Review of American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt (1989) by David G — 16 Apr 2010

David Bradley's ninja-trained karate champ Sean takes over from Michael Dudikoff's charismatic black hole Joe as the "American Ninja" this time around, teaming up with ninja-killing veteran Steve James (who still can't keep his shirt on), Evan J. Klisser's blonde muppet Dexter and Michele B. Chan's unconvincing kunoichi in order to thwart the evil master plan of The Cobra (Marjoe Gortner) - to develop a killer virus (yawn) and sell it to the highest bidder. The scheme involves organising a karate tournament to lure in the world's best fighters before capturing and injecting the best of the best with his virus so as to prove to his buyers that it can kill even the toughest people on the planet. And the best, most efficient way of protecting your evil plan? Why, with a personal ninja clan of course!

As a cheesy 80's romp that sells itself on the sight of ninjas flipping out and killing people - well, flipping out and being slaughtered by the heroes, after all these are possibly the worst ninjas in history - AN3 is OK. The trouble is it has very few of the ridiculously over-the-top moments that made the first two such a blast and without that wholesale stupidity the fun factor quickly evaporates. The characters - with the exception of Steve James' Curtis Jackson - are also horribly bland. All in all, American Ninja 3 is more of a dull slog than a ninjatastic joyride.