Ninja Assassin

This ultraviolent chopsocky thriller about Japanese martial arts warriors stars South Korean pop singer and actor Rain as Raizo, who was trained to fight from childhood. A flashback reveals how Raizo was abducted by the 2,000-year-old Ozunu clan and why he goes rogue after his girlfriend is ruthlessly murdered by the cruel, cold-blooded, secret-society leader, Lord Ozunu (Shô Kosugi). Meanwhile, in contemporary Berlin, a lovely Europol agent, Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris), discovers a financial connection between recent political assassinations and the Ozunu, which makes her a prime target for the villainous killers, led by Takeshi (Rick Yune). Naturally, it's stealthy, shirtless Raizo to the rescue, who's been lurking in the shadows in Europe, just waiting to exact his revenge. Saddled with an ineptly written, cliché-riddled script by Matthew Sand and J. Michael Straczynski, director James McTeigue instead concentrates on the visually impressive, acrobatic scenes (indeed, his primary purpose appears to be demonstrating CGI simulations of decapitation and cutting torsos in half by tossing sharp-edged stars). When the actors are not busy slicing and dicing one another with a staggering variety of weaponry in rain-soaked, dimly-lit comic-book-style action sequences, they're reduced to delivering laughably hammy but also unfortunately tedious dialogue. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD extras include additional scenes (8 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is “The Myth and Legend of Ninjas” featurette (19 min.), “The Extreme Sport of a Ninja” featurette on notable freerunners, martial artists, and gymnasts (10 min.), a “Training Rain” segment on transforming star Rain into a ninja (10 min.), a sneak peek at the upcoming film Clash of the Titans (5 min.), the BD-Live function, and bonus DVD and digital copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid Blu-ray extras package for an uneven film.] (S. Granger)