Kam
10-25-2006, 08:05 AM
Further to a Michael Dudikoff conversation I was having with another member of a message board forum that only allows professional reviewers to post on, I thought I would pull this gem off the shelf and pop it into the dvd player that supports both 94bit pcm outputs in DTS as well as superbit mode with EX extension on DD-EX and enjoy this classic from MGM once again. We were discussing American Ninja, the original and how this sequel, perhaps the greatest sequel of all time (and no Godfather II is not a sequel) needed a solid review. Therefore, having finished my official, professional review for a professional dvd reviewing magazine, the editor of which is a personal friend of mine who I just got off the phone with five minutes ago, of the classic movie Cyborg Cop 2, I thought I would next review this wonderful cinematic experience.
The tag from MGM states: "On a remote Caribbean island, Army Ranger Joe Armstrong saves an old friend from the clutches of "The Lion", an evil super-criminal who has kidnapped a local scientist and mass-produced an army of mutant Ninja warriors."
Now if that's not enough to get your dvd viewing glands salivating, I don't what is!! However, while you may think that this is enough information needed to watch this movie, you would be sadly mistaken. The film opens with the movie titles. After the movie titles, Sam Firstenburg (the director, who I met at a symposium concerning Ninja's, American's, and the number 2, and discussed in detail his intentions and how no one understood the theme of dichotomy of man he was trying to convey in the movie, which i definitely did get upon my 35th viewing of it and found in many arguments with other members who did not see Mr. Firstenburg's directorial genius in placing the dichotomy of man forefront in the movie which is that one) shows us how deadly the Ninja's can be as they hire Australian thugs to beat the crap out of two marines and then sneakily walk into a bar in broaddaylight in their discreet, black Ninja garb and carry the two marines out. The third marine is paid off and left alone and a little boy wearing a hat observes it all. He shows us in this scene the set up for the rest of the movie.
We next are introduced to our movie's hero, Joe Armstrong (played by the enigmatic and brooding Michael Dudikoff who would pave the way for other such enigmatic and brooding martial arts action drama heroes such as Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren) and his sidekick friend Curtis Jackson (played by the lovingly adorable Steve James of I'm Gonna Git You Sucka fame). The cast is filled out with other favorite actors you all know and love like Nava Halimi, Gavin Van der Berg, and John Fujioka as well as a cast of well over a thousand Ninja's. You might be wondering why I have written as much as I have already without any salient discussion of plot points or even storyline. However I have found in my professional capacity as a DVD reviewer for a professional magazine that such things are far overrated and people would rather read the absolute minutea of details surrounding the movie, rather than a broad overview of what the movie is about.
After Joe and Curtis are picked up by the marines and head to base. Curtis keeps saying "I don't think I'm going to like it here," repeatedly on the drive through this seaside town. He says it so many times, in fact, that a few minutes later, when a group of ladies (who would probably only lie, cheat and steal from them if given the chance, and then rob them blind and show them how hateful and cheating and lying women are) passes in front of the car he then says "I think I'm going to like it here," that the contrast from his previous line was so obvious I couldn't help but laugh out loud!
So other insignificant stuff happens, evil plot to clone ninjas, a cloned ninja army that is being sold to evil badguys like a pimp (because who better to take advantage of a clone ninja army than an urban pimp) ninjas fighting Joe, ninjas fighting Curtis, ninjas getting their arms, necks, and legs broken only to jump up and fight again, and ninjas walking around town in their surreptitious black ninja garb and not attracting attention at all.
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS:
1.33:1 ANAMORPHICALLY DE-ENHANCED FOR REGULAR TV VIEWING CLOSE CAPTIONED WITH NTSC SPECIFICATIONS AND COLOR GRADING
There was some (most probably intentionally done) fuzziness to the transfer, this was a crystal clear video. The blacks were surprisingly sharp as you could see quite a lot of detail in the ninja's outfits. It wasn't just all blacks, but I could tell when one of them had a black backpack on. I wouldn't neccesarily call this "reference grade" video quality, but i would say its "not neccessarily reference grade" video qaulity. The fight sequences get a little choppy with the movement and I saw some artifacts and other such artifacty type things in the video. However, this might be part of the films "style" as I described earlier or as I will describe later. Although anyone getting this disc won't be buying it for the video quality as much as the superb audio quality.
AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS:
DTS ES 6.1, DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1, DOLBY SURROUND, SUBTITLED & CAPTIONED; DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1 AND DTS DIGITAL SURROUND SOUND ON THE SAME DISC FOR OPTIMAL AUDIO QUALITY OR MAYBE ITS JUST STEREO AND MONO
For starters, I didn't use my Marantz/Parasound/NHT system to listen to this, but instead hooked up my Onkyo Receiver and took a sledgehammer to my parent's basement walls in order to custom install my inwall speakers. Needless to say, several "supporting beams" later, the installation was a success and the onkyo/inwall set up far outperforms my NHT 3.3s. I switched back and forth between the DTS and DD and there was an audible difference between the two. I could here distinct pops and bone crunches with a subtle clarity that was just missing from the DD soundtrack. The active mix of the PCM with phantom channels mixed through the processor using discrete algorithms is easily seen to benefit the DTS matrix over the slow and often muddied up sound of the DD track. MGM truly didn't skimp on this disc and while some people say its just in stereo and mono and that the original mix wasn't even encoded with DD specification and DTS didn't even exist at the time this movie was pressed into DVD, I can only say that I know what i heard and the DTS mix i heard was far better and louder than the DD.
The center channel especially in the DD mix was about 3.14 decibels lower than in the DTS mix and was very noticeable during dialogue. I could barely hear the dialogue when I switched to DD and the dialogue came through loud and clear when I switched back to DTS and turned the volume up which leads me to believe that the DD mix is just not up to reference quality like the DTS matrix mixed track is.
CONCLUSIONS:
If you don't have this disc, you must go out and buy it now. It is hands down the greatest sequel ever made, and quite possibly the greatest movie ever made. Unfortunately, it's only a one disc set so there aren't many extra's in the disc, nor is there a director's commentary so you are unable to hear the wisdom and knowledge that I gained from talking with the director myself as I did at the convention that I went to that I referenced above. So given NONE of the materials that are available on this one disc set and its downright stelllar, handsdown, balls to the walls DTS track, I would have to say that attempting to track down (either by yourself entering the brotherhood of American Ninja's and attempting to steal this movie which much surely be in their collection, or on ebay, or somewhere else) this version of Sam Firstenburg's American Ninja 2: The Confrontation is easily the best route for someone who inexplicably has not seen this masterpiece of cinema and would like to broaden their theatrical and artistic as well as philosphical horizons, given the scary implications of cloning that this movie raises.
:D
The tag from MGM states: "On a remote Caribbean island, Army Ranger Joe Armstrong saves an old friend from the clutches of "The Lion", an evil super-criminal who has kidnapped a local scientist and mass-produced an army of mutant Ninja warriors."
Now if that's not enough to get your dvd viewing glands salivating, I don't what is!! However, while you may think that this is enough information needed to watch this movie, you would be sadly mistaken. The film opens with the movie titles. After the movie titles, Sam Firstenburg (the director, who I met at a symposium concerning Ninja's, American's, and the number 2, and discussed in detail his intentions and how no one understood the theme of dichotomy of man he was trying to convey in the movie, which i definitely did get upon my 35th viewing of it and found in many arguments with other members who did not see Mr. Firstenburg's directorial genius in placing the dichotomy of man forefront in the movie which is that one) shows us how deadly the Ninja's can be as they hire Australian thugs to beat the crap out of two marines and then sneakily walk into a bar in broaddaylight in their discreet, black Ninja garb and carry the two marines out. The third marine is paid off and left alone and a little boy wearing a hat observes it all. He shows us in this scene the set up for the rest of the movie.
We next are introduced to our movie's hero, Joe Armstrong (played by the enigmatic and brooding Michael Dudikoff who would pave the way for other such enigmatic and brooding martial arts action drama heroes such as Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren) and his sidekick friend Curtis Jackson (played by the lovingly adorable Steve James of I'm Gonna Git You Sucka fame). The cast is filled out with other favorite actors you all know and love like Nava Halimi, Gavin Van der Berg, and John Fujioka as well as a cast of well over a thousand Ninja's. You might be wondering why I have written as much as I have already without any salient discussion of plot points or even storyline. However I have found in my professional capacity as a DVD reviewer for a professional magazine that such things are far overrated and people would rather read the absolute minutea of details surrounding the movie, rather than a broad overview of what the movie is about.
