Enter the Ninja (1981)
Enter the Ninja stars Franco Nero as Cole, aka the White Ninja. Nero has a strong resume of action roles, and his performance, while not his best, isn’t terrible in Enter the Ninja. The script is familiar, but workable, especially given that this is an 80s/90s action film. That’s one of my favorite sub-genres, but I’m not able to consider this one a classic, despite plenty of ‘ninja-fun’ including blow guns, throwing stars, and acrobatics.
The story sees actor Shô Kosugi as Hasegawa, butting heads with Franco in a ninja vs ninja battle. Franco, recently graduating from ninja school, gets caught in the middle of a war for territory in the Philippines. Hasegawa uses his ninjitsu skills for evil purposes, and it’s up the White Ninja to put a stop to it. Plenty of so-so action scenes and colorful ninja suits are included, as well as ample opportunity for face-palms. Despite it issues though, Enter the Ninja is very watchable and worth seeing, for fans of ninjas and the genre.
This Limited Edition DVD release includes a trailer, but is otherwise very plain. The disc is even pressed, or burned, onto a DVD-R, and Amazon’s product listing mentions that this is the case. The artwork looks good though, although the actual disc label is unappealing. Presentation quality is a step above VHS at best, but sufficient, and not surprising, given the source material.
Don’t Worry, We’ll Think of A Title
Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie star in this kooky slap-stick comedy that plays out somewhat like an extended Three Stooges short. In fact, Mo makes a brief appearance. Morey is Charlie Yuckapuck, a half-wit cook in a small time diner. His friend and one of the waitresses of the diner is Annie, played by Rose Marie. One day, the other waitress in this small diner receives word that she has inherited a book store. The trio leaves to work the bookstore, which gets numerous “customers” who are actually Russian intelligence agency spies. This agency has been tailing Charlie since he worked at the diner, as they have mistakenly ID’d him for a cosmonaut who defected.
The pacing and comedy in Don’t Worry are decent at best, making for a film that feels a little long, even at eighty-three minutes. It seemed to try to build off of the success of the Three Stooges, but the comedy isn’t nearly as physical, and the characters and timing didn’t seem as natural. For a lazy Saturday afternoon, it’s not a bad watch, but I doubt it’s one most people will come back to again for another view.
Ghost Warrior
The artwork or cover art of Ghost Warrior makes this film look way cooler and more interesting than it actually is. Hiroshi Fujioka stars as a noble samurai warrior named Yoshimitsu that was slain in the 1500s, but whose body fell into icy waters. Four hundred years later, a pair of explorers finds the well-preserved body and brings it back to California where a team of cryo-surgeons manages to revive Yoshimitsu. Having lived in 1500s Japan, and suddenly finding himself in 1980s California, Yoshimitsu is understandably very confused by, well, everything.
A young surgeon falls for Yoshimitsu, who eventually finds himself attracted to her as well. Circumstances begin to funnel towards a scenario not too much unlike what Yoshimitsu faced when he was killed, too, which is one of the stronger points of the story. Overall though, I thought it was an unfortunate misuse of a great title and box art, for what is ultimately a movie that I struggled to get through one time, due to the high ‘cheese’ factor.
Packaging and presentation quality are weak, but I have to think sufficient for this film and release. There are no extra features or subtitles, barely even a menu, and the disc is literally a DVD-R with a weak-looking label.
Kill A Dragon
Jack Palance leads a rag-tag group of warfare experts in Kill A Dragon, released in 1967. The story sees a mercenary and his henchmen disrupting the lives of a peaceful village on a small island in Asia. They claim that a ship’s cargo washed ashore their island and they are hiding the goods (explosives). An ultimatum is presented which requires the island to come up with the cargo within three days, or else. The island’s father-figure travels to the mainland and discovers Rick Masters, a crafty gentlemen who is just trying to enjoy his 41st birthday. Short on money, Masters in convinced to help the island-folk out with a promise to get a third of the profits from selling the explosives. He enlists the help of several of his old buddies, one of which is currently a down-on-his-luck tour guide.
Together, the team must exfiltrate the cargo from the island back to the mainland, while avoiding the merc’s henchmen. Some poorly choreographed fights ensue, and some mildly dramatic conversations, but the film manages to be worth riding out until the end. The other MGM Limited Collection releases in this review share a similar presentation quality. Bare bones packaging and a decent VHS-like quality version of the film are on tap.
The take-away from these MGM Limited Collection releases is that they are what they are. These are not high quality, classic, or even cult classic, movies. Understandably, MGM held back on giving these films much attention or treatment in bringing them to DVD. Some may scoff at that, but the alternative is no release at all.
To the summary…