MOVIE REVIEW : ‘AMERICAN NINJA 2’: CLONING AROUND

In “American Ninja 2: The Confrontation” (citywide), two happy-go-lucky American soldiers, Joe Armstrong and Curtis Jackson--both karate experts and one a ninja master--are transferred to a corrupt tropical isle. There, megalomaniacal drug czar Leo “The Lion” has traduced the local government and is kidnaping Marines right and left, while embroiled in a fiendish conspiracy.

This crazed Leo really acts like someone with unlimited access to cocaine: Every time he gets miffed, he threatens to start World War III. To make good his babbling, he’s kidnaped an elderly scientist with a beautiful daughter, and has him hard at work scrambling up DNA to produce the world’s ultimate weaponry breakthrough: cloned ninjas.

Wait a minute. Cloned ninjas? Give us a break. We’ve had ninjas galore ever since karate expert Mike Stone dreamed up this martial arts subgenre in 1982’s “Enter the Ninja”--ninjas in white, ninjas in black, ninjas in red, ninjas screaming and kicking and waving their swords and nun-chuks . We’ve even had Swedish ninjas--in the flabbergasting “Ninja Mission.” But cloned ninjas?

Sad but true. And it’s not really self-satire. Sam Firstenberg--a decent enough action director who’s shepherded along three previous ninja movies--here has a story so preposterous that nothing short of a mutiny could make the movie work. To Firstenberg’s credit, he tries to play up the subject’s comedy. But what response could anyone with a sense of humor have logically made here, besides: “What? Me? Direct this?”

Martial arts movies usually depend on the quality of their fight scenes; here, most of the fights seem as cloned as the ninjas. If this is the ultimate weapon, one wonders why maniacal Leo keeps sending squadrons of them at Jackson and Armstrong, who seem capable of killing 10 at a clutch every time.

By the end, with ninjas dropping left and right, you begin to be sorry for the little black and red devils. Isn’t there any Ninja International to protest these barbarous working conditions? They’re either being killed by the heroes in battle, or killed by the head villain to demonstrate his prowess, or blown up in their tanks by the elderly scientist as he screams: “You’ve perverted my dream! I dreamed of a better world! A world where the blind could see! And the crippled could walk!” (And producers could read screenplays?)

One acting laurel of sorts deserves to be dropped: on the arching brows of Steve James, who, as sidekick Jackson, rowdily enlivens the fight scenes by tossing around 9 or 10 assassins with ferocious glee while yelling, “I love it! I love it! Bring on some more! Come on, you midgets!” If the whole movie were as funny as James, it might restore your faith in ninjas.

‘AMERICAN NINJA 2: THE CONFRONTATION’ A Cannon Group Inc. release of a Golan-Globus production. Producers Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus. Director Sam Firstenberg. Script Gary Conway, James Booth. Music George S. Clinton. Editor Michael J. Duthie. With Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, Larry Poindexter, Conway.

Running time: 1 hour, 26 minutes.

MPAA rating: R (under 17 requires an accompanying parent or adult guardian).