{"id":23344,"date":"2016-11-19T16:11:05","date_gmt":"2016-11-19T21:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=23344"},"modified":"2016-11-19T16:11:53","modified_gmt":"2016-11-19T21:11:53","slug":"american-ninja-4-the-annihilation-1990-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/19\/american-ninja-4-the-annihilation-1990-blu-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"American Ninja 4: The Annihilation (1990) [Blu-Ray]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"americanninja4\"<\/a>When last we saw Sean Davidson, he was a martial arts competitor thrust in to a plot involving a secret organization engineering a huge virus. Now he\u2019s in the military as a top secret enforcer\u2014for some reason. I guess Curtis Jackson had some connections and hooked Sean up over the course of a year? David Bradley is back as pseudo-American Ninja Sean, a man who is by no means a ninja. But he can recognized types of ninjas, so that counts. I think. Thankfully, Michael Dudikoff returns as Joe Armstrong, the original American Ninja who is now a peace corps officer and has turned down all efforts to be turned in to a covert military officer.<\/p>\n

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In \u201cThe Annihilation,\u201d Sean Davidson is enlisted along with his pal to foil the deadly scheme of yet another mad man named Mulgrew. Played by James Booth, Mulgrew is a man who wants to destroy America by blowing up New York City. Like most action movie villains from the eighties and early nineties, he hates America and Americans, so naturally it\u2019s up to a pair of American Ninjas to stop his plans. He has enlisted a slew of terrorists that he is training as ninjas to infiltrate America and begin tearing it down from the inside out. Sadly Steve James is nowhere to be found in this installment, being side stepped in favor of Dudikoff who returns for what is arguably the final film in the movie series. For fans of Joe Armstrong, don\u2019t get too excited, as this is still David Bradley\u2019s film.<\/p>\n

He manages to throw down for a good portion of the movie, while Dudikoff only enters the film about forty five minutes in, sadly. Joe is now a teacher for a village, and is called upon to rescue Sean who, despite his best efforts, is kidnapped by Mulgrew. Despite being reluctant to enter in to combat again, he dives in head first, slaying a slew of ninjas and building an army of rebels made up of people that look like they just dropped in from \u201cBeyond Thunderdome.\u201d The big appeal of \u201cThe Annihilation\u201d is the final half, as Dudikoff is in full ninja garb rescuing Sean, while Sean gets to do battle one last time. It\u2019s noticeable that the pair of men only share the screen once, and despite being featured on the poster together, are by no means the buddy-buddy action team that Dudikoff and Steve James were.<\/p>\n

Despite that, though, \u201cThe Annihilation\u201d is a much stronger film than part 3, and also manages to provide much better entertainment. Star Bradley seems to be having a better time in the role of Sean, and Dudikoff is a welcome return to the series. It\u2019s too bad we couldn\u2019t have one last outing with Joe and Curtis fighting evil. The Blu-Ray from Olive Films comes with \u201cLast Tango In Lesotho: The Making Of American Ninja 4,\u201d a fourteen minute segment featuring interviews with director Cedric Sundstrom, EP Avi Lerner, and Michael Dudikoff. It\u2019s one of the shorter and weaker retrospectives of the movie series filmed for Olive. There\u2019s the original theatrical trailer for \u201cAmerican Ninja 4\u201d and finally, there\u2019s \u201cThe Cobra Strikes\u201d Music Video, a song from the third film with a montage of scenes from the entire movie series. It\u2019s cheesy but fun.<\/p>\n