4. 3 Ninjas: Throwdown on the Docks
Save your comments. Remember my dear friends, karate, or in this case Ninjutsu, can be classified as a sport. Also, we're talking about fighting obesity. Can you honestly remember another film from your childhood that made you get up and play fight as much as
3 Ninjas did? They were Rocky (the oldest one), Colt (the bad one), and Tum Tum (the chubby one). Three American boys, average in every way. Except they had a Japanese grandfather who trained them in the secret art of the Ninja. Training like that has gotta come in handy sometime, right? Say for instance, your dad is F.B.I. and he is on the trail of a arms dealer looking to trade warheads. Say this arms dealer (named Snyder) is a ninja who was trained by the grandfather, and has a massive ninja army. Say the dad gets in over his head and needs his three ninja sons to bail him out. If you can say all that you've seen
3 Ninjas, or an unreasonable facsimile. It's a cult classic; a silly 90's throwaway, back when everything was coming up ninjas (
Surf Ninjas,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). Surprisingly, the movie packs quite a punch. By the end, the boys have been kidnapped and taken to the bad guy's lair (an old war boat at the creepy docks) and must fight their way out. The action is pretty good for a kiddie flick. It's probably because the kids were martial artists in real life. It shows. The final battle, at some points, is quite ferocious. There's some very nice choreography, stunt, and weapon work (kids using swords...only in the 90's). In fact, the kid's battle is ten times better then the showdown with the evil Snyder and Grandpa. This was probably because the actor who played the grandpa was 1,000 years old, and it's easy to tell when they switched to his stunt double,which is a bad sign considering that they pulled the camera back about 50 feet at that point. Trust me, it's worth it to have the actors do the stuff for real. Still, it's a fun little film that I still revisit from time to time. It packs a great punch, and will make you feel like a 10-year-old kid kicking butt on the playground. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZOHEeExUtY Oh, and if you still think
3 Ninjas doesn't belong on the list, don't worry. They do play a little game of basketball in the movie if you need your sport fix. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP5VaH-01gw