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If nothing else, Ninja Assassin is true to its title. There are ninjas, and yes, they assassinate the hell out of people. And if that’s all that you’re looking for in this stylized action flick, then certainly the film will deliver on the promise of its title. But if you’re looking for anything resembling an actual movie — with a story, a plot, performances, nuance, etc. — you’ll likely find yourself at least mildly disappointed once the blood begins to dry.

The film opens with a bang, kicking off in a Yakuza nightclub where an envelope containing only black sand is delivered to the gangster in charge. After a long monologue by an old tattoo artist about the violence that erupted the last time he saw such an envelope, the ninja strikes, emerging from the shadows to slice and dice his way through an army of gun-shooting henchmen. There is, of course, much beheading and vivisecting and fake CGI blood, and at least in this opening sequence — as over-acted as it all may be — there’s a fair amount of martial arts awesomeness, as well. It’s only in the next sequence, when this over-long action set piece attempts to be an actual movie, that things go so horribly awry.

Naomie Harris plays a Europol researcher named Mika who somehow manages to convince her boss over five minutes of exposition about events that we never actually get to witness that a clan of ninjas is secretly hiring themselves out as assassins to high-bidding clients. Suddenly, government agents from the FBI, CIA, MI6, etc. make their nefarious presence known to warn off Mika from the case. Why and how these agencies are connected to the ninja clan, we can’t be sure, but it’s suggested that the ninjas have relationships very high up the chain of command. Meanwhile, we’re introduced to Raizo (played by musician and martial arts expert Rain) who flashes back on his training at the ninja academy, coming to understand that the abuse he suffered there, and the murder of a student who’d been his lover, are indications of a much deeper corruption. The student must fight back against his clan and stop their machinations, and to do so, he must save Mika, now the ninjas’ primary target.

- Warner Bros.

This is as deep as the story ever gets, simply setting up a few chases and action set pieces to allow for maximum ninja action. But what’s most upsetting is that the things we’re told but never see actually speak to a potentially much smarter movie. All the international intrigue, the assassination of high-ranking government targets — all of this suggests a kind of Bourne-style mash-up of international espionage and ninja ass-kicking that would no doubt have offered a much more engaging experience. Instead, we’re left with a rogue ninja trying to protect an attractive stranger in the hopes that she’ll draw out their leader and he can earn his revenge. Unfortunately, that, and only that, simply isn’t enough.

Thankfully, however, the fight choreography is fast, frenetic and, in a few choice moments, rather graceful in its execution. Knives, swords, fists and bladed chains tear through limbs and heads, leaving dozens of bodies in their wake. And for all the relentless blood-letting, as exciting as it is, the darkness in which the ninjas fight too often obscures the eloquence of the dance. Obviously, ninjas attack from the shadows, but if all the combat takes place there, the opportunity to really capture the quality of the movement threatens to be lost entirely. What we do admire about the film is that Raizo takes some serious damage. He’s outnumbered and out-skilled, resulting in a rather brutal collection of gashes and scars across his body. We’re never asked to buy that he’s so talented that he can take on an entire clan single-handed, all of which lends some level of believable danger to the battle scenes.

- Warner Bros.

James McTeigue, who’s last film, V for Vendetta, offered a wonderfully intelligent, well-performed and action-packed narrative, focuses purely on the action this time around. Intelligence and good acting is, quite frankly, nowhere to be seen in Ninja Assassin. But McTeigue’s ability to frame a shot and make the visuals truly stand out is on clear display. If only he’d been as demanding with the overall quality instead of placing all his cards on the general bad-assery of the ninja, the film might have been a first-rate, well-rounded action flick. Sadly, however, it’s simply something to check out should it come across cable TV, or a DVD worth purchasing to show off your HDTV and surround-sound system. But it’s not quite worth a full-price ticket to the theater on a Saturday night, at least not for those in search of a real movie. Those willing to accept hacked limbs and well-staged ass-kicking without any real dramatic hook, however, will no doubt have a blast

The team that most recently completed an undefeated regular season will face a team six victories away from matching the feat. That alone — the idea of protecting their historic perfection — would figure to motivate the Patriots as they prepare for their Monday night clash with the 10-0 Saints.

Then again …

“We’re not worried about records or whatever happened two years ago with our team — far from it,” running back Kevin Faulk said. “We’re in here just trying to win a football game.”

“You don’t play for those reasons,” said kicker Stephen Gostkowski. “Whatever happened two years ago happened two years ago. We’re just hoping to get a good showing against a good team on the road. There aren’t too many motives outside of winning — a win is a win no matter who it comes against.”

