"American Ninja 2" or "Steve James is the BEST Ninja"

[tacticslion]

Taking my mind of of genuine senseless violence by watching fake senseless violence.

That's all I'm sayin', really. (specifically just letting it go until about 0:43:00)

Need more proof? (from earlier in the movie, go to about 0:21:04)

The awesome doesn't stop. (from later, go to 1:20:01 and skip to here until about 1:21:36, though the best ninja attack in existence attack has to be the "stay down" attack)

Dude is suave with "teh ladies", moves with more grace than anyone else in the movie, can blend in in social situations or combat with ease, doesn't need a gun outside of a one-off shield to prevent a dirty gang-up sneak-attack, and is built like a truck.

The. Best. Ninja.

Also this guy, is the best too. Just look at what the man goes through for his job. and he can only be defeated by ramming him into a building and blowing him up! Now that's a dedicated guy! Still, he's not as much the best as Steve James, but definitely still the best.

I'm not saying Michael Dudikoff is lame or anything, he's actually pretty sweet. He's just overshadowed by an even better ninja in that movie and I think we all need to agree with that.

My one problem is with the female lead. Seriously woman, you had a gun, or at least the opportunity to have one at, like, fifty bajillion different times (or perhaps three), why did you never use it?!

Oh, that, and the dad blew himself up for no reason. Like, at all. The man nearly cured cancer and decided to kill himself because "oops, I made sub-par evil ninjas instead under medical suppression and threats against my daughters life".

ANYway.

[Magus]

This is all our Marines should be doing. Tax dollars well spent.

The ninja-grappling hook clotheslining of the motorcyclist at 52:00 or so almost puts this on par with Blind Fury. Almost.

[tacticslion]

And then, there's the movie that taught us being an antisocial loner was the best thing, and a totally acceptable way to live. Also, that disobeying completely comprehensible and decent orders in the military is way cool. Also that ninja assassins are pretty terrible at their job (no, really, the inverse law totally comes into play here). Also that the best thing to do when being the subject of a stealth assault is to allow the stealth assault to kill a guy you could easily fight to stop, flee into the night, and not raise the alarm to alert the military base full of highly-trained professional fighters. Also that both the military and rebel forces are full of terrible shots (which is why you shouldn't alert the former, naturally). And military jeeps explode with minimal provocation. Also father figures are made to die needlessly (like, seriously, he was invisible, he couldn't have just, I don't know, caught the blade?!). And the worst thing a bad-guy can do is not cut his losses and leave an ally to die (so really, they should all learn: be a total jerk).

And, oh man those sound effects! Er... sorry, I meant, "dat sound-Ef-Ex!"

The women in this series seem a little vapid, sadly, but at least the one in AN2 was kind of sort-of smart. The AN1 one was educated, but really... ugh.

And so many more civilians got hurt (or at least implied to be hurt) in AN1 v. AN2.

Also, I love the fact that the AN2 Truck-Ninja is basically a reference to Dudikoff in AN1 (at the beginning and then again around 49:00 or so). That made me laugh when I realized it.

(Sadly Jackson isn't the best ninja, yet, but I presume he had awesome training from Joe in between AN1 and AN2 such that the student surpassed the master. He's still a better guy over-all, though, and much slicker and smarter in most ways.)

Also, I love the fact that most of the final battle basically takes place on a ninja training ground and is, in fact, mostly a contest of "who can outninjatraing ground the other first" for no reason. Also ninja-lasers are the best ninja magic.

Let us speak more of this "Blind Fury" and the moments that make you love it so.