Where to watch 3 Ninjas Kick Back
2 Stars
During a championship baseball match, the three brothers hear that their grandfather in Japan is in trouble, and head out to help him, conceding the match. When they arrive in Japan, they must use all their powers to defend him against his ancient enemy, who has returned to exact revenge.
Two of the three ninjas have been recast in this follow-up sequel to the surprise box-office hit from 1992. The Three Ninjas are once again the center of a plot that forces the trio to use their ancient training for good. In this entry, the kids must travel to Japan, a move that Karate Kid 2 made in 1986 to help their grandfather. All of the zaniness and slapstick antics so prevalent in the first film have been ramped up in 3 Ninja Kick Back. The first 30 minutes are a soft retread of the original movie, and then the story gets moderately more interesting. All of the good will generated onscreen and the exotic foreign locale aren’t enough to mask the fact that Part 2 is a step backwards in quality when compared to the first movie.
Martial arts, juvenile hijinks, and baseball take center stage in a storyline that doesn’t give the prepubescent threesome anything new to do. The aping of Home Alone that was central to Part One has been carried over into Part 2 as the movie begins and ends with the tween heroes protecting their home base from a set of contracted thieves focused on acquiring an ancient dagger. It’s all hokum, and the movie is genial enough to make for a pleasantly diverting 90 minutes of family entertainment.
Directed by: Charles T. Kanganis
Written by: Shin Sang-ok, Mark Saltzman
Starring: Victor Wong, Max Elliott Slade, Sean Fox