The words were echoing off the walls in the Patriots’ locker room.

“We have a game this week against a good team, so we’re preparing for them and not worrying about what happened two years ago,” center Dan Koppen said.

“I kind of look at that season as a failure,” added offensive guard Stephen Neal. “We didn’t do what we needed to do, we didn’t finish. If another team doesn’t lose a game in the regular season, that’s great. I could care less.”

While not every player on the undefeated 2007 team was polled, those who were operated off the same script. And if they didn’t mean it, they were pretty convincing in their delivery.

That includes players who are no longer with the team, or in the NFL.

“I don’t even think that is anywhere in the equation; they wouldn’t be looking at it from that perspective,” said former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison, now a refreshingly candid analyst for NBC’s “Football Night in America” show. “They’re not sitting back and saying ‘We went undefeated and we want to knock somebody else off who has a chance to do that.’ They just want to go in there and get a win against a team I feel is the best in football.”

Part of why Harrison feels that way is the turnover in the locker room. Only 25 players who were on the active roster, injured reserve or practice squad in 2007 are still with the club in 2009.

“A lot of those players from that team are gone — [Mike] Vrabel, myself, [Tedy] Bruschi, [Richard] Seymour. There are a lot of younger players now playing,” he said. “The other part of it is that you are preparing to play the best team in football, so you can’t be worrying about preserving your own streak. There are so many other things that you have to concern yourself with, like the X’s and O’s of how you stop Drew Brees.”

The Saints have four players on their roster or injured reserve from that 2007 Patriots team — cornerback Randall Gay, tight end David Thomas, and fullbacks Heath Evans and Kyle Eckel.

Most of the players from the 2007 team said that the pursuit of perfection wasn’t a topic of discussion at this point of the season. Harrison remembers what coach Bill Belichick would tell the team around this time.

“Bill did a wonderful job and used to say things like ‘You guys are 10-0, how could you even think about an undefeated season with six weeks to go? We’re just over half of the season, so how could you even think about it with so many different factors that could come together in six weeks — injuries, different situations, weather? Just worry about week to week and going out to get the victory.’ Even as we got to 12-0, 13-0, it was just about keeping the momentum going. I think we all figured there would be time to reflect after the season.”

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said this week that one of the things he remembers from the 2007 undefeated season is the confidence the Patriots had every time they took the field and “knowing that if we played a good game it was going to be almost impossible for teams to beat us.”

But asked if there was a feeling this week of protecting what the Patriots accomplished, he said “not so much.”

Perhaps Brady and the others will be saying something different if they win Monday night, but leading up to kickoff, it was a united front.

Simply put, there was no detection of protecting perfection.

Mike Reiss covers the Patriots for ESPN Boston. You can follow him on Twitter or leave a question for his weekly mailbag.

R&B singer Chris Brown has responded to reports that he called Jay-Z a “cornball” during the rapper’s acceptance speech during the American Music Awards.

Brown‘s “cornball” tweet in question came as Jay-Z accepted the award for Best Male Hip-Hop Artist on November 23.

Last night Brown called into DJ Whoo Kid’s Shade 45 show, where he discussed a number of topics, including his upcoming album Graffiti, his relationship with Rihanna and the alleged Tweet about Jay-Z

“My Twitter didn’t get hacked, people blew it out of proportion,” Brown told DJ Whoo Kid. “I was also commenting on certain things going on the AMA’s but I was still Tweeting randomly about what as going on. So like the homies was out the house and everybody was like ‘oh he’s making an excuse.’ I just said ‘cornball.’ I was talking about homie at all.”

Brown immediately removed the post when his followers began flooding his page with messages.

The Tweet was quickly circulated around the Internet, making headlines.

“At that moment, I started seeing the comments, ‘oh you talking about Jay? You talking about Jay?’ I was like hell nah, then I said let me delete this before this gets out proportion. I don’t need no problems right now, I don’t need no more people cussing me out.

“People just being on some extra s**t.. I was just like man go ahead with all that,” Brown stated. “They blew it up and I was like man whatever.”

Brown has also denied any strained relationship with Jay-Z, because the two have not spoken.

Jay-Z did reportedly have unflattering words for Brown in February, after Brown was charged with punching and biting Rihanna during a spat in Los Angeles.

US Weekly cited unnamed sources that claimed Jay-Z “hit the roof” when he found out about the assault and labeled Brown a “walking dead man” for assaulting Rihanna, whom Jay-Z discovered.

“I never really talked to homie,” Brown said. “It aint no beefs, I just get my money and he gets his.”