The 80s were about a lot of things and one of those things was gratuitous ninjas. They were everywhere. The great thing about ninjas is that once they show up nothing needs to make any sense. A ninja can beat up five guys in four seconds, disappear up walls and vanish at will. No explanation necessary. He’s a ninja. ‘Nuff said. Enter American Ninja, a goofball classic that uses high-kicking, bullet-dodging, arrow-stopping ninja skills to defy all logic. Michael Dudikoff is the title character. He looks like James Dean, broods like Paul Newman, kicks like Bruce Lee and acts like a piece of wood. He’s also got a serious case of amnesia. He doesn’t know his name or birthday, let alone why he’s the greatest white ninja on either side of the Himalayas. Naturally, he joins the US military, where nobody understands him and where he stumbles across a crooked sergeant who’s in league with foreign arms smugglers. One thing leads to another and Dudikoff has to kick nearly every ass onscreen with the exception of streetwise black sidekick Steve James (who has the best screen presence of anyone in the movie) and flash-in-the-pan brunette 80s babe Judie Aronson (who also showed up in Weird Science and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter).