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The Karate Kid, Part III (1989) More at IMDbPro »

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30 out of 36 people found the following comment useful :-
The Karate Man Part III, 29 July 2004
Author: Joel_S from Albany, NY

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Spoiler Alert This film is about a 35 year old karate boy and his wise old martial arts instructor. Ralph Macchio plays the title role, and seems to have gained about 45 pounds since the second film. Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi come back from Okinawa (the story of Part II) and continue to dress and think like it's 1984, even though the rest of the world knows it's 1989. The brutal karate teacher from the earlier films, John Kreese, has been run out of business thanks to the bad PR that resulted in his defeat at the hands of Daniel and Mr. Miyagi. Kreese closes down his Cobra Kai dojo. This film is from 1989, and the 45 year old Kreese decides to call the karate deal quits, but his billionaire 25 year old Vietnam war buddy talks him out of it. Kreese's 25 year old war buddy from the 60s is named Terry Silver, and he has a pony tail just like Steven Segal. Terry Silver also knows karate, just like Steven Segal. Terry Silver is also a pompous, full of himself a-hole, just like Steven Segal. Terry Silver is also younger then The Karate Man, Daniel LaRusso. Terry Silver helps Kreese get revenge on Daniel and Mr. Miyagi, using some outdated racist lingo like "slope" in reference to Miyagi. Hmmm, maybe Terry Silver was around for the 60s?

Steven Segal, errr, I mean Terry Silver sets up a new Cobra Kai dojo and enlists the aid of a bad boy karate teenage punk named Mike Barnes. Mike Barnes is a teenager with a ruthless style of fighting, and he is determined to defeat the Karate Man. Terry Silver promises Mike Barnes a hefty sum of money if he is able to beat the Karate Man in the karate tournament. Terry Silver lures the Karate Man to the dark side of the force, against Miyagi's noble Jedi ways. The Karate Man trains under Silver and starts to become evil like Mike Barnes. In a subplot, Mr. Miyagi and Daniel open up a Bonsai tree store, and they are repeatedly attacked by Mike Barnes, who wants the Karate Man to defend his championship. Daniel briefly gets a high school aged girlfriend, but then she dumps him when she finds out he is 35 and she never shows up for the second half of the movie. But after the Karate Man beats up an 18 year old kid at a dance club, he runs home to Mr. Miyagi feeling bad for what he has done. Daniel repents and Miyagi forgives him, Daniel then goes back to the Cobra Kai dojo to tell Terry Silver that he can no longer train under him. Terry Silver says, "you owe me more then that Danny boy". Mike Barnes and John Kreese show up and start beating up on the Karate Man, the Karate Man makes a run for the door after a few beatings. Mike Barnes is hot in pursuit of him outside. But then out of nowhere, as usual, comes Mr. Miyagi to save the day. Miyagi throws Mike Barnes back into the Cobra Kai dojo and knocks out the teenager after another punch. Miyagi then takes on Terry Silver and John Kreese after they make a few more bigoted comments against Asians. Miyagi easily defeats the both of them, and finally agrees to retrain the Karate Man. Terry Silver tells Miyagi that Cobra Kai dojos will open up everywhere and he won't even be a memory. Daniel yells back, "Yes he will! You won't!"

Mr. Miyagi then tells Daniel "come, now we do kata!", and they do the kata on the beach, on the top of a mountain, and in Miyagi's backyard. After a few days of this kata training with Mr. Miyagi, the Karate Man enters the All-Valley Under 18 karate tournament for boys. The Karate Man does not have to fight the other young boys this time around, as their is a new rule saying he only needs to fight once, lucky for him. The punk teenager Mike Barnes makes it to the championship round and starts to once again beat up on the Karate Man. The Karate Man is out of his league with Mike Barnes, despite defeating Johnny Lawrence in the first film, and defeating Chosen in a fight to the death in the second movie. The Karate Man seems to have forgotten everything he learned. After getting severely beat up by the teenager Mike Barnes, the Karate Man tells Miyagi to throw in the towel. Mr. Miyagi comes to the Karate Man and tells him not to give up but to use the secret kata that he taught him. The man-boy gets up off the mat and proceeds to do the super secret Miyagi kata from Okinawa. Mike Barnes is stunned when he sees the kata, and actually waits for the Karate Man to finish his entire form before he attacks. When Mike Barnes finally lunges, the Karate Man in a single move flips him over and punches him to get the winning point. Mr. Miyagi and the 35 year old boy celebrate with a hug. THE END.

