In the 2000s, it became more difficult with action films than in the 90s: no, they didn’t stop making them, they just moved from B-class films to C-class - or “directly to DVD” or “the only worse thing is home video ", the quality of filming has dropped, the acting has dropped, the script has dropped greatly, and the staging of fights has dropped even more. “Jerky camera” and “shit editing” came into fashion, because greed and stupidity did not allow hiring even the least intelligent stuntmen, and even directorial show-offs.
The ninja theme began to slide even earlier, in the mid-90s, which led to trash like "Red Shadow". However, in 2009 it was already released "Ninja" with Adkins, and then "Ninja Assassin" from the Wachowskis arrived in time, in addition, was reborn "Mortal Kombat" (more precisely, he recovered from the trash in the post-classics), and hope for good ninja films again appeared.
Well, okay, the foreplay is long, you say, let's talk about it "Ninja mask" already. Yes, this film was a tempting thing: according to the plot, a detective in the performance Casper Van Dien turns out to be drawn into a showdown between Japanese clans. He saves the daughter of a famous tycoon from ninjas who attacked her and her father. Later, the Japanese Hiro, a friend of the rescued family, joins him, and together they begin to fight the ninja. The clan of these warriors is terrifying and will stop at nothing, even ready to step over the police and the FBI.
Unfortunately, the film is a mediocre S-shka, and three things make this clear right away:
1) Visual effects from the first minutes of the film, absolutely arthouse, stoned editing and, alas, the action scenes suffered SEVERE from this editing.
2) Kasper Van Din. No, Kasper is a good actor, no doubt about it, but he has absolutely no luck with projects and his presence in the film immediately guarantees trash.
3) The weakness of the script from the first minutes of the film: a cool and respected arms magnate is very poorly guarded, and then his killers cannot find the girl, poorly hidden behind a flower pot!
Further - worse. Complete predictability of the plot: I knew who would be killed and how, who was one of the main villains, and who would die and who would not. Add to this the badly edited fights (very badly) and you get a typical mediocre S-shku. The main deception is the film poster - Kasper Van Din in a ninja mask - alas, in the plot he is not even close to a ninja, and he will not wear a mask.
However, it is impossible to say that the film is complete bullshit. And that's why:
- The plot, although predictable, is smooth. There were few excesses and nonsense, “this twist” was clear and explained, and even though there was a lot of bullshit in the script, it was watchable.
- The ninjas in the film were a match for them "Harried" with Christopher Lambert: very dangerous, very cruel, very cunning - ninja weapons were used, tricks with poisons and lures on a woman, stealth, the pinnacle of which was a bloody raid on a police station (I especially note the massacre of the secretary)
- Not a disgusting cast: the girls are beautiful (there is even a reference to Kitana from MK), the heroes are heroic. Some fighters were played by experienced Yuji Okumoto и Ron Yuan.
- A serious approach to battles - all the heroes die and suffer greatly from wounds and die from things that Van Damme, Stallone and Schwarzeneggers did not die from in their films: the main character takes a long time to recover from his wounds, and another character dies from a puncture in the side. Further, the ninjas here are difficult opponents, Casper and his friends have great difficulty coping with them, any fight with the simplest of them drags on and not always ends in victory for the heroes, and in order to defeat them in the end, the heroes had to take them by surprise
- The film unwinds at the end and becomes better - the fights suddenly became more energetic, tougher, bloodier, the movements in them are readable, there is noticeably less shitty editing, and characters unnecessary to the plot do not stupidly merge off the screen, but are killed in batches.
There is nothing more to say about the film. I wouldn’t recommend it, I understood the main plot twist after the word “stepmother” was uttered in the frame, “pleasant” to the Russian ear, and the fights... You understand. Only for those who are very big fans of either Casper or the ninja theme.
You can watch it once
The film is not bad, but the recent "City Hungter" is better in terms of action.
To be honest, there is no particular principle... when there is more time, an “old man” is added, when there is less time...
Not a bad idea. But I don’t understand something, on what basis are profiles added? And legends...