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Ninja Busters (1984) - Blu-ray Review

5 beers

Breakdancing gets BOSS!

Bernie and Chic are the best of buds. They dance around in an underground warehouse of stolen and smuggled goods and sing along (or try to) with a simple song that blasts out from the boombox. They are completely out of touch with reality and, trust me, it makes for one hell of a romp when they decide that revenge is best served … later.

Ready to bay with laughter? Ready to see a true oddity of B-movie marvels? Ninja Busters is the flick for you. Now, most B-movies like this one – you know, from the outside looking in thanks to a DIY driving engine – are funny in that unintentional way. I love those films. Ninja Busters, directed by Paul Kyriazi (Death Machines and Omega Cop), knows it HAS TO BE a comedy and it scores with kung-fu antics geared straight toward the Airplane! crowd. It works, too.

But, first, a little background on this film. Apparently, once the film was ready to be released in 1984, all known prints of the film disappeared. Ninja Busters might have been screened once. Maybe. It was thought that one of the film’s producers hauled ass out of America with them for some reason. We’re talking gone from the face of the earth. Ninja Busters simply disappeared.

"You’ve got Vietnam vets, militants, gangsters, and aerobics classes all thrown into an action flick that concentrates more on its kicks than most movies do."


Or so it was thought.

About 5 years ago, Harry Guerro, of Exhumed Films, made a HUGE discovery in a warehouse full of film canisters. Lots of missing films were found in a desolate warehouse in the Southwest. The prints were taken to New Jersey for processing and salvaging. And, now, the much ballyhooed B-movie can be seen as it tells the story of Bernie and Chic (Eric Lee and Sid Campbell) who, upon getting fired by a gangster and having no luck with the ladies, turn to karate in order to become more ninja-like.

It takes them three years of getting the shit kicked out of them in karate school in order for them to feel secure enough to face down the gangster trash that fired them. THREE YEARS. All the way, they are goofing around, plotting and scheming their way into an EPIC showdown that they are simply unaware is happening.

Along the way, they say some pretty funny things. It seems there were no rehearsals on the shoot and, possibly, a lot of dialogue was made up on the spot – and brag about being Bruce Lee’s student AND teacher. Hilarious. Their impersonations of Mr. Lee are manic and, as they can’t seem to refrain from using it to pick up the ladies, it doesn’t get better.

Dumb enough to pick fights with bikers and flirt with women taking martial arts classes, these two ass-clowns get in over their heads time and time again. Ninja Busters, especially its final 30-minutes, is a film that (a) knows its audience and (b) absolutely delivers a great time. You’ve got Vietnam vets, militants, gangsters, and aerobics classes all thrown into an action flick that concentrates more on its kicks than most movies do. Sure, the pacing is drawn out but, damn, this movie is all about having lots of fun.

Thanks to Guerro and Garagehouse Pictures, Ninja Busters has its blu-ray debut. It has been transferred and digitally scanned in 4K from the only existing print. How kick ass is that? Hiya!

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Ninja Busters (1984) - Blu-ray Review

MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime:
90 mins
Director
: Paul Kyriazi
Writer:
Sid Campbell, William C. Martell
Cast:
Sid Campbell, Dalia Guiterrez, Eric Lee
Genre
: Action | Thriller
Tagline:
These guys will kick your ass.
Theatrical Distributor: Never released theatrically
Official Site:
Release Date:

DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
December 1, 2015
Synopsis: Bernie and Chic (karate grandmasters Eric Lee and Sid Campbell) are two loveable goofballs just looking for easy work, sexy ladies, and a good slice of pizza. But a beating from a gang of thugs convinces the buddies to train in the martial arts in the hopes of meeting girls…and maybe learning self-defense. After stumbling across the operations of some illegal weapons dealers and their army of paid ninja assassins, Chic and Bernie must team up with their kung fu comrades to contend with sleazy gangsters, ruthless ninjas, underwear-throwing bikers, militant revolutionaries, and bitchin’ breakdancers. Will our heroes be able to defeat the mob and bust the ninjas? And more importantly, will they ever score with the chicks?

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Ninja Busters (1984) - Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Home Video Distributor: Garagehouse Pictures
Available on Blu-ray
- December 1, 2015
Screen Formats: 2.40:1
Subtitles
: None
Audio:
English: LPCM 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Region-free playback

Garagehouse Pictures’s brand new 2:39:1 HD master is detailed and looks as good as it possibly could. Colors pops – especially reds. Some shots, due to the era of the day, are fuzzier than others but the image is reasonably well defined with crisp contrasts and solid textures. Colors are solid. Blacks are, too. Surprisingly, there's enough fine detail on display to make this seem revelatory. The era-ready color palette looks terrific, too. While there is not much difference between them, the disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo soundtrack.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  •  The Audio Commentary with Director Paul Kyriazi is pretty good. There’s lots of information about this shoot and a lot of good memories are recounted, too.

Special Features:

Scanned in 4K, this release includes an introduction from the director, his first film, fan testimonials about the film, new linear notes from Dan Fraga, a poster reproduction card, and brand new artwork by Stephen Romano.

Director Introduction

The Tournament

Fan Testimonials

Dan Fraga of Exhumed Films Linear Notes

Poster Reproduction Card

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Ninja Busters (1984) - Blu-ray Review

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