'American Ninja 4': The Annihilation' (1990) - Cedric Sundstrom.

The fourth thrilling, tooth-jarring instalment to the influential, much loved 'American Ninja' franchise features the welcome return of majestically moody, Michael Dudikoff making up for the noticeable absence of the super charismatic, Steve James. After a hectic intro wherein a clearly less than efficacious 'Delta Force' team are captured by an elite Ninja death squad mercilessly run by the despotic, actively sadistic Mulgrew (James Booth). Mulgrew has profitably aligned himself with notorious middle-eastern terrorist, Maksood (Ron Smerczak) a wealthy warmongering lunatic who has not only imprisoned the American soldiers but is holding them to ransom, threatening to 'annihilate' New York City with a portable thermonuclear device!!!! As these apocalyptic machinations escalate into outright carnage, it will take the combined pugilistic prowess of two true blue American Ninjas to thwart this monstrous axis of evil!

Cedric Sundstrom didn't have the most refined text to work from, but nevertheless, from these admittedly meagre ingredients the capable filmmaker manages to cook up a particularly potent pottage of nasty neck-snapping Ninjas, corrupt gun-happy cops, joyfully cartoonish, pseudo-Bond B-Movie buffoonery, and a rabble-rousingly fight-packed finale! A rebellious rabble of mob-handed Mad Max misfits, led by the dynamic Dr. Tamba (Ken Gampu) valiantly assists our two brave, bad guy decimating heroes in their noble efforts to free the hostages, crush the murderous oppressors and their nefarious Ninja army! 'American Ninja 4: The Annihilation' is an exhilaratingly bellicose, consistently entertaining, testosterone-soaked Martial arts epic, and I can think of far worse ways to 'annihilate' an hour and a half of your time!