Excellent but underrated film

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

When their sister is murdered while doing an expose on drug dealers (never a good idea), her brother Kon Seki (Tagawa) and her sister Akiko (Nakamura), a team of sibling ninjas, snap into action and start killing drug goons all over New Orleans. Cop Random (Pare - his name in the movie is Random, just for clarification) is assigned to the case - but for some reason that isn't quite clear, he's assigned a non-police, motorcycle-riding, rogue badass named Davalos (Davi) to be his partner. While Davalos and Random hire local weirdo Flea (Joel Grey, not the bass player) to help them out, the baddies also hire a knife-wielding killer named Lautrec (Savage) to do their dirty work. Will the forces of law and order learn to co-exist with the secretive ninjas in order to fight the baddies? Find out today! The Dangerous. It seems like that title should have another word or two in it...but despite the seemingly-truncated title, the movie itself is really cool and surprisingly good. It boasts an interesting idea, a top-notch B-movie cast, and is competently written and directed. It's hard to ask for more.It's truly Robert Davi at his absolute best. When we first see him, he's out in the desert and looks like Walker Texas Ranger-era Chuck Norris. Then, mere seconds later, he's on his chopper, sporting a half-beard and strongly resembles Renegade-era Lorenzo Lamas. But regardless of who he happens to look like, here Davi is tough, witty and gets all the best lines. He even speaks Japanese. He and Pare make a great team. The movie was even smart enough to ensure there was none of that annoying bickering that goes on between partners with different attitudes. That sort of detail shows us that The Dangerous is a cut above the rest. It's really surprising there were no sequels - the 90's were full of apparently unnecessary sequels: if there can be three Snake Eater movies, and three Crackerjack movies, why not at least one more The Dangerous movie? Speaking of the 90's, The Dangerous is pitch-perfect for 1995. For those that remember going to your local video store around that time period, this movie will stand out as highly typical of that era. "1995" exudes from every frame of film. That's a good thing, by the way. There's a lot of solid action, from the Louisiana graveyard shootout, to the post-Hard Target (1993) action scene in the warehouse where they keep all the Mardi Gras floats. Naturally there is the fruit cart car chase/crash, among other favorites. But Michael Pare's car has cool stripes on the door. So there's that.Besides the aforementioned Pare, Davi, Tagawa, Grey and Savage, it's certainly worth noting that none other than Elliott Gould is also on board. For some reason he has a cameo as a projectionist in the scene at the movie theater (another cool action setpiece and sports some interesting posters in the background to boot). The filmmakers could have gotten any actor for this part, but getting a major star like Gould must have been a coup. Not quite on the same talent level as Gould, Ron Jeremy also does a one-scene cameo as a porn director. And Sven-Ole Thorsen appears as a bodyguard. So everywhere you look in The Dangerous there is a familiar face.Featuring some hair metal-type songs from a band called Skindiver, The Dangerous is an enjoyable movie that delivers what you want.

Is this movie any good? Well, if you read the cast list and the plot then you should realize that no, this movie isn't any good. If for some reason you're still wondering what makes this a bad movie then let me try to be a little clearer:*Paula Barbieri is part of the cast. *Michael Paré plays a character named "Random." *This movie contains both brother and sister ninja warriors AND Cajun warriors. Who thought it was a good idea for Paula Barbieri to give acting a try? I just don't understand why Paula (whose character name was also Paula, that probably made life easier on her) couldn't deliver a single line fluently. "What ... are ... you ... doing?" JUST ACT LIKE YOU'RE HAVING A REAL LIFE CONVERSATION! Is it that hard? It can't be. Goodness. I almost stopped the tape when she said something to Robert Davi about "the ... world ... is ... our ... oyster."Speaking of Robert Davi, what in the wide world of sports is he doing in this movie? Did he have some major gambling debts to pay off or something? I guess he's actually decent as the biker warrior, but there's no way you'll care. Joel Grey has an inexplicable role as some homeless guy who rides around in the trunk of the ninjas' car and feeds information to Davi and Paré through the use of his cell phone. Don't ask me because I have no explanation. It made about as much sense as the rest of this stinkfest. Most the rest of the cast consisted of people who have appeared in at least one episode of Walker, Texas Ranger.I know I shouldn't be surprised, but the movie made no sense! And I sure don't feel like trying to make sense of it. There were lots of senseless explosions and mindless action that can't be described as either very explosive or action-packed. And I know I don't have to say this, but the end was just stupid. It had something to do with Davi and Paré finally understanding the ways of the Samurai and... OH I JUST DON'T CARE ANYMORE!Stephanie and I did a lot of searching, but we finally found a Hollywood Video that had this movie in stock. Things got off to an excellent start when I took the movie out of the case and it looked like a store-bought video. It had a sticker on it with a hand-written label that said something about the video being replaced. It wasn't rewound all the way either. We joked that that was probably as far in the movie as the last people got and they just stopped the tape and hurried up and took it back. We figured they decided paying the rewind fee would be worth it. When I tried to rewind it, it wouldn't work. Something more supernatural was at work.Turns out that the tape had been cut or torn and someone tried to put it back together with scotch tape. Against our better judgment we fooled around with it until we were able to rewind it and watch the movie. God was sending us a message. We should've listened. Once the movie was over I realized that somebody was obviously trying to cut out portions of the movie to try to piece together some sort of plot. Nice try, but it didn't work.THE GIST:If you're watching this movie with about four other people, then you might be able to get a few laughs out of it, but there are so many other *bad* movies out there that are more entertaining. I certainly can't recommend that you go out of your way to find this movie and spend your hard-earned money on it, but if you ever do watch it, and a couple of weeks later somebody asks you what it was about, then your response may go something like this:"Um, it had lots of violence, Paula Barbieri in a mini-skirt and high heels, and uh, hmm, ninja warriors, and ... oh, I don't know. I'm still trying to figure out if there's a way to get those 96 minutes of my life back."

I first saw this film when it came out in 1994. I was struck by the characters and the way the movie played out. I have been a fan of (I hate to call them this)"chop sake movies" but this brought back the reason I love movies of this genre. I agree the plot was predictable and the acting stiff, but overall I am fascinated by the way the film was shot. The actors have gone on to better parts but this one sticks in my mind, more than any movie of someone like Bruce Lee, or Mark Dacascos. I loved this film.

Don't be fooled by the box at the video store that sells this as a sexy action movie. The action part is so-so. The sexy part is non-existent. (A few spoilers ahead.) Watch two cops (one disgraced for some reason we never find out) investigate some crimes, at every step to end up in the same place as two ninjas who are avenging their sister's death!Where do they come up with a plot like this? Where do these characters come from? An exiled cop who just happens to know japanese, and for that matter, a big japanese mob presence in New Orleans? Give me a break! Paula Barbieri is headlined here as the "sexy Playboy playmate", but she never gets out of her cocktail dress!Quite a waste of an hour and a half.