Stream it now Ninja Assassin 2009

 

A definitely boy's movie for the action and girl's choice for Korean superstar Rain, who worked out non stop for months to get his kick ass ninja body. The storyline is borderline okay and Rain speaks enough English to express himself but doesn't act out enough for you to care anything about him. The romance between Raizo and the FBI chick was dull but genuine with his girl friend back in the temple. Overall, its a down right action movie, nothing more, nothing less. And if you got a weak stomach do avoid it at meal time.

Armchair Critic's TEN WORD REVIEW:

"Commercialized version of historically artistic genre, entertaining none the less"


Ninja Assassin Review
Armchair-Critic.com

I enjoyed it very much. It's entertaining and all-in-all a good Ninja movie.

Not sure how this film intrigued me, but different ones do sometimes. I do like ninja's for the most part, at least i did when I was a kid. The only movie that I can ever remember liking recently about Martial Arts was the Last Samurai, and ofcourse Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Im not going to give it a good review becuase the acting wasn't good and it got very rediculas in the end...but it actually turned out better than I thought.

In the beginnig I was about ready to turn it off, but once the story got off the ground it actaully became interesting. The backround of the assassins and clans was kind of a neat thing to think about. The fighting itself was extremely well done. It seems like martial arts movies keep on pushing the envelope and this movie is no exception. The gore was a bit much, i think it could have been fine without all of the CGI blood effects. And ofcourse the self-healing powers were over the top as well. One of the few reasons why the % is not up to par.

It did grab my attention though, and i was entertained for the most part. The martial arts was awsome, but the once again it did go over the top in a lot of areas...if you see it you will know what i mean.

For all you guys (and girls) throwing toms at this one, you really need to pull your snotty pipes out of your pretentious butts and go review something from Cannes or the IFC. How can you not see that this film accomplishes everything it set out to do... Entertain!!! if you want deep, if you want inspiring, if you want to feel like you know anything about films, go review Casablanca or something. if you want to sound smart for stating the obvious (that this movie isn't going to win any awards for artistic merit), get real and start reviewing movies for what they are trying to be and not what they are not. If you are looking for a KICKASS action film that is wayyyyyyyyy over the top, get this one, sit back and be entertained for an hour and a half. If you want deep, go to your local speakeasy you douche bag.

Ninja Assassin is what it;s title says. Let me give you the rundown. Boy disagrees with his ninja clan and decides to go against the clan's will and tries to kill as much as the clan as possible. It has some good action scenes and some pretty satisfying gore. Although it seems like a rip off of Kill Bill Volume 1, it's still a movie worth checking out.

Take "Kill Bill, Saw, 300, Enter the Dragon and Underworld", mix them together, add CGI gore and you have a product that is less than the sum of the parts.

I was very dissapointed in the cheezeball factor here.

This could have been so much better, the costumes, the weapons, the cast, it was all here but, the film brain trust decided to make it more like video game than an actual movie.

Chinese throwing stars out muscling automatic assault rifles...really? Finding the Zen of instant skin healing? Too much assault on the even the average American's intelligence here.

The only thing to watch in this movie is the secret Ninja ways that do get touched on in the film, as a Martial Artist there is a little merit there.
A little.

*Cheezeball factor= Tony Falcone term applied to film or music when at a given point in the medium being reviewed...you say to yourself...WTF? Usually sooner than later.

The film itself is about as unique and well-thought out as its title.

The film opens with a bang, kicking off in a Yakuza nightclub where an envelope containing only black sand is delivered to the gangster in charge. After a long monologue by an old tattoo artist about the violence that erupted the last time he saw such an envelope, the ninja strikes, emerging from the shadows to slice and dice his way through an army of gun-shooting henchmen. There is, of course, much beheading and vivisecting and fake CGI blood, and at least in this opening sequence -- as over-acted as it all may be -- there's a fair amount of martial arts awesomeness, as well. It's only in the next sequence, when this over-long action set piece attempts to be an actual movie, that things go so horribly awry. Naomie Harris plays a Europol researcher named Mika who somehow manages to convince her boss over five minutes of exposition about events that we never actually get to witness that a clan of ninjas is secretly hiring themselves out as assassins to high-bidding clients. Suddenly, government agents from the FBI, CIA, MI6, etc. make their nefarious presence known to warn off Mika from the case. Why and how these agencies are connected to the ninja clan, we can't be sure, but it's suggested that the ninjas have relationships very high up the chain of command. Meanwhile, we're introduced to Raizo (played by musician and martial arts expert Rain) who flashes back on his training at the ninja academy, coming to understand that the abuse he suffered there, and the murder of a student who'd been his lover, are indications of a much deeper corruption. The student must fight back against his clan and stop their machinations, and to do so, he must save Mika, now the ninjas' primary target. This is as deep as the story ever gets, simply setting up a few chases and action set pieces to allow for maximum ninja action. But what's most upsetting is that the things we're told but never see actually speak to a potentially much smarter movie. All the international intrigue, the assassination of high-ranking government targets -- all of this suggests a kind of Bourne-style mash-up of international espionage and ninja ass-kicking that would no doubt have offered a much more engaging experience. Instead, we're left with a rogue ninja trying to protect an attractive stranger in the hopes that she'll draw out their leader and he can earn his revenge. Unfortunately, that, and only that, simply isn't enough. Thankfully, however, the fight choreography is fast, frenetic and, in a few choice moments, rather graceful in its execution. Knives, swords, fists and bladed chains tear through limbs and heads, leaving dozens of bodies in their wake. And for all the relentless blood-letting, as exciting as it is, the darkness in which the ninjas fight too often obscures the eloquence of the dance. Obviously, ninjas attack from the shadows, but if all the combat takes place there, the opportunity to really capture the quality of the movement threatens to be lost entirely. What we do admire about the film is that Raizo takes some serious damage. He's outnumbered and out-skilled, resulting in a rather brutal collection of gashes and scars across his body. We're never asked to buy that he's so talented that he can take on an entire clan single-handed, all of which lends some level of believable danger to the battle scenes. James McTeigue, who's last film, V for Vendetta, offered a wonderfully intelligent, well-performed and action-packed narrative, focuses purely on the action this time around. Intelligence and good acting is, quite frankly, nowhere to be seen in Ninja Assassin. But McTeigue's ability to frame a shot and make the visuals truly stand out is on clear display. If only he'd been as demanding with the overall quality instead of placing all his cards on the general bad-assery of the ninja, the film might have been a first-rate, well-rounded action flick. Sadly, however, it's simply something to check out should it come across cable TV, or a DVD worth purchasing to show off your HDTV and surround-sound system. But it's not quite worth a full-price ticket to the theater on a Saturday night, at least not for those in search of a real movie. Those willing to accept hacked limbs and well-staged ass-kicking without any real dramatic hook, however, will no doubt have a blast.

It's a decent movie to watch if you have nothing better to do. I can't really see a lot of people buying this or watching it more than once. The best acting in this movie occurs in the flashbacks and does not pay off in a huge way. It's a revenge flick that has ADD.