Pass the gravy and shuriken: ‘Ninja Assassin’ opens

By Mark Pollard | Published November 23, 2009

Thanksgiving is upon us here in the U.S. and that usually marks the beginning of the festive holiday season. What better way to kick off the festivities than by heading to the theater beginning November 25 to feast your eyes on James McTeigue’s blood-soaked ninja actioner NINJA ASSASSIN? Okay, maybe by feasting your eyes on Isaac Florentine’s NINJA but that’s not an option.

NINJA ASSASSIN (2009)

With the ripped, frequently bare-chested Rain starring, the film might even entice some of those female TWILIGHT fanatics still enraptured by Robert Pattinson’s pasty skin and beefcake wolf buddies. Then again, they might be disappointed by the lack of emo teen angst.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, early reviews typified by JoBlo’s Fantastic Fest review suggest NINJA ASSASSIN takes itself more seriously than genre audiences are willing to.

Is this reason enough to watch something else or stay home and keep nibbling on turkey? That’s for you to decide but the genre alternatives of watching either disaster porn (2012) or teen vampire melodrama is certainly going to limit my options should I venture to the local multiplex this Thanksgiving.

Either way, I may have to ultimately sate my appetite for ninja carnage with THE NINJA SQUAD, one of Godfrey Ho’s “finest.”

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  • paulchenprost
    here are some new clips to give people an impression of what to expect:
    http://itsjustmovies.com/4221
    the third clip with all the ninja at the ceiling is one cool shot.:D
    and I like the training scene as well
    I'm still looking forwad to this one:)
    should be mindless but fun popcorn entertainment:D
  • chris_stoddard_78
    This is hilarious and I'm reminiscing the days when Godfrey Ho (and his many pseudonyms he hid behind) and Joseph Lai's IDF Films and Arts Limited company (Columbia Pictures logo rip-off with a bite of Star Wars music) were the ones behind many of these cheesy low-class flicks. Many of these low production cheese cakes (The Blazing Ninja, Bionic Ninja, Ninja Champion, Golden Ninja Warrior, etc.) are collecting dust on my old VHS wall as I speak. I grew up during the ninja crazed '80s era when B-actor and one-time Shaw Brothers star Richard Harrison was appearing in countless "cut-and-paste" movies, hiding in the ninja suits while the stuntmen stepped in to do his martial art fights. LOL. I have yet to see NINJA ASSASSIN so I can't evaluate on the film but hopefully, its Thanksgiving release will help draw viewers, unfamiliar with the culture, into learning more on the mysterious black-cloaked secret agents we know as ninja, who have become so well-known in the west during the '80s as warriors of almost mystical abilities and swordplay. This will also mark the triumph return of '80s ninja star Sho Kosugi after his long hiatus from films.
  • Not looking forward to it. James McTeigue and Rain don't do it for me. I think Ninja looks like fun, though.
  • albertv
    Gotta love those IFD Ninja composites :) Think I will check out this weekend Full Metal Ninja and Zombie vs Ninja...maybe the Ninja Empire. Too bad we gotta wait til March for NINJA, but I'm sure it's worth the wait.
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