Beverly Hills Ninja (1997)
Master of disaster.
Oh boy, let’s go bring up some laughs! A new Mortal Kombat movie is due out this year, so instead of doing one of the old one’s I found a logically adjacent movie to do this week. Oh yeah, that’s right. Lu Kang faces his biggest challenge yet as he has to watch over one large white ninja on his hijinks filed quest. Tonight, we visit Beverly Hills Ninja.
That little blurb is no lie! A ninja clan went about doing their ninja things, until one day a prophecy came true and a little white baby washed up on their shore. They trained him in the ways of the ninja, so that he may one day fulfill the prophecy of the great white ninja - being the very best ninja of them all. From a very young age though, it was rather clear this might not be the case, as of all the ninja getting trained he appears to be the worst of them. Whilst the rest of the clan is out doing their ninja things, a lovely blonde lady comes down to employ a ninja to track her boyfriend that she thinks is up to nefarious things - and of course only the white ninja remains at the dojo. Will he survive his quest? Will his ninja brother tasked to keep him safe survive his task?
It’s a pretty straight forward plot, and one that leaves plenty of room for stealth, action, and comedy. In the back end of it is the counter-fitting plot of the bad guys, In the front end is the bumbling ninja trying to save the girl who hired him. In the middle is the poor old actually good ninja trying to cover for his bumbling brother and make things go as smoothly as possible. Character development is rather sparse as far as an impactful manner goes - but it does exist at least somewhat. A few characters experience some growth (much like that you’d see in a family movie), although by the end the characters haven’t really changed in overall mannerisms all that much (goof is still a goof, for example). When you approach it from a comedy standpoint it’s more than suitable enough though, so don’t let it feel too much like I’m harping on the movie all that much.
Comedy is (can you guess what I’m going to say?) subjective as always, so mileage will vary. If you lean more towards slapstick, you’ll enjoy it more than someone who really prefers super elaborate high-brow jokes. A good base line would be any other Chris Farley movie - if you’ve seen one, you know generally what to expect. If you haven’t, there’s some fat jokes, some slapstick, a few innuendo style jokes, some fish-out-of-water jokes - it’s quite the mix. They won’t all hit their marks for everyone, but even if you aren’t laughing you should have the feel of enjoyment from the goofy antics and occasionally quite well done disguise. I suppose, given this day and age, some people could find a few things to complain about - I mean, “great WHITE ninja” oh my! Really though, if you go into a comedy and expect to not be at least a little offended then you are probably much more accustomed to pretty tame humor - which is fine, but prophecy or not if you get offended by it I think it’s possible you are missing out on some of the joke in the movie.
Doesn’t take long to get to the fat jokes.
Hows the action? It’s not bad. There isn’t an overly mind blowing amount of action, especially if comparing it to the amount of comedy in the movie’s DNA, but what’s there is pretty okay. There’s a few knock-out battles in there, mostly involving people other than our main character, although he gets his licks in towards the end. That being said, plenty of the slapstick, could at times be considered action scenes even when it isn’t, given the energy levels involved in it. There is plenty of fantastic elements to it - I mean, we are talking about ninjas with their mystical abilities after all - so it’s not overly realistic, and the violence relatively follows suit when it comes to the slapstick side of things (although the movie does have a body count, it’s just not overly graphic about it).
Costumes are pretty decent. I mean, a lot of it falls into that “everyday attire” kind of thing where you don’t really think about it. There’s a couple of disguises that get used and it’s pretty cool how well they go - sure, you can occasionally pick out a disguise from the brother ninja as opposed to the constantly picking out the main characters disguises. The ninja outfits are classic what you would think of a ninja outfit - and perhaps overall the costumes won’t really leave much impression on people, but if it blends into the movie and you don’t think twice about it, it’s actually doing its job pretty darn well. The other effects are fine as well - nothing over done really, but they all tie in to costumes and the jokes for most moments. I guess perhaps the worst effect would be the transitions with ninja-cloud chat.
Audio is well balanced, you won’t miss a joke due to volume issues. Line deliveries are also good, and they mostly all feel natural. Of course, the main character feels somewhat classical Chris Farley with line deliveries and actions, but if you are a fan of Farley this is more of a bonus than any chance to complain. Interactions with everyone are also well done, and there isn’t really any moments where the movie feels like the acting is horrible without the decision before hand to be done that way. Deliveries on the jokes are precisely how you would expect them to be, and at no point did I really get actively bored with it.
Where’s Lu?
If you like Farley movie’s you’ll like this. If you just wanna have a good laugh, it’ll probably work quite well as a selection as well. Goofy ninja action, plenty of slapstick, it should serve as quite the enjoyable time. Parent’s may want to double check it first to make sure the minor language and few saucier moments aren’t too much for their kids, but overall it’s just a good time that you could enjoy with most people.