, so…oh never mind, it’s way out of Cannon’s budget.
Nope, this being an American Ninja (or any 1980s action film, despite its 1990 release – so close!), matters fall to a single man. Picture every movie where a beleaguered CIA director barks “Get me _____!” That “_____” this time being [drum roll please] Sean Davidson, CIA. CIA?! Yeah. And a speedy promotion too, considering a year ago Sean was but a civilian “American ninja” battling B-movie druggists. Now he’s “the best of the best”…saddled with a token black operative (Dwayne Alexandre) simply to have someone to exposit towards in the field. No matter the dis-continuity of Sean’s life story, he is a stronger character now, stripped of the faux-Karate Kid nonsense Blood Hunt couldn’t really handle. Besides, a generic leather outfit and gravelly voice, while barely original, do meet the action hero archetype.
Initially, the duo’s adventures in Definitely Not South Africa are pretty generic (I mean, more so than the rest of the film). Because it’s early on, and this film has actual escalation (choke on that, Blood Hunt!), they start out randomly getting into bar fights. This is all in a semi-comical effort to follow a contact to “Sulfur Springs,” an objective with no immediately apparent connection to freeing the hostages. Along the way, they pick up local doctor Sarah (Robin Stille), simply because tokenism demands a female to balance out Sean’s loyal black guy. Though this movie hasn’t even the wherewithal to lump her into a de rigueur romance, of which I am greatly thankful.
Mulgrew remains a presence, hot on the group’s trail, and wantonly executing whichever unlucky locals Sean has previously beaten up. It’s pointless, which is the point – Mulgrew is not a reasonable fellow. …It’s all coming back now…I saw this in my youth! (Well, part of it, at any rate.) Not then understanding ninjas that weren’t in Teenage Mutant form, Cannon-style casual slaughter seemed more curious to me. Kind of weightless and airless even then, for how eager these movies are for their R, but still something which somewhat defines the curious ninja subgenre.
That, and ninjas. Ninjas such as those who suddenly attack Sean in mid-meditation (the gall!), yielding a mostly ho hum fight, nothing we haven’t seen before – crossbows, garrotes, nunchucks (actually, that is a series first), ninja stars (definitely not), one singularly useless pistol. It seems a little more serious than before, maybe just because the soundtrack is laying off of the Casio for once, when…(and now this I did not expect)…
Sean et al are captured! The ninjas win!
Well sure, why shouldn’t they? Especially if we’re to be reminded of our onetime belief that ninjas are the martial end all. And don’t for a moment fool yourself into thinking this is like when James Bond gets captured, only to escape in three minutes. Nope, Sean (et al) are now permanently Mulgrew’s guests, housed in what looks like the producer’s rec room.
This is the midway point, by the way, with The Annihilation cleaved almost perfectly into halves. And now, necessitated like Psycho to switch protagonists in midstream, American Ninja 4 does something else you wouldn’t see coming (unless you read a synopsis, or looked at the cast list in the credits, or glimpsed the poster or the Netflix sleeve)…It reintroduces Michael Dudikoff!
How nice, when a sequel brings back a previously MIA main character, to greater audience appreciation. Dudikoff’s Joe Armstrong is the Coca-Cola to Bradley’s New Coke, even if the two are neck-and-neck in kung fu semi-prowess and non-acting. Dudikoff just feels right, perhaps because the series was initially his. Think to Fast & Furious, for when reinserting Vin Diesel had a similar impact…
It only takes a brief moment for the CIA to coax Joe out of the Peace Corps, where he’s given up violence momentarily much like Stallone in Rambo III. Oh it to Sean’s capture, an ersatz Richard Crenna now – and we’re meant to assume Joe and Sean are good boon friends, despite having never shared screen time, simply because they share a franchise and are both “American ninjas.” (Perhaps a missing Curtis Jackson introduced them following Blood Hunt.)
Joe’s first action upon reaching The Democratic Republic of Wherever is to beat off a dozen ninjas (er, that is, I mean he fights them, not…you know). And while Joe bests them with storied ease, by now we’ve seen ninjas triumph repeatedly, lending them weight. Which assures us that Joe is superior to Sean, something they maybe wouldn’t be able to do with both on screen at once.