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29 out of 42 people found the following comment useful :-
Dear God, Please Rid Us Of Daniel!!!, 7 June 2000

Author: Khaled Yafi-01 (kiko_85@hotmail.com)

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

What is Daniel Larusso's problem? Why after three torturous films is he no more a man than when he first moved to L.A? I just don't get it!! In the first installment he had an excuse to be a sissy; he was being bullied by the bad boys of his new school and he didn't know how to defend himself. I accept that! In the second one, he was in a foreign land and was being bullied by some oriental bad-boy. He gets his butt kicked throughout until the last scene when in the face of near death, he looks into Miyagi's eyes and gets the inspiration to overcome fear and win the day and the girl. I don't buy it but I can bear it!! In the third installment, he projects so much obnoxiousness and pathetic emotion that you hope that his clearly, superior opponents will kick his ass once and for all. No such luck!!

In this film Daniel is forced to defend his title which requires him to fight only the final match.(Easy enough no?) His opponent is some blonde punk who is being trained by Kreese (the disgraced teacher in the first film whose nose Miyagi twists to render him unconscious)and backed by the finances of Terry Silver, a smooth Karate kicking business man. Silver, played with nice slick touches by Thomas Ian Griffith is watchable as he disrupts Daniel's level of discipline and successfully convinces Daniel that he wants to help him defend his title after Miyagi refuses. Daniel, idiot that he is, can't see the charade and accepts his help. Griffith projects some air of smoothness but doesn't quite convince he's really all that cool. Still some Karate student that I know, Amir Hashim-Zada seems to think he epitomizes 21st Century Maleness. To each his own, I guess! The three of them have a business deal going that requires Daniel to fight the final and get beaten in order for their new Dojo's to be opened. Miyagi refuses to train Daniel because he feels Daniel's reasons for defense are wrong. Please excuse Daniel for getting beaten up throughout the film and being forced to enter the tournament!!. Sorry Miyagi, how unreasonable Daniel has become!!! Anyway enough plot....

What I don't get is why Daniel complains and cries consistently about his circumstances and seems to have forgotten any skills that Miyagi has taught him over the past couple of films. That is until, in the heat of the moment, he looks into Miyagi's eyes and everything comes back!!(How realistic!!). I loved the first film, for although Daniel was predictably annoying, he was living out the zero to hero story we all love. And Miyagi became a household name that we couldn't not love. Incidentally, Miyagi remains good throughout the films. Without him the movie hasn't a leg to stand on. It's a real statement on the charisma of the leading man Macchio. He simply has none.

The trouble with Daniel is that he has the weakest personality that doesn't ever appear to develop, despite all Miyagi's wisdom, until the last 2 minutes of the film. I can accept that these films don't expect that much from the viewer, but come on!!, we should at least believe that Daniel is a worthy hero by the end. I find it really funny that Miyagi likens Daniel's spirit to that of a bonsai tree with a strong root. Daniel seems to make Miyagi's wisdom and teachings look meaningless. Daniel ought to be a man's man by this film, but he still walks like a girl, he talks like a girl, and BY GOD he still FIGHTS like a girl!!!Any sympathy you may have mustered for him from the past two films is quickly dispensed in this film because he whines and cries when things consistently don't go his way. For God's Sake Daniel, are you that dense, since when do things go your way??? By now you should be man enough to deal with the bad things in life!!!! Everyone else does and most haven't had the privilege of Miyagi's teachings!!

I must say the final scene is truly pathetic!!The bad boy is keen to win a point then lose a point thereby keeping the scores at 0-0. He wants Daniel to suffer (Don't we all?) so he claims a legitimate point then beats the life out of him to lose the point. The match makes it abundantly clear that Daniel is 5 belts worse than this guy. BUT the match tied at 0-0 thanks entirely to the bad-boy, goes into sudden death when Daniel searches deep inside of himself, giving the obligatory look to Miyagi, and pulls off one good move and wins the match. Then he has the arrogance to say "Yes We did It" as if he should have the audacity to think he deserved to win the fight. It could be poor writing or bad acting, or both, but it's a pity that even after 3 films, even my young girl cousin reckons she could beat up whimpy Daniel!!

