Reviewing Alien Vs. Ninja is strange considering that it requires one to willfully sit down and watch a movie that one should probably only stumble upon when channel-surfing after midnight. Alien vs. Ninja is a low-budget Japanese riff on Predator that looks like it was filmed on VHS tapes over the course of a week. The costumes and sets were probably the most expensive things in the film's budget, which isn't saying much considering that the aliens are dressed up in green stretchy latex-type pants that even the guys playing the Sleestaks from the '70s Land of the Lost show would laugh at. That kind of Z-grade indie genre film is apparently going to be the bread and butter of Sushi Typhoon, an American extension of Japan's Nikkatsu Studios that's using Alien Vs. Ninja as its flagship title for home video audiences. I can't see this thing working for viewers unless they see it with an audience but more power to ya if cheapy make-up effects and ninjas fighting aliens in cosplay outfits is your thing.

The plot of Alien Vs. Ninja is...oh come one, it's in the damn title. A group of ninjas, led by a talented but angry young ninja played by Masanori Mimoto, are stalked by a group of aliens in the woods. They fight in sped-up action scenes that are only entertaining when those scenes revolve around make-up effects, like the scene where one of the ninjas has his legs melted down to just his bones by some kind of alien acid. Tis a silly film.


Admittedly, I don't think anyone watching something called Alien Vs. Ninja expects high production values or a story or alien costumes that don't look like someone took Barney and transformed his costume into something Lizardpunk, the latest in Nounpunk fads (Note: there is no such thing as Lizardpunk. I think.) fans might go for. If you can see it with a festival audience and are curious, that's pretty much the way to go. If not, well, um, there are things in this film you might like and there are a lot you won't. The fight scene that starts with an alien going for a boob grab is kinda funny. There are some other scenes, too. No, I can't think of them but I'm sure they exist.