| The Karate Kid III (1989) Cast:Ralph Macchio,Pat Morita,Martin Kove,Thomas Ian Griffith,Sean Kanan,Robyn Lively Daniel "The Karate Kid" LaRusso returns this time to defend his karate championship from Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan) who is nicknamed "Karate's bad boy" and it turns out he's hired by toxic waste dumper (Griffith) who hires Barnes to knock LaRusso around, of course the vendetta this time is because Griffith is upset by the loss and humilation of his friend Kreese (Kove) in this slightly more interesting sequel, the stuff is packed with cliches but it's still far more watchable than Karate Kid # 2. One of the problems faced this time, is Macchio himself. Ralph Macchio of course was hanging on to this franchise by dear life due to his age. (Not only is Macchio older than Kanan but also older than Griffith!)due to his falling fame and this didn't help matters much. (Although it did make money and held good competition with a very big year for movies.) Sadly the series' real energy is in the villains and for that matter it's only when Kanan, Kove and Griffith are around where things spring to life.Morita as usual is solid and provides the movie with it's only real heart, it's just too bad it's wasted on such exhausted material. Indeed the scenes of Macchio and Morita have become trite and the whole mythology surrounding bansai trees is ridiculous. Still if one likes this series, one is bound to find something to like here, just not much. D.John G.Avildsen** |