Movie Review – Ninja Badass (2022)

Posted on June 20, 2022 in Movie Reviews

“Ninja Badass” is an odd movie about trailer trash ninjas. In spite of its unusual premise, writer, director, and star of the movie Ryan Harrison makes the most out his low budget. Indeed, the cheap effects actually work in the movie’s favor. Overall, “Ninja Badass” is a movie with a lot of heart despite its missteps.

In the movie, Rex (Harrison) is recently released from prison. He comes up with the idea of breeding and selling pythons with his best friend Kano (Mitch Schlagel). At the pet store, Big Twitty (Darrell Francis) the evilest ninja kidnaps the cashier, whom Rex has fallen head over heels for, along with a trash bag full of puppies. Twitty and his cannibal ninja death cult known as the “Ninja VIP Super Club” travel across Indiana with the intention of holding a party for the purposes of sacrificing a young girl.

The reason for the sacrifice is never revealed, but Twitty’s strength grows as he eats pretty young girls and anything cute – mainly puppies. If this seems insane to you, you’re not too far off base.

The movie is 100% committed to its zany and sometimes incoherent plot. The viewing experience can be compared to listening to a drunk tell you a story. It starts out simple enough, but by the time the movie introduces Twitty’s daughter, Jojo (Tatiana Ortiz), the story goes completely off the rails. Case in point: there is a witch that turns men into dragons. For some reason, her feet literally have a mind of their own and the ability to literally tear themselves away from her and attack Rex and Co.

To be fair, the movie somewhat pulls it together by the end, but these oddball detours don’t make a lot of sense, if any, and by then the movie has already lost a lot of its charm.

This random and awkward comedy is clearly aimed at the late-night crowd and the Adult Swim generation. There is a solid movie somewhere in the hour and 43-minute runtime. Had the movie removed a couple plot points, “Ninja Badass” might be as good as another eccentric comedy masterpiece “Kung Fury.”

Rating: 2.5/5.