Norwegian Ninja is an action comedy about Arne Treholt. A little Norwegian history first though. Arne Treholt was a Norwegian politician that was tried and convicted of espionage for the Soviet Union and Iraq as well as committing high treason (can you really have one without the other?). He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Years later, Thomas Cappelen Malling wrote Ninjateknikk II: Usynlighet i strid, or translated into English Ninja Technique 2: Invisibility in Combat. The book became a cult classic and so they decided to make it into a movie. And that is how you have the brilliantly titled, Norwegian Ninja.
Mixing stock footage with documentary film style, you have the story of Arne Treholt (Mads Ousdal), secret Master of a Ninja force. He knows that the threat of communism is on the rise and therefore is trying to coax the general masses into electing the right leaders. He takes Bumblebee (Amund Maarud) as his star pupil even though Bumblebee isn't the brightest or best ninja. In fact, the only thing Bumblebee seems to be good at is attracting animals to his presence. Part of the government (I'm not sure if the King is involved or not) decides they want to get rid of the Ninja group and is out to destroy Treholt and his ninja gang. They send planes to bomb the island that they all live on. Bumblebee sees the attack coming and immediately gets on the defense and starts taking on the bad guys, getting injured in the process. Treholt is able to get him off the island in his jet at the last second, but the gash doesn't look good on Bumblebee. Near death, Treholt desperately tries to save Bumblebee's life my using himself as a human defibrillator.
If this story sounds absolutely crazy, that's because it is. Even though it's shot as a documentary with the characters constantly saying don't stop filming we need all of this for evidence, I can't help but feel like I'm watching a Wes Anderson knock off. I'm pretty sure they even used the same font at times. The colors are muted to try and give it an 80's feel at first, but when the scenes start getting more intense so do the colors. Lot's of ridiculous ninja stuff (which is kind of awesome). For instance, there are times when they seem to "use the force" to put clothes back on. Or they often throw down little explosions of smoke to make their escape. At times they even seem to teleport from one place to the other. I feel, if I actually knew something about Norwegian culture or history this film would have been AWESOME but since I don't, it was humorous at times with me thinking "What the hell am I watching?". The characters were introduced almost all at once, so at times it was hard to remember who was who and if someone was a good guy or bad guy. I feel like there were twists in the storyline that were lost because of this. At times the special effects were pretty horrible. I'm pretty sure I saw the strings on a miniature plane that was flying around. But I do like the fact that they didn't rely on CGs all the time. It was refreshing.
Rating: **
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