{"id":1348,"date":"2024-07-26T23:52:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T23:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1348"},"modified":"2024-10-14T11:34:11","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T15:34:11","slug":"american-ninja-2-the-confrontation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/26\/american-ninja-2-the-confrontation\/","title":{"rendered":"American Ninja 2: The Confrontation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"American Ninja 2: The Confrontation<\/strong>\u00a0(1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cannon Films\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sam Firstenberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Gary Conway and James Booth\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Bishop and George S. Clinton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gideon Porath\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 1, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, Larry Poindexter, Gary Conway, Jeff Weston, Michelle Botes, Mike Stone, Len Sparrowhawk, Jonathan Pienaar, Elmo Fillis, Bill Curry, Dennis Folbigge, Ralph Draper, John Pasternak.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $4M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0What stands out most for me about American Ninja 2: The Confrontation<\/strong> is that it\u2019s the first movie I ever saw with an urban audience. It was Memorial Day weekend \u201987, Saturday to be exact. I was in Philadelphia with a friend. I don\u2019t remember exactly what we had planned for that day, but it started to rain and we didn\u2019t want to go home. I guess it was serendipity that we were on Chestnut Street, a street that used to be lined with movie theaters back in the day. I suggested we check out the double feature playing at Eric\u2019s Place (15th<\/sup> & Chestnut)- Evil Dead 2 and American Ninja 2<\/strong>, neither of which I had seen. Although she detested horror flicks, she agreed to see the show. I still consider it one of the best days of my life. Not only did I get to see two cool flicks; I saw them in the city with a rowdy audience. There\u2019s a scene in American Ninja 2<\/strong> where Steve James\u2019 character pulls out two huge knives when confronted by a ninja. All you heard in the theater was a simultaneous chorus of \u201cDAMN!!!!\u201d I love that kind of thing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0So what about the movie itself? Is it any good? I have to say it \u2026.. HELL YEAH!!!! Not only do Michael Dudikoff and Steve James reprise their roles, Sam Firstenberg (Revenge of the Ninja, Ninja III: The Domination) returns as director. Besides, I can hardly knock a B-level action flick that carries the Golan-Globus insignia. I said it before, I\u2019ll continue to say it, Cannon rules!<\/p>\n

\u00a0This time around, Joe Armstrong (Dudikoff) and Curtis Jackson (James) find themselves at a Marine base on some remote Caribbean island investigating the disappearances of four soldiers. The commanding officer, known as \u201cWild Bill\u201d (Weston, Alien from L.A.), isn\u2019t exactly thrilled about a pair of Army Rangers (they\u2019ve both been promoted!) being there, but he doesn\u2019t have too many options.<\/p>\n

\u00a0So what\u2019s going on here? Somebody has been kidnapping soldiers from a local bar. A witness, a local boy named Toto (Fillis), tells our heroes the soldiers were taken away by men all dressed in black. Yep, we know what that means. Their suspicions are confirmed after they\u2019re attacked on a remote island by a group of ninjas.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The man behind the abductions is a drug dealer called \u201cThe Lion\u201d (co-writer Conway). He has a secret laboratory on Blackbeard Island where he\u2019s creating an army of \u201csuper ninjas\u201d. What\u2019s a super ninja? Glad you asked. According to the Lion, it\u2019s the ultimate fighting machine and a miracle of genetic engineering. They\u2019re \u201cstrong, obedient, heartless\u201d and plentiful! Their nerves have been replaced with steel wires so they don\u2019t feel pain and other such scientific silliness. How does the villain get away with all of this? All of the officials on the island are corrupt, DUH!<\/p>\n

\u00a0American Ninja 2<\/strong> is dumber than the first movie, but that doesn\u2019t make it any less fun. I love that the villain and his nefarious plot come straight out of a comic book. He has a seemingly indestructible henchman called \u201cTojo Ken\u201d (fight choreographer Stone) who will ultimately face off against Joe in the climactic fight to the finish. It\u2019s B-movie ninja silliness all the way.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Dudikoff\u2019s acting hasn\u2019t improved since the first movie, but his action movie partnership with James has settled into a nice groove. Once again, this franchise doesn\u2019t disappoint when it comes to action and fighting. It has plenty. It also has plenty of violence which is the main reason audiences show up for films with the word \u201cninja\u201d in the title. There\u2019s this one barroom brawl that\u2019s particularly awesome.<\/p>\n

\u00a0American Ninja 2<\/strong> is tailor-made for Saturday afternoon matinees at questionable urban cinemas. A lot of the time, it enhances the experience of seeing one of these goofy low-budget action movies. Yeah, they don\u2019t cost all that much to make so they typically turn a profit. Cannon found a real cash cow with the American Ninja movies. At least they did with the first two. The third one went straight to video, but I\u2019ll talk about that one in more detail when I review it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For now, I\u2019ll leave you with my enthusiastic recommendation of American Ninja 2<\/strong>. It\u2019s a fun movie, just like its predecessor. It has a purity about it that today\u2019s movies just can\u2019t seem to replicate. Some of you know exactly what I mean.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Ninja 2: The Confrontation\u00a0(1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cannon Films\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sam Firstenberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Gary Conway and James Booth\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Bishop and George S. Clinton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gideon Porath\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 1, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, Larry Poindexter, Gary Conway, Jeff Weston, Michelle Botes, Mike Stone, Len […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-kick-ass-actioners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/American-Ninja-2-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1348"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1940,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions\/1940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}