The irony of all of this, is that this film is shamefully watchable. I like it because Daniel forces giggles from the audience and Miyagi is always watchable as he chants his pearls of wisdom and does his various spiritual mantra's that are meant to mean something!! Sorry Miyagi, I didn't quite catch their significance this time around, and as much as I like you, I fear Daniel has not learned a bleeding thing from you since you met him!!!

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9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Part III? What for?, 14 April 2008

Author: Max_cinefilo89 from Italy

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?

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14 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Horrible, terrible conclusion to the trilogy., 30 August 2000

Author: Laner from United States

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 :)

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Hilarious. I think my stomach is still sore., 21 December 2007

Author: surrydaniel from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

the worst movie ever made in my opinion, also the funniest. This isn't terrible like "Face Off" or "Con Air" or even "Airborne"...these films were able to do much more of what they intended. There are no jokes in Karate Kid 3. just trash. The script is so horrible and Macchio knows it, that's why he has to overact with his body... He hops around like a pogo stick in an attempt to make the dullness and pointlessness go away. It honestly sounds like a 6th grader wrote the script. And the acting is putrid. The love interest is completely pointless (they decide to be friends before leaving on their first date), and her acting is not even worthy of a detailed criticism. THere is so much here... I could go on forever, so I'll just mention the biggest plot foul-up. The bad guys spend the whole movie trying to force Macchio to defend his "Under 18" All Valley Tournament (he's a real life 27 yr old) while periodically kicking the hell out of him... Why force him to enter the tournament? Just kick the hell out of him. Anyway, with the stale, worn out, bottom of the barrel guidance of Myagi, Larusso pulls out a one punch victory to finish the tournament over his nemesis, who had been penalized points for kicking the hell out of him illegally throughout the match. So Larusso is beside himself with pride, laughing, cheering and pointing to Myagi in triumph. Now, what's to stop his enemies from kicking the hell out of him as soon as he leaves the building? Bottom line is the story and acting are both the worst failures I think I've ever seen. There was nothing that worked. Only exciting moment is Myagi taking on 3 dudes, but it's obviously a stunt double. F for intent. A plus for accidental humor. It's literally given me and a friend a stomach ache on several occasions. we couldn't breathe. I recommend it with all my heart.

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16 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
BETTER THAN PART 2, 12 August 2004
Author: roh3220 (roh3220@hotmail.com) from MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

I believe "The Karate Kid Part 3" is a worthy, entertaining and well-acted final installment in the popular trilogy. An improvement over Part 2, this final chapter couldn't have been done any better. Having watched Daniel and Mr Miyagi's relationship develop in the first two film's, Part 3's story threatens to break up their friendship, thus creating a perfect blend of tension and drama. Having Daniel train under the sadistic Cobra Kai teacher adds to the film's intensity. His relationship with Mr Miyagi further threatened by lies and heated arguments, Daniel(Ralph Macchio) gives a solid and engaging performance, proving that he is a competent actor. I found the film refreshing in many ways, especially in regard to Daniel's relationship with his female friend, which doesn't develop into a typical love-interest subplot like the previous two film's. This film may be a little on the dark side but in all honesty it's a decent finale to a very entertaining movie trilogy.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Number three should have died the death, but it didn't., 28 May 2005

Author: loza-1

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Perhaps the film company was a little short so far as budget is concerned; but this time we are back in the USA, and John Kreese, the thug who ran the dojo in number one, and who got both his fists cut up in number 2 returns with an ally. For the first time, we see a little depth to Kreese, who starts the film by falling apart; we see that Kreese has done military service, and it is probably his experiences on service that has screwed him up.

The ally is a lot more complex: the silver-tongued, pony-tailed Terry Silver, excellently played by Thomas Ian Griffith.

