Leofwine_draca ENTER THE NINJA is a film that has a lot to answer for. It remains the most popular ninja film of the '80s as well as being one of the first western films to tackle the subject (preceded only by THE OCTAGON, with Chuck Norris) and therefore is responsible in part for all the hundreds of no-budget ninja films that followed in its wake, usually made by the dreaded Gordon Ho/Joseph Lai/Tomas Tang tag team and starring Richard Harrison - who come to think of it was made to look a lot like Franco Nero in this film, right down to the age and bushy moustache, and who also happened to be a big star in Italy since the '60s. However, ENTER THE NINJA is a lot slicker and bigger-budgeted than the cheap rip-offs that followed in its wake and more a straightforward thriller, with no fantastic flying or special moves silliness that later plagued the genre. Imagine the endless Chuck Norris films that Golan and Globus forever churned out during the '80s, replace Chuck with a ninja but keep the same basic plot, and you have this film.The plot isn't much, bear in mind. It revolves around that old "rich and corrupt businessman tries to buy land from family who won't sell" cliché which in turn became even more clichéd during the '80s and '90s, a plot recycled over and over again ad infinitum. One change here is that the location is the sweaty Philippines, Manilla to be precise, where the film got an exotic foreign-made look but was still relatively cheap to produce, especially as Golan got to hire lots of cheap crew and cast members for minor jobs. The film begins with Franco Nero - dressed up as a white ninja - easily dispatching a gang of red and black ninjas in a huge fight in the woods. He wins, and goes to meet an old Vietnam buddy in the Philippines.Said buddy has now turned into a hopeless drunk, who is powerless against the thugs that an evil corporate man (Christopher George) sends out to beat him over regularly when he refuses to sell his land. Farm workers are terrorised and move away and there's a nasty sleaze ball with a hook for a hand and hired muscle to help him out. Of course it's not long before Franco Nero enters the run-down bars and beats up loads of bad guys in easy non-ninja martial arts action. Of course, Nero was never a martial arts hero, but as all of his opponents are weedy Filipino guys with no training, he looks good as he kicks and pummels them to the ground. Things gradually escalate with more and more hired bad guys being killed and beaten before the sneaky Christopher George sends his henchman to Japan to hire a rival ninja to beat Nero.The man is Sho Kosugi, a huge Japanese star of the 1980s, who starred in a further two sequels to this film - as the good guy no less - and lots of other martial arts films during the period. Things culminate in a final battle in an arena between Nero and Kosugi which is well-choreographed throughout. Like most films from Cannon, the production values are just about passable with able camera-work and soundtrack. Nero is noticeably dubbed into becoming yet another American hero but other than that, nothing rings false.The cast is a good one, with the slimy villains headed by Christopher George as the overacting baddie for a change, making a good job of it. The hook-handed guy is the butt of some cruel humour as he gets his arm torn off and repeatedly humiliated. Nero is experienced and deals well with his heroic leading part, and his martial arts stuff requires him to wear a face mask so the change to stunt double is natural and mostly unnoticeable. Sho Kogusi is excellent as the evil but still honourable ninja, even if he occupies minimal screen time, whilst Susan George just stands around being sexy and sassy in equal measures, and unsurprisingly ends up in bed with our moustachioed hero. Although no classic, ENTER THE NINJA is a fun, pretty violent martial arts outing with a fast pacing and plenty of action and cheesy comedy to counter the bone-breaking acts of violence.

Mechagoji75 When I have heard of this film on the Electric Boogaloo, I saw Franco Nero as the Main Ninja, I was like, wait, The guy from Companeros and Die Hard 2 is in this, and got me very excited. And finally watching this movie, and for some reason, It started to come the similar story from Bruce Lee's Way of the Dragon where Tang Lung (Bruce Lee) comes to Rome to help a woman (Nora Miao) to keep her restaurant going around from the mafia offering her to sell it, while this is about where a Oil company's businessman tries to buy a large property where Cole's friend owns. I assume Menahem Golan must've have seen Way of the Dragon and copy the same story onto Enter The Ninja. Although this is a great film directed by Golan, with a campy, laughable music where it's audio music quality is in the styles of a James Bond film.

Comeuppance Reviews Cole (Nero) is a macho, mustachioed man who trains at a ninja school to master the art of Ninjitsu. Upon completing his studies, his rival, Hasegawa (Kosugi), presumably because Cole is a white Westerner, screams "He is not a ninja!" and storms off. Undaunted, Cole travels to the Philippines to visit his old army buddy Frank (Courtney) and his wife Mary Ann (George). They have a lot of property there and they while away the hours enjoying cockfights with their poor laborers.As it turns out, the sinister, "Mr. Big"-type villain, Mr. Venarius (Christopher George, no relation to Susan) wants their land. His henchmen, Mr. Parker (Gregory) and the memorable Siegfried "The Hook" Schultz (Noy) are ineffectual in securing Frank's property for their own evil ends, so Venarius commands an army of white-suited baddies to take it. But they didn't count on one thing: Cole and his newly-minted Ninjitsu skills! Additionally, Cole's old nemesis Hasegawa is on the loose and Cole must deal with that. Will the power of Ninjitsu prevail for the good guys? Not only did Cannon films and Sho Kosugi lead the pack during the ninja boom of the 80's, they actually kicked it off with this, their first "ninja" film back in '81. Let's remember that besides the Sho movies, Cannon also gave us the American Ninja titles as well as movies such as Ninja III: The Domination (1984). Smartly, the main hero role is played by a man who was an established star, at least in many territories around the world: Franco Nero. It may seem weird that Sho has a secondary role as Cole's rival ninja, especially when most of the film's running time is devoted to "Nero-Fu", but this was a proving ground for Kosugi, who after this ruled the ninja film world.However, the opening titles sequence does have Sho, well, "showing" off his array of ninja moves and weaponry. Unfortunately, there's no opening or closing credits song. The beginning and end of the movie deliver the ninja goods, but it's what's in the middle that lags. Yes, there is a lot of cool and bloody ninja violence, but the audience is not emotionally invested in the Cole character as portrayed by the dubbed-by-someone-else Nero. (Also I should mention that the "bad" ninja, Hasegawa wears a black outfit, the white guy, Cole, wears a white outfit, and there are some red ninjas as well. Could this be ninja profiling?) The characters of Dollars (Hare) and the aforementioned hook-handed Siegfried add color to the proceedings, and Christopher George camps it up as an over the top baddie, but the movie is just too long at 104 minutes.While Enter The Ninja is classified rightly as one of the premier ninja movies, its slow pace is a hindrance and most of the film is a run-of-the-mill actioner - one that should have been trimmed down to at least 90 minutes. It has silly, Scooby-Doo-like musical stings, and despite the presence of people like Susan George, who we always love seeing, it's hard to become invested. However, it is very well-shot and the Philippines locations look beautiful.Like certain TV shows when you compare the first season to later seasons when the show hits its stride, such as The Simpsons or South Park, this pioneering Ninja Boom entry is not a bad film, but, for the ninja film fanatic, the best was yet to come...For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

athena24 Any person, claiming this movie to be a ninja classic film, must have seen this movie before the middle of the nineties or he was less then 10 years before he's seen it. Otherwise I can't explain this 'classic ninja movie' title.The fight scenes in this movie are just intolerable. Instead of casting Franco Nero as the ninja, they could hire some experienced martial artist instead. In any way the acting skill is not important in that kind of a movie. Nero's fighting ability is barely of some street fighter in a bar. His kicks and punches are lame.There's enough of old action movies with good action. This is just a waste of time.