American Ninja 4: The Annihilation Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

American Ninja 4: The Annihilation Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 22, 2017

Cedric Sundstrom's "American Ninja 4: The Annihilation" (1990) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of independent distributors Olive Films. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; original music video; and an exclusive new featurette with clips from new interviews with director Cedric Sundstrom, executive producer Avi Lerner, and star Michael Dudikoff. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Back in business

Fans of Sam Firstenberg’s original American Ninja film have had some pretty harsh things to say about the two sequels -- and they really aren’t traditional sequels but copycats whose one and only goal was to cash in on the surprising success of the first film -- that were made with David Bradley, but the truth is that only American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt turned out to be seriously disappointing. The final film, American Ninja 4: The Annihilation, is actually almost as entertaining as the second film, American Ninja 2: The Confrontation. (I happen to be one of the few people that believe that the second film is in fact quite a bit better than the original film).

The plot of the fourth film is predictably exotic. Secret agent Sean Davidson (Bradley) and his partner Carl (Dwayne Alexandre) are ordered to terminate a British maniac named Mulgrew (James Booth) who has developed a miniature nuclear device and is getting ready to smuggle it into the U.S. Mulgrew has been a high-profile target for the U.S. government for quite some time, but because he has been under the protection of the equally deranged Sheik Ali Maksood (Ron Smerczak) and spending the majority of his time in an old British fort in some unknown country he has been virtually untouchable. The CIA’s latest attempt to take out Mulgrew has also failed miserably and now the maniac has captured a couple of Delta Force guys that will be executed unless the U.S. government pays him a $50 million ransom.

Shortly after Sean and Carl enter the country where Mulgrew has been hiding, however, they are captured by a large team of ninjas. Then they are transported to the fort where Mulgrew and Ali Maksood have been building a massive army of elite ninjas. When news that Sean and Carl have also failed their mission reaches Washington DC, the top guys at the CIA conclude that their one and only option to solve the ‘Mulgrew problem’ is to bring back retired special agent Joe Armstrong (Michael Dudikoff).

The quality of the material should not surprise anyone that has seen the previous three films. The important point that needs to be made here is that for this film director Cedric Sundstrom worked from a script written by James Booth, which is significantly better than the one Gary Conway delivered for American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt.

The plot is fairly straightforward so the emphasis is on the clashes between the ninjas and the Americans. Generally speaking the fight choreography is rather decent, while the group sequences with the big ninja teams at the fort are as good as any of the ones that are seen in the previous films. The obligatory hot female that sides with the Americans is a medical specialist played by Robin Stille, who most unfortunately passed away at the tragically young age of 34. (Stille's best work is in the cult films Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama and The Slumber Party Massacre, both of which are already out on Blu-ray).

Sundstrom shot American Ninja 4: The Annihilation with Yossi Wein, who a few years later also tried his luck as a director and did a couple of quite entertaining low-budget action thrillers. (See Death Train, Never Say Die).

American Ninja 4: The Annihilation Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Cedric Sundstrom's American Ninja 4: The Annihilation arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films.

The release is sourced from an older master with some pretty obvious limitations. Indeed, the entire film looks quite a bit softer than it should, and during plenty of the indoor/darker footage light noise actually tends to overwhelm the already pretty weak grain. The larger your screen is, the easier it will be for you to see that delineation and especially depth also fluctuate quite a bit. You are likely to spot black crush as well. There are no traces of color or contrast boosting, but color saturation should be better. Image stability is very good. Finally, there are no large debris, cuts, damage marks, stains, or warped/torn frames to report. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

American Ninja 4: The Annihilation Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio is stable and clean, never struggling with age-related imperfections. Balance is also very good. On the other hand, it was brought to my attention that some of the American Ninja releases are getting different audio mixes in different regions -- some releases have Stereo tracks, while some, including this one, have Mono tracks. Unfortunately, I have never seen a theatrical screening of American Ninja 4: The Annihilation and I do not know if there are indeed different mixes that were done for home video releases, or if there is a different reason for the discrepancies. (I am going to reach out to Olive Films to find out).

American Ninja 4: The Annihilation Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for American Ninja 4: The Annihilation. In English, not subtitled. (2 min, 1080p).

• Music Video - presented here is the original music video for George S. Clinton's The Cobra Strikes. (5 min, 1080p).

• Last Tango in Lesotho - this exclusive new featurette takes a closer look at production history of American Ninja 4: The Annihilation. Included in it are interviews with director Cedric Sundstrom, executive producer Avi Lerner, and star Michael Dudikoff. The featurette was produced exclusively for Olive Films. In English, not subtitled. (15 min, 1080p).

American Ninja 4: The Annihilation Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The two American Ninja films that Cedric Sundstrom directed very rarely, if ever, get any love from fans of Sam Firstenberg's original film. I would agree that the third film is quite underwhelming, but American Ninja 4: The Annihilation is actually every bit as entertaining as the first two films with Michael Dudikoff. This recent Blu-ray release from Olive Films is sourced from an older master with some obvious limitations, which means that the film can actually look quite a bit better in high-definition. Like the previous three Blu-ray releases, however, it has a brand new exclusive featurette that examines the film's production history.