American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt (1989)

Why so much hype?

Did you people see the same film I saw?

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

"Blood Hunt" is a terminally dopey third entry in The Cannon Groups' "American Ninja" series. Replacing Michael Dudikoff as the hero is a charisma-free David Bradley, cast as Sean, a young white man trained in the ways of the ninja. Along with series regular Steve James (boosted to star status with this entry), he must battle the minions of a nefarious scientist (the inimitable Marjoe Gortner) dubbed "The Cobra". The Cobra has devised a biological weapon (a virus) and needs a superhuman such as Sean in order to carry it.Scripted by director Cedric Sundstrom, based on a story by Gary Conway (who played the bad guy in the previous sequel), "Blood Hunt" gets by basically because it's amusingly stupid. The action scenes are decent enough, but the script is truly insipid. And speaking of insipid, hero Bradley and annoying comedy relief performer Evan J. Klisser are the working definitions of that word. Perhaps the most ridiculous sequence has James, Bradley, and Klisser setting off to locate the bad guys' lair, with Bradley and Klisser appropriating some aircraft.Helping to make up for the less appealing performances is the coolness factor of James, and the brightest moments in the movie definitely belong to him. (They don't all involve action scenes, either.) Gortner is a hoot as the evildoer, although we have no doubt that Bradley will wipe the floor with him when it comes time for the inevitable showdown. Michele B. Chan is cute as female ninja Chan Lee, and she looks good while kicking ass.The absolute lowest point? Having to listen to that truly horrible theme song if one sits through the end credits.Five out of 10.

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.

I remember buying American Ninja 2/3 on the same DVD and I heard bad reviews about 3 so I looked at the box and decided for a second. Do I dare attempt to see this bad movie. So as time went on I finally decided to see it. And I gotta tell. I was let down. I saw the first 2 films and compared to this one, 1 and 2 blow this movie out of the water.David Bradley looked really lost during this movie. Steven James did OK as Curtis Jackson but if you look very carfully he looked really reluctant to be in this movie and he looked very pale at times from his cancer. And what can you say about the ninjas. Geez. These guys have gotta be the stupid ninjas around. The ninjas in the first 2 films put up more of a fight. For example. In the scene where Bradley is watching the female fight the ninjas from the top of the building. And these guys just walked right into it. The women just lightly swung the sords and these guys went flying. I mean come on.And finally. I didn't like seeing a American movie with Michael Dudikoff. This guy was awesome in the first 2 films but he wss smart to turn down this movie. The Joe Armstrong character is more tougher and believable then Sean Davidson character played by Bradley. Skip this movie.

OK. "American Ninja 3 - Blood Hunt". Starring David Bradley as the lead. I don't know why Dudikoff quit, but I wish that it hadn't happened. Not that I dislike David Bradley, but Dudikoff is just a better actor, without doubt. On the contrary, Bradley is better in the fighting scenes, which (as always) makes up an important part in the movie. The problem is that Michael Dudikoff and Steve James had a special chemistry between themselves that now is gone. But it was a relief finding out that James was in this movie. Without him, it had been much worse. "American Ninja 3" has much of the same as in the two first movies, but with lower quality.