Make no mistakes, American Ninja was the BEST martial arts movie of the 80s.  It was one of the many productions from the action hit making team of Golan-Globus

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/5308/200pxamericanninjarm6.jpg

Michael Dudikoff stars as Joe Armstrong, a new recruit to the army who suddenly finds himself caught in the middle of an invasion of ninja soldiers whose goal is to steal military equipment in order to sell to the highest bidder.  The film was made for a low budget, and grossed alot at the box office, so naturally a sequel followed which was less than successful, but earned enough to spawn 3 more films. 

Dudikoff left after the second film, but would return for a small part in the 4th film.  David Bradley, would star in the final three.  American Ninja 5 was a direct-to-video release, and is easily the worst film of the series. 

The sequels are often panned as they can't quite compare to the original, but I still enjoyed them.  When it comes to action films, it doesn't matter if the actors can act or not.  All we really want is violence and course language :D


The Films:
American Ninja (1985)
American Ninja 2: The Confrontation (1987)
American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt (1989)
American Ninja 4: The Annihilation (1990)
American Ninja V (1993)

The first one was ok, the others....

BLAH.  ::)