Mask of the Ninja

Ninja Assassin has to be better than this; it can't be any worse.
The Ninja genre is hardly synonymous with quality cinema, and generally should be filed under the heading 'guilty pleasure', a nostalgia trip for thirty year old men fondly remembering the slightly risque movies they watched back in the eighties. Nonetheless, the movies of Sam Firstenberg and Cannon had their moments [Revenge of the Ninja; American Ninja] and, despite being low budget, Firstenberg and his ilk could turn in inventive, trashy, and well shot little exploitation movies, all qualities singularly lacking from this arsebiscuit of a 'movie'.

'Mask of the Ninja' is a movie that has nothing going for it; the script is amateurish [porn writers do a better job of setting up 'linking' scenes that lead from one slice of the action to another]; the 'actors' are so bad that Casper Van Dien comes across as a latter day Orson Welles and Lawrence Olivier, infusing his scenes with gravitas; the lighting is dreadful, even by TV standards; the cinematography is from the...

No, Casper Van Diem does not get to throw Shuriken
I haven't been having a good time with ninja flicks as of late. I was disappointed by Ninja Assassin, the Hollywood production with a chunky budget and the legendary Sho Kosugi in tow; and I was severely disheartened by the plain old Ninja, the brainchild of the beloved Isaac Florentine and gen-x king Scott Adkins. In my desperation, I turned to Casper Van Diem, director Bradford May (Darkman 2) and their collaborative "Mask of Ninja" - a made-for-TV production about which I had heard a couple good things. Not to bash hearsay, but I think I should've stuck with my better instincts: nobody who sees the phrases "Casper Van Diem" and "ninja" together ought to expect greatness.

The story: a centuries-old feud between warring Japanese clans nears its bloody...

I wish I could give this one no stars.
I love all things Ninja. From the moment I saw ninjas I wanted to be one. This movie defiles every aspect of ninja coolness. The ninjas are not only evil ,but they are morons. They should have just made this a comedy. Beverly Hills Ninja gives ninjas more credit, and it had better fight scenes. I was doing better choreography when I was ten. The acting is so bad it embarrassed me just watching it. I hope they give ninjas more justice in this fall's Ninja [...] (Looks Awesome!). Avoid this one at all costs. Complete waste of time and money. Weak!

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