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The Karate Kid, Part III (1989)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
30 June 1989 (USA) moreTagline:
First it was teacher to student. Then it was father to son. Now, it's man to man.Plot:
A bad guy from KK1 attempts to gain revenge on Daniel and Miyagi, with the aid of an old army buddy. full summary | add synopsisAwards:
5 nominations moreUser Comments:
Part III? What for? moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Ralph Macchio | ... | Daniel LaRusso | |
| Pat Morita | ... | Mr. Kesuke Miyagi (as Noriyuki 'Pat' Morita) | |
| Robyn Lively | ... | Jessica Andrews | |
| Thomas Ian Griffith | ... | Terry Silver | |
| Martin Kove | ... | John Kreese | |
| Sean Kanan | ... | Mike Barnes | |
| Jonathan Avildsen | ... | Snake | |
| Randee Heller | ... | Lucille | |
| William Christopher Ford | ... | Dennis (as Christopher Paul Ford) | |
| Pat E. Johnson | ... | Referee | |
| Rick Hurst | ... | Announcer | |
| Frances Bay | ... | Mrs. Milo | |
| Joseph V. Perry | ... | Uncle Louie | |
| Jan Triska | ... | Milos | |
| Diana Webster | ... | Margaret |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
112 minCountry:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
ColorAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreSound Mix:
DolbyCertification:
Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:L | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Chile:TE | Finland:K-12 | Netherlands:AL | Philippines:G | Singapore:PG | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | Australia:PGFilming Locations:
Ennis-Brown House - 2655 Glendower Avenue, Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California, USAFun Stuff
Trivia:
This movie was part of a wave in the late 80's/early 90's to introduce wide screen letterbox movies to the general public. The first printing of the VHS are all in letterbox. (re-prints from 1994 claim to be in wide screen but are pan & scan). (Ghostbusters II (1989) was another big title movie released in letterbox only in the first printing, many video stores got complaints about these titles because customer's thought that there was half of the picture missing, many video store owners called RCA/Columbia to find out if there was a printing problem to only be told that they were meant to be this way.) moreGoofs:
Crew or equipment visible: When Miyagi sends Barnes flying through the Cobra-Kai door into the dojo, if you look closely, you can see some sort of table (with a blue tinge to it) that Barnes used to jump off of and into the door from. moreSoundtrack:
48 HOURS moreFAQ
Where were the scenes at Terry Silver's mansion filmed?How long after "Karate Kid II" does "Karate Kid III" take place?
A Note Regarding Spoilers
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Rumor has it Tom Cruise was offered the chance to reprise his signature '80s role in two (!) Top Gun sequels, but refused because he didn't want to do the same thing over and over. He has a point: some films, like Star Wars or Indiana Jones (even Rocky or Rambo, to a reasonable extent), can and in fact deserve to have follow-ups, because the people who made them genuinely think there is more to tell about those characters (Rocky V is too much, though); others, like Top Gun or The Karate Kid, are crippled from the beginning by the fact that they are indelibly connected to the decade that spawned them, and also suffer from having fairly basic scripts and characters that wouldn't really benefit from any continuation of the story. Sadly, Ralph Macchio never realized this, and so here we are: The Karate Kid, Part III.
Whereas the first film dealt with a recycled subject (young boy gets revenge on those who humiliated him) from a new angle, Part III resurrects the revenge theme with all its clichés. The "driving force" (assuming there is one) of the screenplay (if you can call it that) is John Kreese (Martin Kove), the sadistic karate teacher whose students got their asses kicked by Daniel Larusso (Macchio). Broke and lonely, Kreese decides to ask an old army buddy, Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), to help carry out a diabolical plan that will make Daniel and Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) suffer like never before. Getting them to fight back, however, will prove harder than usual, as Miyagi is more interested in opening a bonsai shop and Daniel refuses to act violently since he is - what a surprise, this - in love.
Love, vengeance, honor, blood and gratuitous butt-kicking are all thrown in the mix, though hardly any of them work to full effect. As a matter of fact, the more explicit violence suffocates the franchise's trademark comedy bits, leaving a few underwhelming Daniel/Miyagi moments with the duty of lightening the tone. Even worse, though, is the over-the-top behavior of the villains: Griffith does nothing but stare manically, shout and laugh, while Kove, who was funny in the first installment of the series, transforms Kreese into a grotesque parody of his earlier work. Only when the dead-certain final battle arrives, there is a sense of the trilogy regaining whatever it lost from Part II onwards. But the question remains: how many people will still be paying attention at that point?