Runtime: 88 minutes
Directed by: Dennis Dugan
Starring: Chris Farley, Nicolette Sheridan, Robin Shou, Nathaniel Parker, Soon-Tek Oh
From: Tri-Star
It wasn’t my first choice to revisit this for the first time in about 23 years; what I originally chose to watch I gave up on rather quickly. In my live I’ve given up on films more often than I’ve ever led on here; why waste my time when I’m just irritated? In this case, it was a modern film which just had a stupid contrived plot that had way too many F-bombs; I only made it like 10 minutes before I waved the white flag.
Thing is, I only saw Beverly Hills Ninja once, back in my college days when I was in a pal’s dorm room with some others. At the time I thought it was extremely dumb yet was OK due to the charm of Chris Farley. Turns out, my opinion is no different in 2024. The realization that the director was the “auteur” who gave us the Grown Ups films plus Jack & Jill… it all makes sense. So did my memories of the film being incredibly faint.
It is total nonsense where Farley washes up on shore in Japan as an infant; he was raised in a dojo as there was a legend about “a Great White Ninja”, which Chris decidedly was not. Instead he was a bumbling buffoon who falls down… often. This has a nonsensical plot (which isn’t the focus of the film anyhow) where too often, our hero runs into something, falls down, or is insultingly stupid. Some gags are also run into the ground in a film that has too many boomer needle drops.
Yet, I did not hate the movie. Robin Shou was amusing as the “brother” who helps out the Great White Ninja as he gets involved in a counterfeiting case w/ Nicolette Sheridan. It’s always nice seeing Soon-Tek Oh, even in a small role. At least there were some chuckles along the way, usually from Farley. It wasn’t a waste of time and perhaps I shouldn’t expect more from something known as Beverly Hills Ninja, but the movie was only OK at best.
A shame that Chris Farley didn’t live a longer, happier life; you can imagine how a bunch of boys in high school reacted to his death in December, 1997… we were all saddened. At least there’s always Tommy Boy, not to mention all the funny sketches he was a part of on Saturday Night Live.
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