The Karate Kid, Part III (1989)

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:

Revealing mistakes: Towards the end, in the training sequence of both Daniel LaRusso and Mike Barnes, the first two clips shown of Mike Barnes, Terry Silver, and John Kreese (where Mike is breaking bricks with his hands) are the same exact clips, just played twice. The second clip of Mike is about half-a-second longer than the first.

Quotes:

Terry Silver: [at the climax of Daniel's training] Visualize: this is not a bunch of sticks and pipes anymore; this is not some pathetic mugger who needs a couple of dollars so he can eat. No! This is a deadly, hungry wrecking machine who wants to detatch your head from the rest of your body and mount it over his fireplace!
[Daniel gashes his fist on the 2X4 with Mike Barnes' picture]
Terry Silver: It's blood. So what? Make believe it's HIS! This guy wants to BREAK you! HUMILIATE you! STOMP YOU INTO THE GROUND! NOW WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)

Soundtrack:

THE FIRST IMPRESSION

Horrible, terrible conclusion to the trilogy.

Ya just gotta ask, "What were they thinking?" The first movie was a classic - a genuine piece of pop culture, and a great "underdog" movie. While the second wasn't as good, it was still a decent movie which expanded on the story of Daniel & Mr. Miyagi. But this one stunk up the joint... first off the new bad guy Terry Silver (the millionaire mogul/karate expert) is laughable as a villain - his performance is *so* over the top it's ridiculous. It's obvious they got someone who knew his karate, but didn't know jack about acting. It's also ironic that he's actually younger than Ralph Macchio

Robyn Lively - she's attractive enough, but belongs in sitcoms. Also, what's with Daniel *never* getting the girl in the long term???

As for Macchio - I don't know... he seemed to be *way* too enthusiastic. Was he this much of a motormouth in the first two movies? It's almost as if he was trying too hard to compensate for the fact that he is five years older, trying to portray a character that is only one year older.

The pacing of this movie is all wrong. They spend way too much time on trivialities such as the Macchio/Lively relationship. What was the point of that anyway? There was hardly any time spent on the training and actual fight (and as any fan of the Rocky movies could tell you, that's the most important part!)

As for the karate itself, it's L A M E. The Karate Kid series has always been more about the philosophy behind martial arts rather than the physical aspect. All of Mr. Miyagi's wise platitudes are dead-on, but the "crane technique" would be easily countered by any half-competent black belt. Even so, it worked in the first two flicks. But in this one, it's just ridiculous. The final fight, the "bad boy of karate" is whipping Daniel like a government mule, then in sudden death Daniel decides to break into his "Secret Miyagi family kata", which causes both his opponent and his partners to suddenly back away in fear! This is so absolutely ridiculous it's pathetic. Once again, any competent karate student would simply look at Daniel with a bit of confusion, then continue on with the business of kicking his butt. It just seemed all too anti-climactic.

I'm really surprised they made a fourth movie after this stinker, but at least it gave us our first look at Hillary Swank. Yum :)