3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain (1998) (Movie Review)

    Um … is it possible to have mild fondness for an obviously bad movie … well, we each have our select guilty pleasures, and there’s one particular movie from my childhood that I’ve just been itching to talk about. Back in the early 90’s, at the peak of franchises like “Ninja Turtles” and “Power Rangers”, there was suddenly a decade spanning sub-genera of action movies aimed for younger viewers. 

One of the bigger titles to emerge from this trend was the 1992 picture “3 Ninjas”, which revolved around a group of little kids, who used their martial arts to save the day from bad guys … and I’ve honestly never actually watched the movie myself. There was a sequel in 1994 titled “3 Ninjas: Kick Back”, which built on the same formula … but I’ve never seen that one either. Afterword’s came a third film in 1995 titled “3 Ninjas: Knuckle Up” … and once again, I’ve never seen it before. Then came the fourth film in 1998 … a little movie titled “3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain” … and I think I watched this film maybe a couple times too many back then. Yeah, this is a strange case in which I have childhood ties to a single film in a long running series, and yet, have no real ties to the franchise as a whole, as I have yet to watch any other film in the series ... so, I’m definitely coming at this film differently than other fans of the previous films would.

    Around my early years of six or seven, I wasn’t always aloud to watch films with my older cousins, but they did at least try to compensate by sharing films with me that were more kid friendly, yet still packed with action. For whatever reason, “3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain” became this annual favorite of ours to watch when we got together, and thus, the film has the double nostalgia dose of both something from my childhood, and something I bonded over with my extended family. It also kicked-off my appeal toured action movies, and if it weren’t for this film, I probably wouldn’t have watched movies like “Cliffhanger”, or “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” as early as I did. Straight to the verdict … this is not a good movie, at all … like, this movie had a wide theatrical release, didn’t make much money back, and it has this perfectly round 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet, with all that said … even though I’ve grown up, and obviously realize how dumb the film is, I still have this genuinely soft nostalgic spot for it. As such, this film has a secure placement in my “so bad, it’s great camp”, in which I take joy from how ridiculous the film is, as well as how obvious a product of the 90’s it is … and all with that little touch of taking me back to my childhood.

   The movie opens with one of those classic 90’s title cards, that looks cheesy now, but was awesome in the eyes of a six-year-old. The tone is instantly set with the ensuing opening, as we see our three main child ninjas fighting there way through an over-the-top, “American Gladiator” style obstacle course … which their grandfather just happens to keep in his basement ... this is without question a movie from the 90’s. Our titular 3 Ninjas are an older boy named Rocky, a middle child named Colt, and a little one named Tum-Tum, who are naturally all hold-over characters, but played by different actors. The two elder brothers feel it’s time to grow-up, and move on with their lives, but first they’ve got to treat their little brother to a special birthday treat … thrill rides at a Theme Park called Mega Mountain. 

Little do the boys know that a team of terrorists have infiltrated the park, slowly take it under their control, and finally threaten to sabotage the rides, putting the visiting families in danger, unless they obtain a large sum of money from the park’s owner. With everyone trapped inside the park, and every ride threatening to be the last, the boy’s band together to use their fighting abilities to stop the bad guys, and protect the park guests. Along the way, they team-up with a retired TV star played by Hulk Hogan, and a Teck-girl named Amanda, who can crack computer codes, as well as arm the boys with her special prop-weapons. In a nut shell, the premise is kind of like “Die Hard” staring “The Karate Kid”, or kids in this case, and … this was honestly my introduction to the “Die Hard” formula, so I’m going to take some mild enjoyment from it, even though the set-up is absolutely ridiculous.    

    Actually, for as outlandish as the premise is, I do remember it scaring me back when I was a kid, as the thought of someone taking over a ride, lead me to ponder the general safety of theme park attractions. The setting of Mega Mountain is actually “Elitch Gardens” in Denver, Colorado, despite being set off the coastline in the film. 

As a resident of Colorado myself, I’ve actually had many Summers at the park, some of which with my previously mentioned cousins. In the movie, it went through some remodeling, with additional signs and sets added in, but my cousins and I were able to spot some locations from the film. The obligatory promotional piece comes in the form of a music montage set to the song “Have a Good Time”. I should also note that, despite being a theatrically released picture, it still feels, and looks like the quality of a TV production at times. It’s no wonder, because the film’s director Sean McNamara would go on to be the main director for some hit Disney TV shows like “Even Stevens” and “That’s so Raven”. There isn’t much to say about our three leading ninja heroes, as the only thing separating them as characters are their different ages. The most likable hero in the movie for me is the girl Amanda, as she’s able to contribute just as much to protecting the park attendants, without directly getting in on the fighting. There’s also a token girlfriend throne in, but contributes little else then being a damsel.  

