I still remember watching this movie with my friends in the 6th grade and walking out of the theater like we had just seen the greatest martial arts movie ever. I was one of the first kids on my street to have a videocassette recorder and i would rent this movie every week for at least a year. We would look at the film like investigators probably looked at the Zapruder film.I don't like to trtash it because every time i see something associated with this movie i remember my childhood and a feel very nostalgic about those memories. It is my first writing here so excuse my English if there are errors or there is a lack of sense to what I'm trying to say.

Anyone like myself who is a great fan of poorly-acted Ninja movies - especially the ones produced by Golan & Globus - will enjoy this, the Daddy of the series.

The acting is wooden, the humour flat, the jeans tight; the fight scenes make no sense whatsoever and everyone dies dramatically.

But that's the point; if you can't pass an evening laughing wildly at this, there must be something wrong with you.

And any film which ends with a freeze-frame of the main character winking at the camera justifies its price fully.

The Cannon Group's initial entry into the martial arts / action genre is gloriously cheesy and silly stuff, so much so that it's hard to believe that they didn't have their tongues in their cheeks to some degree. Italian superstar Franco Nero is oddly but amusingly cast as Cole, an Army veteran who's spent time in Japan studying to become a Ninja. Afterwards he visits his old Army friend Frank (Alex Courtney), who's got a smoking hot young wife, Mary Ann (Susan George) and a beautiful house & property. However, all is not well in Frank's corner of the world as criminals have taken over the area, and the big daddy of them all is super greedy Venarius (Christopher George, who's a hammy delight), who wants to get his sleazy hands on Frank's property. Good thing Frank has Cole on his side, and Cole takes on all comers, including his old rival from his training days, Hasegawa, played by Sho Kosugi. Sure, this may not be "Enter the Dragon", but as directed by Cannon head honcho Menahem Golan, it's very agreeable entertainment that, at the very least, is never ever boring. Champion martial artist Mike Stone, who authored the story, is also the fight and stunt coordinator and double for Nero, and he makes sure that the action scenes are all reasonably exciting. Slick, colourful cinematography, by David Gurfinkel, and plenty of local flavour make this a pleasure to look at, while the fun factor remains high throughout. The movie offers so many laugh out moments that it's hard to imagine people not chuckling once during a viewing, especially as Hasegawa evilly chortles while doing dastardly things, or as Cole dispatches a very large amount of utterly worthless thugs (one of them played by future American Ninja Michael Dudikoff in an uncredited bit). And while none of the acting is exactly of the Oscar baiting variety, it's still enjoyable. Susan George is a fine scenery attraction, Will Hare has a high old time as jovial street vendor Dollars, Constantine Gregory, Ken Metcalfe, and especially Zachi Noy are a hoot as assorted henchmen of bad guy Christopher George, who has one of the most epic final scenes ever for this sort of thing. Nero may not be terribly expressive in the lead, but he *is* still fun to watch. You take all of that into account, as well as a pleasingly large body count, and it adds up to a fine diversion for genre fans. Eight out of 10.