New installment in which the American Ninja encounters ample reasons and opportunity to use his deadly skills . Lots of action , thrills , shoot-outs and non-sense fighting and plenty of silly intrigue . Jackson (the late Steve James who early died of pancreatic cancer) is back, and now he has a new partner, a karate champion , the tough Joe (or Sean Davidson) , 'The American Ninja' (David Bradley) , as they travel to a far island to compete in a martial arts tournament, there the two-fisted duo must face a deadly terrorist known as "The Cobra", who has infected Sean with a virus , while manufacturing mass-produced an army of violent Ninjas by means of genetic engineering . Some people are disappearing and they must investigate their location. The prime suspect is a villain , drugs dealer , The Cobra (Marjoe Gortner) and mastermind Gen. Andreas (Yehuda Efroni) boasting his badness with hammy panache . Sean and Jackson have no choice but to fight the nasty ruler who has imposed a dictatorship at a country supported by the Cobra and his bands of ninjas . But Sean is kidnapped and Jackson goes into action, as he must save his friend from experimentation , while the Cobra threatening with his horrifying biological weapon. The super-Nijas dressed in black, hooded, a blade on the back and using Shinkaisen, a metallized star they throw . Now his most deadly enemy ... is time. Evil with no cure. A warrior with no fear.

This is plenty of action , adventures , fights , suspense in a comic book style . It's a gripping story of one man's revenge , as Sean Davison carries out a merciless vendetta against the villain who killed his father , including graphic violent scenes . The film displays a Norris' style but Chuck does it much better . This violent art-martial film is the third entry about our heroes , the brave Sean Davison : David Bradley along with his proficient sidekick , Jackson : Steve James who undertake a difficult mission at a island where takes place the Karate world Championship . At the beginning this movie was not originally intended to be part of the American Ninja series ; however , producers Avi Lerner , John Stodel and Harry Alan Towers changing their mind , this explains why star David Bradley plays Joe, a different role than the Sean Davidson character Michael Dudikoff played in American Ninja 1 and American Ninja 2 . Stars two expert fighters : David Bradley and Steve James , as they'll wipe out a passel of violent Ninjas , as the invincible pair running afoul while facing off evil criminals . David Bradley who is beefy as ever plays a two-fisted karate man utilizing efficiently his deadly skills . The movie is well co-starred by Steve James(1952-1993),a corpulent fighter , who's as sympathetic and charismatic as ever, he usually acted partner to tough stars, Michael Dudikoff (three times),Chuck Norris and David Carradine . Boring , embarrassing and pedestrian screnplay by actor/writer Gary Conway based on character created by Avi Kleinberger and Gideon Amir. Atmospheric musical score composed by synthesizer is musicalized by George S Clinton . The soundtrack for the movie is mainly just a sample from composer George S. Clinton's former score for Avenging Force (1986) by Sam Firstemberg . The film was lousily professionally directed by Cedric Sundstrom , he's a low-grade expert about art-martial and Ninjas sub-genre and in Delta Force rip-offs . ¨American Ninja¨ has various entries starred by Michael Dudikoff substituted by David Bradley and Steve James and mostly directed by Firstemberg and Cedric Sundstrom .

The series is formed by the following ones : the first two "American Ninja" series entries produced in middling/low budget by Yoran Globus and Menahem Golan, Cannon Productions , ¨American Ninja I¨ (1985) by Sam Firstemberg with Michael Dudikoff , Steve James . ¨American Ninja¨2 (1987) by Sam Firstemberg with Dudikoff , James , Larry Poindexter , Gary Conway , Jeff Celentano . ¨American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt¨(1989) , but Michael Dudikoff turned down the lead role in this film for various reasons , among them being the fact that he didn't want to get burned out on martial-arts movies with Steve James , David Bradley , as David Bradley's character was originally offered to Kurt McKinney, who turned it down for fear of being typecast as a martial-arts actor. Michael Dudikoff returned for the fourth "American Ninja" : ¨American Ninja: Annihilation¨ by Cedric Sundstrom with David Bradley, James Booth , Ken Gampu. And ¨American Ninja V¨ by Bob Bralbel with David Bradley , Pat Morita , this film was not originally intended to be part of the American Ninja series. As Cannon Pictures made it under the title American Dragons but the title was changed to American Ninja V before release. This explains why star David Bradley plays Joe, a different character than the Sean Davidson character he played in American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt, and American Ninja 4: The Annihilation .

American army soldiers Sean Davidson (woodenly played by Dave Bradley) and Curtis Jackson (the late, great Steve James, who's as likable and charismatic as ever) journey to a remote island to compete in a martial arts tournament. However, the duo run afoul of evil criminal mastermind The Cobra (essayed with hammy panache by Marjoe Gortner) and his terrifying biological weapon. Director Cedric Sundstrom, working from a pedestrian script by Gary Conway, allows the routine story to plod along at a sluggish pace and stages the infrequent fights in a bland and unexciting manner. Moreover, the insipid Bradley makes for a poor substitute for the much more appealing Michael Dudikoff while Evan J. Klisser seriously grates on the nerves as irritating comic relief doofus Dexter. Worst of all, this picture lacks the crazy energy and sense of campy fun of the previous movies; instead this flick is a strangely listless run-of-the-mill chocksocky outing. Cruddy ending credits theme song, too. Pretty blah and forgettable.

David Bradley slides into the role once occupied by Dudikoff as Sean who, as a boy, saw his father shot by The Cobra's(Marjoe Gortner)henchman Andreas(Yehuda Efroni). The Cobra needed the money at the karate tournament to fund his ongoing germ warfare experiments for sale to terrorists, and ten years later has the disease ready. He needs a strong lab animal and David Bradley is that very animal. They use Sean's master(Chan Lee, played by Michele B Chan, impersonating him)to persuade him into considering drawing near East Bay Labs where the Cobra is waiting with bated breath for him. Steve James returns as Curtis Jackson, out of the Army, and attending the same karate tournament as Sean..except he's in the sword competition. But, when danger threatens Sean, Curtis is only willing to help out a friend(how they are friends is never elaborated upon). Dexter(Evan J Klisser, the supposed comic support/lackey)joins up with them to find out what The Cobra and East Bay Labs are up to. Though, soon Sean will find himself in the clutches of The Cobra and the deadly virus within his system. He'll not only need his friends to help rescue him, but the antidote as well. Chan Lee will see the error of her ways(she thought The Cobra was behind solving the world's disease with cures)and assist the team in trying to stop the mad man.

Not very good, with lots of plot problems and stupid behavior by the bad guys who go out of their way to be taken down by Sean and Curtis. The ninjas are merely wimps in costumes(even Dex is able to beat the crap out of them). The fight choreography is not very good as ninjas pop out for certain beat-downs. The good guys seem to rarely suffer the effects of blows to the face, but the ninjas drop pretty quickly. It's fun seeing James kicking ass, but even that can not save a dire, lame plot. The sequence towards the end where Sean tries to battle the virus within him through meditation is a howler. Even worse is Marjoe as Cobra who seems to have peed in his pants at the end as he tries to fight Bradley. The film ultimately is about watching Bradley and company mowing down men dressed up because real ninja would have finished them off rather quickly. Still, Bradley at least has a physical presence and seems to do most of his own martial arts work which helps at least add a hint of realism to his part, but watching these ninjas come out of the woodwork only to be thrown around and their limbs snapped with ease doesn't help the film any.