   It’s also worth noting that this was the final acting role of Dan Myagi, who plays Grandpa Mori in the film, and acted in movies like “The Last Emperor”, “Big Trouble in Little China”, and of course the previous “3 Ninjas” movies. Let’s talk about Hulk Hogan, who plays the retired TV fighter named Dave Dragon. Despite getting top billing, and being the figurehead on the promotional material, he is surprisingly underutilized in the film. While he helps out in select moments, he still spends most of the movie as either a captive or getting knocked unconscious, while our three kids do most of the work. Surprisingly, of all the actors in the film, Hulk Hogan delivers the most grounded and genuinely emotional performance. That’s where we’re at with this movie, as everyone else is either underacting or super over the top, to the point where it makes Hulk Hogan look like a decent actor by comparison … that is an impressive accomplishment.  

   With that said, my favorite thing about this movie by far are the two main villains, Medusa and Lothar, played by Loni Anderson and the late Jim Varney. These two are having far more fun in these roles then they should be, are clearly aware of how silly the film is, and they don’t care, as they just ham it up with no regrets. The late Jim Varney in particular was a childhood staple of mine, playing the goofy Ernest P. Worrell in the in the “Ernest” franchise, as well as voicing the Slinky Dog in the first two “Toy Story” films, so it was cool to see him out of his element playing a villain. Whenever he’s on screen, I can’t take my eyes off him, as he’s having a ball as this nasty bad guy, and highlights that he had more range in character performances, apart from his more famous Ernest portrayal.  

   Going back to the theme park setting, it dose lend itself to some decent locations to stage the martial arts fight scenes … which is kind of non-stop throughout the film. The three child actors did have a background in fighting, and do perform the majority of their own stunts, which is admirable. 

There is some decent staging, choreography, and use of the surroundings on display, and while it’s obviously not on par with the best of marital arts cinema, it did still peak my interest in the genera back when I first saw this as a kid, and it was my first time really paying attention to how the surroundings, and environment can be utilized in a fight scene. One of the more memorable set-pieces is the duel between the oldest boy Rocky and the villain Lothar, which culminates into a fight on top of a roller-coaster. There’s also a noticeable amount of gun-play in what is supposed to be a family film. While no-one dies, or gets mangled by bullets, it’s still kind of jarring how many fire-arms are being unloaded.       

   Of cores, this film is also littered with continuity errors, choppy editing, hammy performances, dreadful dialog, and lots of very loud, and goofy sequences ... which for me add to the films so bad there fun merits. The dumbest scene of all being a lengthy chase through the park, involving three incompetent goofballs, and after being bested by our hero’s, it concludes with forced joke in which all three vomit in unison. 

With that said, the goofy nature of the film is constantly clashing with intensity of the situation. Truthfully, I don’t think the writers were paying attention to just how intense some of these situations got, at least for a movie with a younger demographic in mind. There’s a scene in which a girl is kidnapped, then tied down to the tracks of a roller-coaster, and it doesn’t play out like a self-aware nod to the cliché of the damsel on the train tracks, and instead it’s treated like a serious situation of a girl in danger. Things get even more intense near the end, in which the girl Amanda is kidnapped, and handcuffed next to a bomb that’s about to go off. This was actually an uncomfortably common cliché I saw in lesser family films of the time, as both the 1991 dog movie “Bingo”, and the 1997 sequel “Casper: A Spirited Beginning” all had these intense set-ups with kids being held captive while a bomb is about to go off, and in each case, it was never fun or exciting to watch as a kid … it was stressful.

    In the end, “3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain” is not a movie I can recommend to anyone, unless you enjoy seeking out bad movies for a good laugh. For me, I still have my special nostalgic ties to this film, as it was my launching pad for both the “Die Hard” formula, and my appeal of martial arts cinema. While some of the movie is cringe and hard to watch, there is never the less this hammy, so bad it’s good merit to the film that just makes me enjoy myself. While most of it is silly and repetitive, some of the action is still okay, and the villains are certainly fun to watch. There are absolutely better films to share with your kids, and maybe one day I’ll even watch the original three films in the series to see if there’s any merit to them. Supposedly their better, which I don’t doubt, but this one still has that special link to my childhood, which could never be replicated again. So, there you have it … not a good movie … but one that has its place in my development for jumpstarting my love of action movies ... and that’s worth something.

Thanks for reading my review of the 1998 sequel “3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain” … and continue to enjoy the movies you Love!