After Joe and Curtis are picked up by the marines and head to base. Curtis keeps saying "I don't think I'm going to like it here," repeatedly on the drive through this seaside town. He says it so many times, in fact, that a few minutes later, when a group of ladies (who would probably only lie, cheat and steal from them if given the chance, and then rob them blind and show them how hateful and cheating and lying women are) passes in front of the car he then says "I think I'm going to like it here," that the contrast from his previous line was so obvious I couldn't help but laugh out loud!
So other insignificant stuff happens, evil plot to clone ninjas, a cloned ninja army that is being sold to evil badguys like a pimp (because who better to take advantage of a clone ninja army than an urban pimp) ninjas fighting Joe, ninjas fighting Curtis, ninjas getting their arms, necks, and legs broken only to jump up and fight again, and ninjas walking around town in their surreptitious black ninja garb and not attracting attention at all.
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS:
1.33:1 ANAMORPHICALLY DE-ENHANCED FOR REGULAR TV VIEWING CLOSE CAPTIONED WITH NTSC SPECIFICATIONS AND COLOR GRADING
There was some (most probably intentionally done) fuzziness to the transfer, this was a crystal clear video. The blacks were surprisingly sharp as you could see quite a lot of detail in the ninja's outfits. It wasn't just all blacks, but I could tell when one of them had a black backpack on. I wouldn't neccesarily call this "reference grade" video quality, but i would say its "not neccessarily reference grade" video qaulity. The fight sequences get a little choppy with the movement and I saw some artifacts and other such artifacty type things in the video. However, this might be part of the films "style" as I described earlier or as I will describe later. Although anyone getting this disc won't be buying it for the video quality as much as the superb audio quality.
AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS:
DTS ES 6.1, DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1, DOLBY SURROUND, SUBTITLED & CAPTIONED; DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1 AND DTS DIGITAL SURROUND SOUND ON THE SAME DISC FOR OPTIMAL AUDIO QUALITY OR MAYBE ITS JUST STEREO AND MONO
For starters, I didn't use my Marantz/Parasound/NHT system to listen to this, but instead hooked up my Onkyo Receiver and took a sledgehammer to my parent's basement walls in order to custom install my inwall speakers. Needless to say, several "supporting beams" later, the installation was a success and the onkyo/inwall set up far outperforms my NHT 3.3s. I switched back and forth between the DTS and DD and there was an audible difference between the two. I could here distinct pops and bone crunches with a subtle clarity that was just missing from the DD soundtrack. The active mix of the PCM with phantom channels mixed through the processor using discrete algorithms is easily seen to benefit the DTS matrix over the slow and often muddied up sound of the DD track. MGM truly didn't skimp on this disc and while some people say its just in stereo and mono and that the original mix wasn't even encoded with DD specification and DTS didn't even exist at the time this movie was pressed into DVD, I can only say that I know what i heard and the DTS mix i heard was far better and louder than the DD.
The center channel especially in the DD mix was about 3.14 decibels lower than in the DTS mix and was very noticeable during dialogue. I could barely hear the dialogue when I switched to DD and the dialogue came through loud and clear when I switched back to DTS and turned the volume up which leads me to believe that the DD mix is just not up to reference quality like the DTS matrix mixed track is.
CONCLUSIONS:
If you don't have this disc, you must go out and buy it now. It is hands down the greatest sequel ever made, and quite possibly the greatest movie ever made. Unfortunately, it's only a one disc set so there aren't many extra's in the disc, nor is there a director's commentary so you are unable to hear the wisdom and knowledge that I gained from talking with the director myself as I did at the convention that I went to that I referenced above. So given NONE of the materials that are available on this one disc set and its downright stelllar, handsdown, balls to the walls DTS track, I would have to say that attempting to track down (either by yourself entering the brotherhood of American Ninja's and attempting to steal this movie which much surely be in their collection, or on ebay, or somewhere else) this version of Sam Firstenburg's American Ninja 2: The Confrontation is easily the best route for someone who inexplicably has not seen this masterpiece of cinema and would like to broaden their theatrical and artistic as well as philosphical horizons, given the scary implications of cloning that this movie raises.
:D