American Ninja 2: The Confrontation

American Ninja 2: The Confrontation (1987)

Runtime: 90 minutes

Directed by: Sam Firstenberg

Starring: Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, Larry Poindexter, Gary Conway, Jeff Celentano

From: Cannon

Via Letterboxd discussion in the comments of another film, my finally viewing this gigantic slice of 80’s cheese. There was talk of Steve James and the first two American Ninja pictures. I’ve tackled the first but never the second; that’s despite possessing the knowledge that it has a much more preposterous plot than the original.

Army Rangers Joe Armstrong (Michael Dudikoff) and Curtis Jackson (no, not 50 Cent; James) are sent to a Caribbean island; Marines are present, serving as guard for the American Embassy there. Said Marines begin to go missing, and the culprits… men dressed as ninja. The villain’s endgame: genetic engineering! See what I mean about preposterous?

The action typically is low-grade, especially the martial arts that look amateur compared to the genre efforts from the Pacific Rim region of Asia. Be that as it may, those that like the low-budget American action films from the 80’s stand a chance to be tickled pink by the nonsense presented here. Once you see ninja in their garb attack the titular hero on the beach… actually, you’ll probably realize before that you shouldn’t take this movie seriously but that solidified the opinion.

The tropical setting did look nice. It was filmed in South Africa, which made for a nice location… as long as you ignore the whole APARTHEID thing. It’s unfortunate that Golan-Globus filmed several movies there for that reason. Those much younger than me, I’ll give the super-brief description that it was racial segregation in South Africa so the minority whites always ruled. Dudikoff gets respect from me as American Ninja 3 also filmed in the country and he refused to reprise the part due to his disgust over Apartheid. 

Real-life atrocities aside, it’s a fun movie w/ hysterical 80’s score and an opening which sets the tone: 80’s dudes on Kawasaki sport bikes cruising on mountain roads by the ocean. It was also nice that Black actor Steve James got more to do in this film than the first American Ninja.