The Black Ninja (2003)

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Malik Ali (Prince) is a Johnnie Cochran-esque defense lawyer who specializes in charging his criminal clients an arm and a leg to get them off the legal hook. That's his day job, mind you. At night, he's the avenging superhero called THE BLACK NINJA. He even goes after the baddies he formerly defended in order to get street justice. At a speaking event, Ali meets Tracey Allen (Brothers), an attractive psychiatrist, and the chemistry is immediate. The only roadblock to their blossoming relationship is the fact that she's a witness in the upcoming trial of mobster Tony Fanelli (DeMatteo), and Fanelli commands his goons to have her rubbed out. So Ali/The Black Ninja is going to have to protect her with all he's got. Compounding Ali's already-complicated situation is the fact that Hagiwara (Matsuzaki), a red ninja, has reappeared in Ali's life after heinously killing his wife and children years before. Now burning for revenge, Ali has to look after Tracey as well. Will the streets ever be safe?Watch out, Troy Nikolo Ashford, there's a new auteur in town. While we know The Black Ninja was written by Clayton Prince, and stars Clayton Prince, the credits of the movie inform us that it was directed by "Me". Who is Me? It truly is an existential question. It could be anyone, but we're going to go with the working theory that it is Clayton Prince. Like the aforementioned Ashford, Prince was able to make a full-length feature film with an apparent budget of zero, shoot it on video, and not only get it into stores nationally, but internationally as well. Let's all keep that in mind and applaud Mr. Prince. Now, that being said, this is about as far down the ladder of DTV as you can get, production-wise. It has every technical flaw known to filmmaking, it's incredibly cheap-looking, and it's all astoundingly silly. But that's all part of the charm. You have to watch this with other people to get the full effect. Imagine Batman meets Daredevil meets RZA's Bobby Digital meets Zorro shot on a home movie camera. The Black Ninja's "command center" consists of a desk with two computer monitors, the guy who played the mobster baddie, Fanelli, was probably hired because he has a passing resemblance to John Gotti, and The Black Ninja's main mode of transportation is a black Kawasaki Ninja. Seems appropriate. There's even an unexplained fight scene at a Funcoland in front of a Sega Dreamcast display. However, just like The Protector (1999) and others, he does have a talking computer, which all true heroes should have. The movie starts with a bang, and ends with a bang, but there are some stretches in the middle where it starts to sag. The opening credits look like they were created with Mario Paint and there's a quasi-animated Black Ninja figure. The fight scenes are almost too ridiculous for words (much like the rest of the proceedings) - forget punches and kicks looking like they may connect someday, but whenever TBN (as we call him) executes one of his trademark moves, Prince employs this laughably stupid tripling editing effect. During the non-fight scenes, Ali talks to his dead wife (Hunter), and there is an extended scene of unfortunate bathroom humor. Det. Howell (Chance) livens things up with his attitude and his heckling, however. Matsuzaki as the main baddie is very over the top - and incomprehensible, with minimal English skills. It makes for an interesting combination. Featuring an extremely catchy title song which seems to hearken back to 70's Blaxploitation (most of the music was done by The BeatBrokerz and Clayton Prince himself worked on some of it as well), The Black Ninja might not be near the top of the most technically well-made productions of all time, but it pretty much defines the term "cheap and cheerful". Seen in the proper context, it's pretty enjoyable. Gather some of your fellow film fans, make sure the brewski's are flowing, and it just may be the underdog crowd pleaser of the year.

OMG! This is by far the WORST movie ever made! The acting is horrible and the director "Me" (Clayton Prince aka Clayton Prince Tanksley) doesn't know anything about directing a movie. I've seen better footage by a 10-year old using his parents digital camera.There's nothing good to say about this movie other then...it's over and I'll never watch it again! Clayton Prince does a lot of low-budget films which are indicative of his lack of acting abilities. The only thing he's famous for is ONE episode of "The Cosby Show" and we know how long that gig lasted. I also heard this guy is gay which would explain why he didn't mind playing a gay guy in yet another "B" movie that didn't go far. How many times does a film have to flop before he realizes he sucks in the movie industry on both sides of the camera? Hey, Clayton Prince, my dad is hiring in his warehouse. Can you drive a forklift? ROFL!!!

I'm not sure what this movie was intended to be. The video store claimed it was an action movie, but that was the worst part of the movie. The "Black Ninja" used the same move in every fight scene in which he somehow revolves around behind the villain and makes him shoot his own partner. That got old after awhile, but the thing that really wore me down was the constant quick replays. Every time something happened that was supposed to pack a punch, they replayed it 3 times and believe me, they could have cut that down by about 90%.I guess I thought the whole movie, itself, was just cheesy. I knew this would be the case when the opening credits were rolling and it said the director was, I'm not kidding here, "Me". And my instincts didn't let me down. This was one of the cheesiest pieces of film I've ever seen. I believe the soundtrack consisted of just the one theme song, which takes cheese to a whole new level.The acting was also pretty bad. I didn't buy Clayton Prince as a Johnnie Cochran type of lawyer. His dialogue, as was everyone else's was poorly written. I feel sorry for the Red Ninja, as he was even worse than the black one. He reminds me of the bad guys in Kung Pow: Enter The Fist. That voice of his was so stupid.Overall, I'm being pretty hard on this movie. I've seen a lot of reviews saying it could have been done by a film student or themselves. It's not quite that bad. Look at Savage Roses and then tell me which is worse. It was bad, but not unwatchable. You just have to be in the mood for this sort of thing. It would be a good kid's movie. Nothing really objectable for kids in there, but if you're looking for something along the lines of American Ninja or even The Karate Kid, look somewhere else.

Scenario: My friend and I need a good film to laugh at and nothing makes you laugh harder than a cheesy title like the black ninja, with an over glorified blackguy in a ninja outfit on the cover.Enter the movie: We pop this DVD in and imeadeatly cringe and behold our ears crying from the horrendus theme song sang by the star of the film (that crazy jamacian kid from the late Cosby show). Already we know that this going to be a laughable farce, but low and behold it is the worst film we have ever seen and that admission speaks volumes(I own Sniper 2 and Rollerball (the new one)) By the end of the film me and my compatriot where rolling on our sides because we had just laughed so much. The worst part the actors were trying to be serious. This is the worst film ever made. And should be revelled in that fact. Every one needs to see this film and feel better that they could make something better.