Watch Ninja For Free

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

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.

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.

this movie has two thing that every ninja movie should have,a vengeance plot and a meeting of the old ways of the ninja and the modern way of the gang/cult.first off you see the training dojo and you don't know if it's the 15th century or the 21st.our hero,casey,who has been in the dojo from youth is in a minor seeming feud with masasuke,a rival student in the dojo,when a training session becomes near fatal masasuke is banished and goes into business as an assassin,meanwhile casey and namiko,the sensei's daughter go to America to guard an ancient ninja artefact,the yoroi bitsu,a chest of weapons and gear used by the ninja ancestors who trained in the dojo.when masasuke kills sensei casey and namiko are targeted,this is where the movie changes,masasuke is the modern ninja,with guns, an extendable katana and a major grudge he uses a cult connection to find and capture casey.when all else fails casey does what he has to do,he opens the chest.as masasuke is modern and casey is a classic ninja,it is a major battle of the ages,and a brilliant fight all around,this movie is sometimes compared to ninja assassin,but the two couldn't be any more different

There is really nothing positive to say about this movie. I bought it on blu ray as part of a 5 for 20$ deal @ blockbuster. I would just sell it somewhere but i wouldn't want to subject anyone else to this nonsense. I have seen martial arts films w/a white guy as the lead that were not horrible (not many, but they are out there...Last Samurai for example) but this is not one of them. Not one actor was decent and not one scene was worth while. My wife and I were ESPECIALLY annoyed at the female lead who kept getting beat up. Seriously, save yourself 1.5 hours of your life and watch anything other than this junk. It isn't often (in fact, this is the first time) that I would give a movie 1 star but this truly deserves it!