Best known for his time on Saturday Night Live, Chris Farley only appeared in 10 movies before his untimely 1997 death at the age of 33. While not his last released effort, 1997’s Beverly Hills Ninja became the final Farley film that came out during his lifetime.

After a shipwreck off the coast of Japan, a band of ninjas rescues a white baby and raise him as their own. Now an adult, Haru (Farley) struggles to feel like he fits in with this society.

Some of his clan believes Haru will fulfill a prophecy of a foreigner who turns into the greatest warrior of all. Bumbling and klutzy, Haru tries to live up to expectations.

Haru goes to Beverly Hills to assist with the needs of beautiful Alison Page (Nicollette Sheridan). He doesn’t travel alone, though, as his sensei (Soon-Tek Oh) sends talented ninja Gobei (Robin Shou) to shadow Haru and keep him safe.

Given that Farley idolized SNL predecessor John Belushi, it remains spooky that both died at 33 due to drug overdoses. Both seem to enjoy differing legacies, though.

Belushi remains a legend, whereas Farley feels less well-remembered, mainly because Chris failed to star in any genuinely noteworthy films. Okay, 1995’s Tommy Boy remains semi-beloved, but it exists as his only lead role that appears to enjoy an enduring impact.

By contrast, Belushi had Animal House and Blues Brothers under his belt. Like Farley, the rest of his small filmography appears underwhelming, but nonetheless, Belushi established a strong cinematic legacy for himself.

It probably doesn’t help that Farley went out Ninja, a comedy so “high concept” that it feels like parody. Just one look at the movie poster will lead one to think someone drew up the premise to mock cheesy Hollywood fare.

Unfortunately, Ninja exists as a real movie and not just a concept intended to make fun of witless cinema. However, I don’t know if I should refer to this as a “real movie”, since it really does end up as nothing more than the same joke repeated endlessly.

As such, we get multiple gags about the movie’s basic concept: the overweight white martial artist. This becomes a constant parade of scenes in which Farley falls down and/or breaks things/causes mayhem and overreacts.

This essentially was Farley’s shtick on SNL, as a lot of his characters followed this path. Farley did boast talent beyond these one-note choices, but he tended to rely on the old tried and true.

Perhaps a good director could’ve gotten more out of Farley than his usual over the top slapstick. Dennis Dugan is not that director.

Initially an actor, Dugan made his first feature via 1990’s Problem Child. Mean, stupid and utterly unfunny, that film set the tone for Dugan’s largely terrible career as a filmmaker.

Thanks to his association with Adam Sandler, Dugan occasionally pumped out enjoyable comedies. However, most varied from simply bad to completely atrocious.

Dugan’s worst flicks became genuinely offensive, a trend that started with the aforementioned Problem Child. Because it remains generally good-natured, Ninja fails to degrade itself to that level.

Nonetheless, next to no entertainment value arrives from this clunker. As noted, the movie essentially consists of one sight gag after another, none of which feel clever or fresh.

Instead, Ninja opts for cheap stabs at humor from start to finish. The “plot” the movie cobbles together never exists as anything other than an excuse to put Haru in potentially wacky situations, and it can’t do anything interesting with these.

Again, talented filmmakers could probably find something at least moderately funny to do with these scenarios. Ninja lacks anyone with the skill necessary to make this anything more than a tedious compilation of lousy slapstick.

Footnote: I don’t know if 2008’s Kung Fu Panda was influenced by Ninja, but the two enjoy enough conceptual similarities for me to wonder.

Beverly Hills Ninja appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie came with a fairly appealing image.

For the most part, sharpness worked fine. Though the movie occasionally felt a bit more tentative than I’d anticipate, the majority of the flick appeared accurate and tight.

I saw no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects, and edge haloes remained absent. I witnessed a light layer of grain and found no print flaws.

Colors leaned toward a reddish orange in the Japan scenes but felt more natural once Haru arrived in America. The hues appeared pretty full and rich.

Blacks appeared deep and dense, while low-light shots gave us positive clarity. Outside of some mild softness, this became a pretty good presentation.

A mix of comedy and action with an emphasis on the former, the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack kicked to life on occasion. Unsurprisingly, the smattering of martial arts scenes offered the most involvement and gave the soundscape some flair.

Music offered appealing stereo spread as well. Otherwise the movie opted for fairly general environmental material and thought these elements formed a decent setting.

Audio quality held up fine over the last 27 years, which speech that came across as natural and concise. Music boasted solid warmth and range.

Effects demonstrated nice range and accuracy, with mostly clean highs and a reasonable low-end layer. While the track never excelled, it managed to work fine for an action-comedy of this sort.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we find an audio commentary from director Dennis Dugan. Recorded in late 2023 for this release, he provides a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, influences, cast and performances, sets and locations, music and connected domains.

I've heard multiple Dugan commentaries and they've tended to seem mediocre. His discussion of Ninja doesn't rise above that level, though it comes with some positives.

In particular, Dugan starts pretty well, especially as he relates working with Chris Farley. Unfortunately, Dugan fades as he goes, so expect more material in the first half than the second. That leads to another decent but not great track.

We’ll never know where Chris Farley’s film career might’ve gone had he not died young, but Beverly Hills Ninja doesn’t point toward cinematic greatness. Nothing more than an endless collection of cheap sight gags, the movie grows tedious well before its brief running time concludes. The Blu-ray comes with fairly positive picture and audio as well as a commentary. Nothing about this awful movie satisfies.