BEVERLY HILLS NINJA (1997) - Movie Review

Director: Dennis Dugan
Starring: Chris Farley, Nicollette Sheridan, Nathaniel Parker, Chris Rock, Robin Shou
Genre: Comedy, Action
Writer: Mark Feldberg, Mitchell Klebanoff
Runtime: 88 min
Rated: PG-13 for sex related humor, martial arts violence and a humerous drug related scene
Buy This Movie: Blu-ray (Amazon), DVD (Amazon), Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

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Synopsis:

Farley stars as Haru, an orphaned American who washes to shore in Japan and is mistaken for the Great White Ninja of legend. Raised among the finest Ninjas, Haru grows into a big, strong, slapstick disaster! An embarrassment to his clan, Haru has no hope of ever becoming a full Ninja. But when a beautiful blonde pleads for help, Haru is given one dangerously funny chance to prove himself. His first assignment is not to screw up a murder investigation in Beverly Hills.

Review:

I remember watching "Beverly Hills Ninja" in the theatre as a kid, and I remember enjoying it quite a bit. Almost 30 years later my path has once again crossed with this Kung Fu comedy starring the late Chris Farley as Haru, the Great White Ninja. Did I enjoy it as much as I did the first time I saw it. No, actually not at all.

It's amazing what a difference time can make in the way we perceive things. I still love Chris Farley, and his comedic brilliance, but "Beverly Hills Ninja" was a terrible starring vehicle for him. The actor was well known for his uninhibited, outrageous physical comedy, but he is let down by a script that is a dark, empty void of unfunniness. The quips are lame and witless, the slapstick is overbearing, and promising set-ups are followed by horribly underwhelming payoffs.

The movie relies entirely too much on Haru's clumsiness for a cheap laugh. While Farley is great at the bull-in-china-shop routine, director Dennis Dugan has no sense of comedic timing, so most of Farley's scenes fall flat, and not just literally. It would have helped if the script tried to at least make Farley's character likeable. We're told he's a total klutz with a big heart, but we only ever get to see the klutz part of Haru, as well as some dubious sexual innuendo that feels out of place for the character.

The cast also includes Nicollette Sheridan as the movie's blonde bombshell, relegated to being eye candy and a helpless damsel in distress for the big finale, Robin Shou of "Mortal Kombat" fame as Haru's ninja brother tasked with keeping him safe from himself, and Chris Rock as an annoying bellboy Haru befriends. Shou is an experienced martial artist, and he does get a few decent fight scenes while also providing a solid counterbalance to Farley's shenanigans.

"Beverly Hills Ninja" is dumb, bland and crass, and very much feels like a 90-minute "Saturday Night Live" sketch. And by that I mean current day SNL, not the old SNL, which was great. It might hold some value for the undemanding, or Chris Farley fans, but otherwise, for all intents and purposes, "Beverly Hills Ninja" is a terrible movie.

SCORE: 5/10