The Karate Kid, Part III (1989)

User Rating:

4.2/10   

Director:

John G. Avildsen

Writers (WGA):

Robert Mark Kamen (characters)
Robert Mark Kamen (written by)

Release Date:

30 June 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Family | Sport

Tagline:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Revenge | Martial Arts | Vietnam | Master | Homoeroticism

Awards:

5 nominations

Cast

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

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

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:PG

Filming Locations:

Ennis-Brown House - 2655 Glendower Avenue, Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

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.)

Goofs:

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.

Quotes:

Daniel Larusso: You know, this is the 80s, Mr. Miyagi. You can't be so damn passive!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)

Soundtrack:

48 HOURS

Part III? What for?

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?