The American Ninja takes on American racists in AVENGING FORCE, on Blu-ray from 88 Films.

Ever since the accidental deaths of his parents, former Secret Service agent Matt Hunter (Michael Dudikoff, BLOODY BIRTHDAY) has been taking care of his little sister Sarah (Allison Gereighty) and the family's Montana ranch with the help of his grandfather (Rick Boyle). The trip travel down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras to support the U.S. Senate campaign of buddy Larry Richards (Steve James, THE WARRIORS) and learn from his concerned wife Daisy (Sylvia Joseph) that Larry has been receiving threats from a group called Pentangle. During a parade appearance, Matt manages to foil an assassination attempt on Larry but is unable to save one of Larry's young sons. Matt and Larry manage to kill a handful of the assailants but their ringleader Parker (Loren Farmer, DEAD ON: RELENTLESS II). Upon learning from Admiral Brown (James Booth, PRAY FOR DEATH) that Pentangle is a rightwing terrorist group whose inner circle are high-powered businessmen with political connections who they have been unable to identify, Matt arranges for Larry and his family to stay with him at the ranch. When Parker reports back to Pentangle's leaders – Professor Elliot Glastenbery (John P. Ryan, RUNAWAY TRAIN), young golden boy senator Wade Delaney (Bill Wallace, THE DELTA FORCE), Iron Man champion Commander Jeb Wallace (Karl Johnson, UP IN SMOKE), and tech executive Charlie Lavall (Marc Alaimo, TOTAL RECALL) – they identify Matt as some sort of professional and decide that he should be the latest opponent in their secret "hunting club" which plays a variation on THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME in the swampy bayou, burning down Matt's ranch and kidnapping his sister to assure his compliance.

Dudikoff had already made a name for himself as a Cannon action star with AMERICAN NINJA with AVENGING FORCE director Sam Firstenberg, and his sophomore effort for the company finds him in Chuck Norris territory in a scenario that vaguely recalls elements of LONE WOLF McQUADE if only because of the generic nature of the film. The second of four action films in actor James Booth's latter day screenwriting career – he would go on to script and play villains in the second and fourth AMERICAN NINJA films – AVENGING FORCE retains a degree of meanspiritedness that he brought to his earlier Shô Kosugi vehicle PRAY FOR DEATH. The film proves disturbingly timely in its Pentangle group with "academic" Glastenbery and scapegoating blacks, Mexicans, and South Americans and preaching an "end times" with a "survival of the fittest" outlook, as well as a secret utter contempt for the group's most fervent supports ("They're shit") who hate the same people but lack the resources or the drive to survive; the only difference between now and then, is that people like this are no longer hiding their hate. The final act in the swamplands is a series of fight scenes between Dudikoff and his hunters that is all the more effective with the torrential rain and mud making quite believable the way in which the advantage switches back and forth between fighters even though we know Dudikoff will eventually triumph. Dudikoff would follow the film with AMERICAN NINJA 2 but would sit out the third film where he was replaced by David Bradley, appearing in Cannon's MIDNIGHT RIDE, PLATOON LEADER, and RIVER OF DEATH before partnering with Bradley for AMERICAN NINJA 4 and remaining with Cannon until it folded in the mid-nineties. Director Firstenberg remained with Cannon as it transitioned to Global Pictures with AMERICAN SAMURAI and DELTA FORCE 3 before going over to Nu Image, the company founded by Avi Lerner who had started collaborating with Cannon during the late eighties when they were shooting in South Africa for tax breaks.

Released to laserdisc by Image Entertainment and VHS by Media Home Entertainment, AVENGING FORCE was one of the few Cannon Dudikoff titles that did not get a stateside DVD release when MGM acquired the Cannon library – overseas releases utilized the fullscreen tape master – debuting digitally on Blu-ray in the U.S. from Kino Lorber. 88 Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray is derived from the same master which is of a newer vintage than the HD master MGM provided for the AMERICAN NINJA films, with vivid bayou greens, browns, the pop of saturated colors in blood and the Mardi Gras costumes, and strong detail in the textures of facial features, clothes, and the New Orleans shooting location apart from a couple second unit shots during the big ranch fire. The Ultra Stereo mix delivers in a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo track when it comes to dialogue, body blows and gunfire, and George S. Clinton's aggressive synth score while some of the surround atmosphere sounds a bit artificial. Optional English HoH subtitles are included.