And if you’ve seen the trailer for The Warrior’s Way, it’s just one line of dialogue from alcoholic gunslinger Geoffrey Rush. “Ninjas. Damn.” In the last year or two, we’ve seen two of these wrong-footed action flicks that tried and failed to capture the essence of the wilder eastern equivalent. Last year, Blood: The Last Vampire mashed up horror and martial arts, but forgot to bring in much plot or logic. And earlier this year, Ninja Assassin was the least fun it’s possible to have with a police procedural thriller called Ninja Assassin. What we get in The Warrior’s Way is a little better, perhaps for the work of Sngmoo Lee, who writes and directs the film and isn’t American. His story follows Yang, a Sad Flute swordsman who kills “The Greatest Swordsman In The History Of Mankind Ever” early on, and by the rule of Top Trumps or something, gains that title himself. Hiding out in a rundown circus set up in a frontier town, Yang befriends Lynne, a skilled knife thrower who has vowed revenge on the disfigured Colonel who killed her family in front of her. The Colonel and his ravening comrades aim to bring war to the circus once again, while the Sad Flute clan aren’t exactly pleased with their brightest member’s desertion. What’s weird is that Lee handles the Western element of the story better than the martial arts element, as if influenced by Sergio Leone in the former aspect and by Undefeatable in the latter. Yang very willingly takes on the American way, as is the fashion of these films. In the virtuous Lynne, you get a willing pupil who absorbs the cool-looking stuff from Yang’s teachings, but is more often seen ingratiating Yang into his job at the local launderette. Kate Bosworth plays Lynne like a sexed up and vengeful version of Jessie from Toy Story, and Dong-gun Jang comes across as blank as Keanu Reeves whenever he’s not jumping in the air and slicing something into bits. Animated blood and wonky CGI are here, along with many other fixtures from Blood: The Last Vampire and Ninja Assassin. Somehow, though, the idea of martial arts and Western together appeals more than putting martial arts into vampire films or police dramas. I actually quite like Shanghai Noon, not only because of my great appreciation of Jackie Chan in anything and everything, but because it’s clearly one of his better English language buddy movie efforts. The Warrior’s Way is doing the same thing, but keeping a straight face about it. The permanent straight face is what makes some parts unintentionally hilarious. Casting Tony Cox as a midget with a figure 8 painted on his head isn’t the way to make an audience take your film seriously, but the absolute trough, by a long shot, is Danny Huston. Huston plays the Colonel like Vernon Wells from Commando would have played Jack Torrance in The Shining. It’s embarrassingly bad, and a low point for Huston. There’s also little threat from those much mooted ninjas coming to town. Here’s a clue as to why: Yang defeats “The Greatest Swordsman In The History Of Mankind Ever” in the first five minutes. We’re repeatedly told, by no less than the master who’s going to fight his student, that Yang was trained to be the strongest there is. Is there really any jeopardy for Yang, or his young charge? It takes its sweet time getting to the action-packed conclusion, and even once we get there, its master-student confrontation and copious flashbacks are over-familiar from, you guessed it, Blood: The Last Vampire and/or Ninja Assassin. Think of another Western show that takes transgeneric elements from the east, Joss Whedon’s Firefly. Of the series’ Hong Kong sensibilities, Whedon said, “There is a convention in Hollywood to fall back upon clichés – or on time-honoured structure… and in these films, where you thought you were going to be terrified, the broadest comedy might appear. The Warrior’s Way might err to close to the Hollywood Way, but it has enough gumption that it’s at least a step in the right direction. I don’t believe American cinema chimes with martial arts the way studios seem to want it to, but this is an enjoyable enough film on its merits as a Western. It’s a damn sight better than the ludicrously inept Jonah Hex, but not good enough to deny that my rating is a generous one. Follow Den Of Geek on Twitter right here.