The Karate Kid Part III (1989)

Directed by John G. Avildsen. Starring Ralph Macchio, Noriyuki “Pat” Morita, Thomas Ian Griffith, Robyn Lively, Martin Kove, Sean Kanan, Jonathan Avildsen, Randee Heller. [PG]

Anemic third outing in the Karate Kid franchise is waxing a dead horse on and off. Sequels continue to be the bane of poor Daniel-san’s love life—he’s dumped offscreen again by his previous girlfriend, and is “friend-zoned” almost immediately by the next girl he meets (who disappears from the movie before the climax)—and now his friendship with Mr. Miyagi is being tested when the old mentor declines to train him when the “kid” is forced to defend his All-Valley Karate Tournament title. Long before Peter Parker “went emo” in a different feeble third chapter (Spider-Man 3), Daniel-san gets seduced by the dark side of karate, as represented by cartoonish villain Griffith (heard in his first scene griping about how he’s not allowed to dump toxic waste wherever he wants to, lest the audience miss out on all the other subtle clues that he’s a bad guy), who’s “secretly” working with the disgraced sensei (Kove) from the original film. Miyagi’s fortune-cookie wisdom is stale by now, Daniel-san’s petulance is overheated (especially since Macchio is too old for the role anymore, so he comes off like a whiny adult), and the filmmakers deprive us of seeing Miyagi’s bonsai tree shop ever open for business. Earnest optimism replaced by cynical obligation—don’t enter this dojo. Dedicated to James Craben, the director of photography for the earlier movies who passed away from AIDS complications before the film’s release.

34/100