With a surprisingly deft focus on character and stunning fight sequences, both the Ninja and Undisputed series belie their direct-to-video roots to offer up some of the most enjoyably knuckleheaded action since Jean-Claude Van Damme’s kinetic prime.įlorentine’s direction captures every bone-crunching kick and deadly elbow in luxurious slow motion, while Adkins’ acrobatic fighting prowess seems to defy all known laws of physics. The Adkins/Florentine axis flourished in the mid-2000s to mid-2010s, courtesy of the two Ninja movies and the Undisputed series – three stylish direct-to-video prison fight movies that served as nominal sequels to Walter Hill’s 2002 original. Ninja Shadow of a Tear marked the sixth time (out of nine) that he worked with director Isaac Florentine. With a colossal 59 movies under his belt and an upcoming appearance in John Wick 4, Adkins has been busy. In Ninja Shadow of a Tear’s case, those strengths largely lie in Adkins’ unparalleled ability to kick a lot of people in the face. But like any good genre movie it doesn’t necessarily need to be original it just needs to play to its strengths. He gets things wrong, fights the wrong people, and in many ways he wants to get beaten up himself. Casey’s journey is fuelled more by his grief than his desire for revenge. Although Ninja Shadow of a Tear’s plot is a classic revenge rampage, it still finds space to make its simple story more interesting than most.
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