David Bradley returns for the (thankfully) final time (Probably because Dudikoff wanted no part of this downward spiral of a series) to train a new pupil (The irritating Lee Reyes) in Ninjitsu and defeat the viscous Viper (James Lew) in this inept and utterly awful sequel. American Ninja V offers somehow less than what you would expect and martial arts fans such as I don't expect anything but lots of action. (Indeed I gave the first two AN flicks pretty good ratings all things considered.) However where as I knew American Ninja 4 existed (Prior to when I picked it up on DVD for a whopping 2 dollars!) back in the day, I had never heard of this particular chapter. 90 minutes later I still wish I hadn't. David Bradley is of course a dull actor and he isn't helped by a lame script or for that matter an irritating kid who's whining never stops. Indeed this feels more like a rip off of 3 Ninjas than an American Ninja sequel. American Ninja 5 is of course brain dead but also lacks the simple structure that a stupid martial arts movie should have. So I for one was completely bored by the lame action sequences and horrid story that took up the time. Pat Morita shows up in a cameo but let's face it his career jumped the shark after the Karate Kid films. The worst movie of the series and i'm a fan of the first two.
1/2* out of 4-(Awful)
1/2* out of 4-(Awful)