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 - American IconTerry Silver, president of DynaTox Industries, should be considered a beacon of hope for today's youth. Honorable mentioned should be made for Mr. Silver's sidekick, "Snake." Rating:  - Karate KidKarate Kid Rocks - but theme not quite followed through on. So was a bit dissapointing. But great to see the team together. Rating: - Not Perfect, But... 3 1/2 would probably be more accurate. I think the biggest problem with this movie is not so much the content, as its bad timing. In the excellent Part 1, Daniel had to fight in a tournament to show he could stand up for himself. In the impressive Part 2, the stakes were raised, and Daniel had to fight for his life as well as the life of his friend. Part 3 has the difficult (if not impossible) burden of trying to create a plausible fear in Daniel over fighting in a tournament again after having fought a life and death battle. This movie would have probably done much better if it had been placed between 1 and 2. Moving on, the psychotic, but defanged Kreese goes back to his abandoned dojo and decides his situation is bleak enough to consider some new life. (Despite his psychotic cruelty in Part 1, we are permitted a moment of sympathy for him.) His friend Terry Silver promises revenge on Daniel and Myagi. While Kreese was psychotic, Silver is more of a smiling politician everready to backstab Daniel after winning his trust. Silver's plan is to hire this, for the lack of a better term (jerk) Mike Barnes to bully Daniel into a new tournament so Barnes can beat him publicly. (Kind of weak after the strong plots in parts I and II.) Barnes is REALLY the WEAK LINK in this movie. Unlike Part I's Johnny, Barnes has no redeeming moments to make him human. Unlike Part II's Chozen, Mike Barnes carries no charm. I may also add that we can speculate that Chozen (who Daniel beat in life and death) would have destroyed Barnes. Moving on, Silver's plan is to cause a rift between Myagi and Daniel, train Daniel himself, and watch him fall. Interesting, but there are flaws and questions. Why does Myagi refuse to train Daniel if he is being persued and threatened? Silver may be going against Myagi's training, but Silver is also giving Daniel a brutal edge he could use against Barnes. Without going on too long, Myagi + Daniel reconcile and we see the final conflict between the styles of Silver and Myagi. While III is not perfect, and certainly not as good as I or II, it is actually full of good moments as well as a theme on the corruption of the schools. I may also add that despite its faults, III is still much better than "The Next Karate Kid." Rating:  - A serious review, without sarcasm. This movie is an old favorite.When reading several of the 5 star reviews, somehow I got the feeling I was being conned into thinking this movie was the best ever, or the "reviewer" was being sarcastic. Since I can't give it 3.5 stars, I rounded it up to 4. Realistically, all the KK movies were playing to a younger audience. In my opinion young teens would enjoy them the most. But it doesn't change the fact that the first 3 KK movies were excellent for what they were. The 1st was original and unique. The same formula worked in the first 3, but part 3 was my favorite for many reasons. I first heard about KK3 because my boss's son, Sean Kanan (born Sean Perelman) played Mike Barnes, "Karate's bad-boy" in this installment. I enjoyed the first 2 movies, so I borrowed Part 3 from my boss's brother (Sean's uncle). I was pleasantly surprised with the entire movie. It was very different and real... in the emotional presentation and conflict. Same formula as the first 2. The story was very well crafted and similar to 1 and 2, but different enough that it stands on its own. The acting could have been a bit less cartoonish in some parts from the two dimentional bad guys, but it was the relationship between Miyagi and Daniel, and Daniel and his new female friend, which held the movie together. The new girl in the movie wasn't a love interest. She was only there as a friend, which I really appreciated. They didn't force anything between the two of them. That is something rare in modern movies, for a boy and girl to just share some time together as friends ... in between Daniel's training and getting his butt kicked. But what stole the movie was what was going on between Miyagi and Daniel. Daniel was being bullied by Barnes into entering the All Valley tournament again, and to Daniel it seemed simple enough: enter and fight, win or lose, it was better than getting beat up over and over and over again. But Miyagi's way is to not give in to terrorism, so he refused to train Daniel to fight his new adversary. Miyagi believes that by giving in, those terrorizing you win. But in the end, Miyagi and Daniel see the real reason why Daniel MUST fight this unbeatable opponent. It comes together perfectly... for what it is... a KK movie. I can see most reviewers might be comparing it to some high action or drama movies, which are in a different league than the KK movies. I give Part 1, 4.5 stars. Part 2, 4 stars. And part 3, 3.5 stars... Part 3 gets a lower rating simply because the main bad guy, Silver, acts as if he was plucked out of a bad episode of 60's Batman, playing the role of Riddler. So, laugh at the typical over the top portrayal of Silver, but if you liked the other KK movies, this one wraps up the story of Daniel very well... until someone makes "Daniel LaRusso", Starring an old Macchio, coming out of retirement, still looking like he's 18, just to see if he can win the All Valley one last time. Sorry, I said there would be no sarcasm. I couldn't help it. But seriously, I loved this movie. Rating:  - Use this DVD as a coasterThis is possibly one of the worst films ever made. There's not even the "so bad it's good" pleasure to count on. It's simply a grotesque mishandling of every truth laid down in the first (and quite wonderful) film. It's an ugly movie that basically has our hero Daniel being hounded by an ex-military buddy of Kreese's. They hatch a stupid scheme to get Daniel back for the loss of Kreese's students and school. Daniel is periodically attacked by warped students of the ex-buddy's (his name escapes me, so bad was this thing) who want him to defend his title in the tournament. After much abuse, he agrees, to the chagrin of Mr. Miyagi. They throw in a pseudo love interest (that goes nowhere), Kreese's character, which was very interesting in the first film, has been debased to scary B-movie proportions, and poor Mr. Miyagi is the only one who comes off with any dignity whatsoever. The villain (ex-military buddy) is so boring it isn't even funny (not to mention the actor who plays him is awful). This could have been an interesting film - it has some good potential plot points, such as Daniel turning against the truths laid down by Miyagi and shacking up with the villain. But it squanders them all - more like annihilates them in a nuclear fashion. This could have been a noble film, maybe to the point of having Kreese's character redeemed. Instead it's just a stupid, sordid, complete waste of time - I'd call it a C-film that wants to be a hammy B-film. Terrible. Use this DVD as a coaster, but don't waste your valuable time watching it (unless you use the fast forward button).
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