Ninja, 2009. Scott Adkins as a different American Ninja that in American Ninja, even though his is British, and for no story reason. Oh well. It is a straight faced yet goofy throwback to the Golden Age of 80's Ninja Movies. Starts out in a Ninja school that seems greatly lacking in ninja training. Actually the first half of the film is greatly lacking in ninjaing, even though the villain, or at least one of them is a ninja who hates our main characters who are also ninja. There is also a weird substory about a oil company with a killer's club/cult (they have both a brand as well as easily identifiable uniforms, which is nice) who hires the ninja to do something he was going to do anyway, but it wouldn't be a throwback without a conviluted subplot. The bosses for the firm (Temple Corporation) also wear cult robes over their suits. It is as if the Illuminati bought a lot of stock in Shell Oil and took over, then brought their own cult of Red Shirts that they realized were crappy at their jobs, so they subcontracted a ninja consultant. As I said, the first half lacks in ninjaness, but the fight scenes when Adkins takes on the mooks in their own club house take off, and it holds up from there.
On a scale of 1 to 5 ninja throwing stars, i give it a solid 2.5, maybe 3 if I am really forgiving. It came with the squeal which is supposed to be better, but the name, Ninja: Shadow of a Tear sounds more like a good Nightwish album title.