Pat Morita steadily plays the wise Miyagi, who goes into business selling his other passion: bonsai trees. But business is threatened when Kreese and his thugs try to goad the karate kid into a revenge match.

This time, the kid rejects the teachings of his sensei, and follows a path mapped out for him by Silver. The kid becomes frightened when he breaks the nose of an idiot in a nightclub, and returns to the one true path just in time for the revenge match.

It is easy to find criticisms in number three. The plot is predictable Although I did not find the film at all threadbare.

Speaking objectively, if I had to choose which of the three karate kid films I liked the best, it would be this one. For all its faults the oriental philosophy is still running through it; and it underlines in a more elaborate way the message of the first film: karate is a sport and a form of self improvement, and has nothing to do with thuggery.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
First he suffers!...., 10 August 2004
Author: armen1000 from California, USA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Absolutely the best of the KK series! This is a must see, no wait, must OWN film. The best part about the whole movie is the fact that Terry Silver, the multi-millionaire toxic waste dumper, finds time in his lavish life to make a teenage boy miserable! Who would've thought such a character exists.

I mean c'mon, doesn't he have better things to do? Apparently not, but lucky for us, it's those crazy moments in which he makes Danny Laruso miserable that make this film so hilarious. For instance, the scene in which he's training Danny with the wooden dummy. He sees Daniel bleeding and struggling, yet he hides behind the corner and takes a few moments to snicker and snarl at the young boy's pain.

THE VERY BEST part of this movie **Spoiler** is when Silver (wearing an ascot like any other billionaire) is at the final tournament with Kreese and they both instruct Mike Barnes to do the following to Danny: Silver: "First he Suffers!"

Kreese: "then he suffers some more!"

If this doesn't deserve a one million out of ten, I don't know what else would. Do yourselves a favor and purchase this film!

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7 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
So bad its good, 27 December 2003

Author: sleazydinosaur from oklahoma city

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Minor spoilers

This is the definition of a guilty pleasure, it's so incredibly awful, but also fun to watch. Filled with unintentional comedy, I actually went to see this twice at the movies, I had to show a friend of mine how terrible it was. First of all, it takes place exactly a year after the first one, even though it's really been over 5 years, and Ralph Macchio is pushing 30, but playing a 17 year old. The evil karate instructor from the first movie wants to get revenge on Daniel for beating his star pupil, and enlists the aid of a pony tailed rich friend, and a teenage "bad boy" of karate. The pony tailed guy is really into this revenge plot, he goes over the plan sitting in a sauna, and just bursts out laughing, just like from a comic book. The ponytail guy pretends to befriend Daniel, and train him, because Miyagi wants nothing to do with Daniel fighting in this tournement because......well, because that's what it says in the script. Of course, eventually the terrible trio let Danny in on their little plan right before the big tournement, and miyagi shows up and says that he'll train Danny, and then proceeds to wipe the floor with all three of the karate experts, and as Danny and Miyagi walk away, the three are still laughing and taunting Danny, which seemed odd to me since he's being trained by the guy that just beat all their asses all at once....but the laughing and the taunting were in the script, so why not. Of course, Danny is losing badly up until the last moment, until Miyagi gives him a word of encourgement, and then Danny snaps out of his stupor and wins......because it was in the script. Yes, it's really as bad as it sounds, but you'll laugh yourself silly, I promise.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Just a few things I would like to say..., 22 April 2007

Author: cambrige_girl

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I thought this movie was...well, how exactly can I describe it? I mean, I laughed about one million times, especially at Terry's totally mad, hyena-like, shrieking laugh. I actually even got a but teary eyed, mainly at when Daniel and Mr Miyagi had any touching moments or when Daniel starting yelling at him, the look on Mr Miyagi's face really got to me. I LOVED this movie and I've watched it many times and I still love it. It's funny, touching and at the end when Daniel and Mr Miyagi hugged, I thought one thing and that was: "YAY!!!" I loved all the different roles and how the characters from the previous movies were brought back and used to start a new story. The fighting was still as excellent as always (kudos to Mr LaRusso) and even the small-ish roles such as Snake (you know it) were lovable and enjoyable to watch. Overall, as I said before, I think this movie was BRILLIANT and I hope that many other people enjoy watching it just as much as I did!

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