ROBOT NINJA (1989) *** ½

I was a fan of J.R. Bookwalter’s Dead Next Door, but this might be his ultimate epic.  While that film had the help of Sam Raimi as producer, this one had David DeCoteau.  Because of DeCoteau’s influence, Linnea Quigley has a small role as Burt Ward’s secretary!

Michael Todd stars as a comic book artist who gets upset when a television producer (Ward) waters down his beloved creation, Robot Ninja for television.  He then gets his friend (Bogdan Pecic) to make him a real Robot Ninja costume (using royalties from the comic to bankroll the endeavor) and goes out and fights crime.  He crosses a gang of thugs led by a tough-talking woman (Maria Markovic) who take it upon themselves to destroy the Robot Ninja once and for all.

The thugs are low rent and cartoonish, but they make for a worthy adversary for a comic book artist with no formal martial arts or weapons training.  Bookwalter films the action in an efficient manner, especially considering the constraints of the miniscule budget.  He gets a lot of mileage out of the extreme gore too.  Eyes are clawed out, hands are cut off, and guts are ripped out.  There’s also a gnarly scene in which a gun is shoved into someone’s eyeball and the shots of the Robot Ninja performing self-surgery are disgusting.

Robot Ninja is a precursor to the likes of Super and Kick-Ass.  Not only was it ahead of its time, it’s probably ripe for a remake.  It was made in 1989 at the height of the second wave of Batmania and seeing nerds congregating in comic book shops wearing Batman T-shirts is like stepping into a time warp.  That is to say, I loved it.  Speaking of time warps, I dug Todd’s studio that had dozens of ‘80s movie posters (including some of Bookwalter’s own films) plastered on the wall.