Beverly Hills Ninja Blu Ray Review (Sony)

Beverly Hills Ninja is a 1997 action comedy directed by Dennis Dugan (Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, Saving Silverman, National Security, Grown Ups 1/2, Just Go With It, The Benchwarmers, and Problem Child). It’s written by Mark Feldberg (Let’s Get Harry and Disorderlies) and Mitchell Klebanoff (Disorderlies, The Jersey, and Dancing Ninja). It’s produced by Steven Stabler (Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, Bio-Dome, Pumpkinhead II, 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, Gang Related, and Albino Alligator). The budget was $18,000,000 and it grossed $31,480,418 worldwide at the box office. A clan of upcoming ninjas in Japan finds an abandoned chest that has been washed onto shore with a white baby boy inside. One of their ancient legends spoke of a foreign white man who would come among them and become a legendary master like no other would. Haru is raised amongst his ninja family. As Haru (played by: Chris Farley from Saturday Night Live, Tommy Boy, Black Sheep, Coneheads, Airheads, Wayne’s World 1/2, and Happy Gilmore) starts training, they quickly think it was a mistake. He is very clumsy and his ninja skills are last in his class. He fails to finish his training to be one of the ninjas. He is told to guard their temple while the clan is on a mission. Haru meets the mysterious Sally Jones (played by: Nicollette Sheridan from Desperate Housewives, Knots Landing, Spy Hard, Dynasty, and The Sure Thing) on his watch.She asks Haru to look into her suspicious boyfriend Martin Tanley (played by: Nathaniel Parker from The Haunted Mansion, The Last Duel, Merlin, Stardust, The Bodyguard, and The Perfect Host). Haru stumbles into Tanley and his bodyguard Nobu (played by: Keith Cooke from Mortal Kombat franchise, China O’Brien franchise, The King of the Kickboxers, Picasso Trigger, and National Security) doing some shady money counterfeiting business. Haru leaves Japan and goes to Beverly Hills after witnessing a murder. Sensei (played by: Soon-Tek Oh from Mulan, The Final Countdown, MASH, The Man with the Golden Gun, S.F.W, and Death Wish 4) sends Haru’s adoptive brother Gobei (played by: Robin Shou from Mortal Kombat franchise, Death Race franchise, Tiger Cage II, Black Cat 2, and The Most Wanted) to be his shadow on this mission. Haru befriends bellboy Joey Washington (played by: Chris Rock from The Longest Yard, Head of State, New Jack City, CB4, Lethal Weapon 4, Pootietang, Dogma, and Down to Earth) when he arrives at the hotel in Beverly Hills. Haru finds Sally and discovers that her real name is Alison Page. He goes into disguise while investigating these criminals. He continues to get into trouble and he doesn’t even realize that master ninja Gobei keeps saving him in every crazy situation so far. Haru doesn’t give up and he starts to feel more confident as things are starting to improve with his ninja skills and talents. Can he save Alison from the ambitious Martin Tanley? or Will he fail again at being the foreign ninja????Beverly Hills Ninja is the most underrated Chris Farley feature when he was a star in the comedy world. It’s one of director Dennis Dugan’s best, it has a great balance of action and comedy. Comedian Chris Farley plays Haru, the struggling ninja that tries everything to be on the same level as his clan. He means well but he continues to mess up everything in the worst possible ways. He has something that the others don’t, it’s a big heart. He cares about everyone and he does good out of his own without expecting anything in return. It’s my personal favorite performance from the comedy icon. It’s loaded with laugh out loud moments. Nicollette Sheridan is excellent eye candy as Alison Page. She’s trying to get revenge for own family and she doesn’t realize that Haru wasn’t a full ninja yet when she approaches him. They have an awkward chemistry and it works for this type of movie. Robin Shou is great as Gobei, he’s the ultimate ninja and he is forced to protect his brother at first. He is hilarious without trying. Robin Shou is always a bad ass and a top notch fighter but it’s nice that he shows his acting range in Beverly Hills Ninja. It has a good supporting cast that includes Chris Rock, Soon-Tek Oh, Nathaniel Parker, Keith Cooke, François Chau (Lost), and Will Sasso (Mad TV). Beverly Hills Ninja is loaded with laughs and fighting. It still holds up, it has excellent replay value. Hopefully, this one gets more love with this brand new home video release. RECOMMENDED!!!!Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from Sony Pictures! This 1080p (1.85:1) transfer actually appears to be a brand new restoration. There’s no information on exactly what scan and where it’s from but I can tell you it blows away the older DVD that I’ve owned for a long time. It’s a nice HD upgrade for this 90’s comedy. It has a few different audio options which includes English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, and Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks on the disc. Beverly Hills Ninja sounds better than expected especially for being an older catalog title. All of the dialogue is very clean, the comedy has a nice boost to it, and the music is elevated here. I love the soundtrack for this one, most of songs just fit it perfect. It has English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles. It has an “Audio Commentary” with director Dennis Dugan. This is the reason to get this brand new home video release. It’s nice to see older stuff like this get some new bonus material. He chats about how he met comedian Chris Farley. He talks about working with him in Beverly Hills Ninja and their conversations. He says Farley was clean while filming this and he actually trained really hard for it. Farley wanted to do most of his stunts for this. He goes over the rest of the cast and he shares his experience with them. He brings up working with a lower budget at the time and what they had to do to achieve everything in this. He provides all kinds of information about the comedy and tells some interesting stories about the production. He discusses locations, jokes, he gets specific on important scenes, and it’s a nice personal breakdown of his movie. It has a “Theatrical Trailer”. It’s available everywhere on June 18th including MovieZyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!