The Karate Kid Part III (1989)

Yes, yes, yes, I agree, the story is weak and Larusso is even weaker in this third installment of the Karate Kid where, after winning in a UFC-style match in Karate Kid 2, he somehow becomes afraid like a little kid in the finals against Mike Barnes. As a friend noted, it's like as if Larusso didn't learn anything from Mr Miyagi. However, what I loved about Karate Kid 3 is the Terry Silver character who, despite being twisted and devious, nevertheless shows that karate training could help a person succeed financially in life. In contrast, note how Mr Miyagi, John Kreese and Johnny Lawrence, in the new Youtube series Cobra Kai, were all struggling financially. What good is martial arts if the self-discipline and self-mastery learned do not transfer to real life??? Since Silver was the teacher of Mike Barnes and we know that Barnes is set to return in Season 2 of Cobra Kai, it will be interesting to see if Barnes has indeed become successful in life.

I know the criticism and flack this film has received, and in some ways it's true, but it wasn't all too that bad. I say that because this third movie continues on from the first movie, so the third movie still has some interest. It's clearly the worst of the three films, but most films of any franchise will have the best and worst films – somehow. The interesting thing about Karate Kid Part III is the performance of "Mr Terry Silver" who was the bad guy of this film, and I feel that without his performance, the film would've been a joke. He was actually the main reason why this film was interesting to watch – he played his role perfectly well. I also loved Daniel's new "love interest" who was a perfect partner for him for the most part: her character was really awesome.

By almost accidentally funny, I mean that I believe that Miyagi and Daniel-san seem to be spoofing their first two movie selves. Their behavior here was ridiculous. The serious worldly wisdom, the steady focused and structured mind of Miyagi went out the window. The improved confidence and skills of Daniel also went out the window. Daniel now decided to turn into a whining crybaby. And he seemingly lost a lot of the karate skills he'd previously learned because he let himself be completely overtaken by yellow freakin fear, fear he did not have in the far east when fighting Chozen. Chozen was a tougher, more dangerous karate master enemy than Mike Barnes is in KK3. In KK2, Daniel was actually fighting to the death. He was fighting a real Asian martial arts man, someone much closer to Bruce Lee than Barnes is. In KK3, Daniel is back to just fighting for points with a referee, and he acts three times as whiny and scared as in KK2 and he seems to not know what he's doing anymore karate wise when Barns and his goons are attacking him. Daniel's trainer even tells Daniel the absolute correct message that proves my point "I make wimps into winners, not the other way round!" No joke! What was Daniel's deal here? How did he fall backwards like that? What happened to all of the skills and courage he'd learned? I don't get it!Mr. Miyagi also lost his pearls of wisdom and karate mastery. And for some reason he never explained well, he refused to train Daniel for this movie's tournament. He obviously chose to step aside and to stop trying, and even caring. When Barnes and his pals beat the **** out of Daniel and trash Miyagi s new Bonsai shop, Miyagi chooses to handle it by completely ignoring what happened, singing, and going fishing. If this was supposed to have been some kind of joke from the writers, I wasn't laughing. And then the sweep joke from Miyagi with the broom. I, personally would not even be sure Daniel needed much training for this movie's tournament after defeating Chozen. If he could triumph over Chozen, how did he suddenly turn into such a chicken s*** helpless wimp with Barnes? And Daniel's constant scardy cat whining? Why did he suddenly turn into a complete little p***y b***h!? Then we have a Steven Segal look alike who offers to train Daniel because Miyagi won't. But "Segal" is not really on Daniel's side. He's really with Barnes and he's twofaced with Daniel until near the end of the movie. "Segal" is actually the guy who set Barnes up to go after Daniel to get even with his old friend John Kreese, William Zabka's karate teacher from the first film, for Daniel and Miyagi helping to ruin Kreese's business. Robyn Lively is the girlfriend of this movie, but she was actually more of just a friend and she leaves the movie (moves back to Ohio) before the tournament and the end of the movie. Why? Daniel's girlfriends stayed through til the end in the first two films. And why didn't the cute Asian girl from KK2 come back with Daniel from Asia and be with him here? Simple, because the actress that played her didn't want to sign up for this joke of a movie.

After returning from Japan, Mr. Miyagi & Daniel(Pat Morita & Ralph Macchio again) try to settle in to their lives, only to have old foe John Creese(Martin Kove) return seeking revenge after losing his students, his school, and his money. He turns to grateful Vietnam veteran buddy Terry Silver(Thomas Ian Griffith) to help him regain what he lost, and punish Miyagi and Daniel.A great pity this is such a comic book level script, with over-the-top villainy(at one point, both Creese and Silver laugh at Miyagi & Daniel like they're the Joker and Riddler!) and redundant character development(Did Daniel learn nothing from the first two films?) Only Pat Morita keeps this disappointment from complete ruin, with his fine performance(he looks appropriately weary of it all!) Ending is predictable, but too abrupt, leaving loose ends never tied up.