Season 2 · Episode 27 ·
American Ninja
The One Where Michael Dudikoff Does a Lot of Somersaults
- Rotten Tomatoes
- 0%
- Budget
- $1 million
- Box office
- $10 million
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About the episode
This week on The Worst Movie Podcast, Ade and Aaron tackle American Ninja (1985), the Cannon Films production that scored 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and turned a $1 million budget into $10 million at the box office, enough to launch a franchise. Michael Dudikoff plays an amnesiac soldier who takes on an arms dealer, his rebels and his entire ninja army somewhere tropical. The guys break down the somersaults, the color-coded ninja training camp and the kicks that miss by a mile. Dudikoff had no martial arts training when he got the part.
Tune in as we ask questions like:
- Do ninjas still exist?
- Is the American Ninja actually American?
- How many millions of dollars fit in a briefcase?
- Is shooting lasers ninja technology?
- Do action heroes need to have personality or charisma?
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About the movie
Joe Armstrong, an orphaned drifter with little respect for much other than martial arts, finds himself on an American Army base in the Philippines after a judge gives him a choice of enlistment or prison. On one of his first missions driving a convoy, his platoon is attacked by a group of rebels who try to steal the weapons the platoon is transporting and kidnap the base colonel's daughter.
- Director
- Sam Firstenberg
- Starring
- Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, Judie Aronson, Guich Koock, John Fujioka, Don Stewart
- Runtime
- 95 min
- Genres
- Action, Adventure
Movie details via TMDB.