Having done one thing Sean couldn’t, Joe then does another and reaches Sulfur Springs.
Here American Ninja 4 chooses a new action subgenre. Counter intuitively enough, by the image above, it’s the Mad Max post-apocalypse we’re now dealing with, even though these people are merely local rebels against the Mulgrew crew. What a curious development this is, possibly the fallout of a prepared but unproduced sci-fi film on Cannon’s part (I’m only guessing here), or possibly Sundstrom merely itched to try some new clichés. And because it’s been nearly two minutes without a fight, Joe briefly thwacks about some big dudes with axes, all the better to convince Dr. Tamba (Ken Gampu) he is just as “American” and “ninja” as he claims.
Brief interlude for Joe to break into Mulgrew’s fort (during a fancy dress gala, for Mulgrew to boast in diplomats’ faces that he’ll soon needlessly explode the entire United States), where Joe steals the plans off Mulgrew’s fort so that he can again, tomorrow, break into Mulgrew’s fort. Huh?! Would that they had a little more budget to simply extend the inevitable climactic assault that’s coming up.
And here it is! With Dr. Tamba briefly channeling/predicting a different Mel Gibson movie (Braveheart) with a “freedom” speech, the Sulfurite post-technological barbarians attack Mulgrew’s fortress – head on. For as much good as Joe’s plans did ‘em. And they handily best assorted ninjas (complete with acrobatic guard tower explosions), the ninjas’ sheen of invincibility now well gone. It doesn’t wholly irk now, since we’ve gone beyond logic, and Beyond Thunderdome.
As meanwhile Joe sneaks in through an old, dried-up dam – a striking location. Inside the aqueduct works…more ninja fights. Notably, Joe catches one ninja’s arrow in his mouth (somehow changing the arrow’s angle as well), then stabs another ninja’s throat out with the same arrow – still in his mouth. All the while a rip-off of Lethal Weapon’s trailer music plays, because here at the desperate end of Cannon (and, not coincidentally, of the ‘80s), you can just steal indiscriminately without fear of repercussion.
The rest goes without saying – Joe rescues everyone, the nuke is disabled anticlimactically, and Joe climbs over a pile of mutilated ninja corpses on his return to the Peace Corps. And ever since first introducing himself to Dr. Tamba, Joe has said at most eight words total. Chat was never Dudikoff’s strong suit, and Joe is more mysterious (and more intriguing) in his willingness to just shut up. Compare him to the now-worthless Sean.
That final walk into the distance marks the last we’ll see of Michael Dudikoff in American Ninja. Actually, it marks the end of what I’ll see of American Ninja as well, for though American Ninja V exists, the “V” is for “video.”
For what it’s worth, David Bradley returns for this final desultory capper. In it, again the American Ninja series bows to the inspiration of The Karate Kid, even featuring a Pat Morita cameo. Bradley’s Sean, randomly yet again, is promoted to the level of sensei, the “last true ninja,” to train 14-year-old Lee Reyes in the ancient ways of “American ninjas.” Cue inspirational training montages, and trade out waxing cars for tarnishing and varnishing a boat. Then multicolored ninjas capture Lee, for some no doubt justifiable reasons. “Ninja fighting ensues” – (direct Wikipedia quote).
This 1993 American Ninja V occurred at the very end of the Cannon Group, released on video alongside final theatrical release Street Knight. Ever since 1990, Cannon was in dire straits, enduring legal suits and countersuits in a tale I do not fully comprehend. Suffice it to say the story includes phrases such as “criminal charges,” “fled to Italy,” and “international extradition,” making it sound just as idiosyncratic as any self-respecting Cannon release. Somehow, all this concerning $1.48 billion, all over a studio that’d been lucky to make under a million dollars per release.
Which marks the end of American Ninja, a series which neither Dudikoff nor Bradley sought to reignite, even while remaining in the sub-Lundgren DTV action miasma of the ‘90s. The Human Shield, Cobra (not the Stallone one), Cyberjack, Soldier Boyz, Strategic Command, Cyborg Cop, Hard Justice, Expect to Die – these are just some of the cinematic marvels the former “American ninjas” touted in years to come. Whatever conclusions to be drawn from that, they’re yours.
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