The Karate Kid Part III (original) (raw)

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1989 American martial arts drama film

The Karate Kid Part III
Theatrical release poster
Directed by John G. Avildsen
Written by Robert Mark Kamen
Based on Characters createdby Robert Mark Kamen
Produced by Jerry Weintraub
Starring Ralph Macchio Noriyuki "Pat" Morita
Cinematography Steve Yaconelli
Edited by John G. Avildsen John Carter
Music by Bill Conti
Productioncompany Columbia Pictures[1]
Distributed by Columbia Pictures[1]
Release date June 30, 1989 (1989-06-30) (U.S.)
Running time 111 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $12.5 million[2]
Box office $38.9 million[3]

The Karate Kid Part III is a 1989 American martial arts drama film, the third entry in the Karate Kid franchise and a sequel to The Karate Kid Part II (1986). It stars Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, Robyn Lively, and Thomas Ian Griffith in his film debut. As was the case with the first two films in the series, it was directed by John G. Avildsen and written by Robert Mark Kamen, with stunts choreographed by Pat E. Johnson and music composed by Bill Conti. In the film, the returning John Kreese, with the help of his former army friend Terry Silver, attempts to gain revenge on Daniel and Mr. Miyagi which involves recruiting a ruthless martial artist and harming their relationship.

Though moderately successful at the box office, The Karate Kid Part III received generally negative reviews, with criticism aimed at its rehashing of elements found in its two predecessors, though Griffith's performance as Silver received praise from some critics. It was followed by The Next Karate Kid in 1994.

John Kreese is broke and destitute.[a] He visits Terry Silver, a fellow Green Beret who has become a toxic chemical magnate. Silver vows to personally help him re-establish Cobra Kai, while getting revenge on Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi. After sending Kreese to Tahiti for a vacation, Silver hires national karate champion Mike Barnes — known for his vicious personality and utter lack of sportsmanship — to challenge Daniel at the next All-Valley Tournament.

Returning to Los Angeles from Okinawa, Daniel and Miyagi discover that the South Seas apartment complex has been sold and demolished; this leaves Miyagi unemployed and Daniel homeless. With Daniel's mother Lucille nursing an ill uncle back in New Jersey, Daniel moves in with Miyagi.

Daniel uses his college funds to finance a bonsai shop for Miyagi, who gratefully makes him a partner in the business. Visiting a pottery store across the street, Daniel befriends the sole employee: Jessica Andrews, whose aunt owns the store. Jessica agrees to a date that same night, during which he learns that she is visiting from Columbus, Ohio, where she already has a boyfriend. She and Daniel remain cordial, (meaning that Jessica and Daniel remain no more than just friends).

While Miyagi introduces Daniel to kata training, Silver introduces himself to them, mentioning that he and Kreese were stationed together in South Korea during the Vietnam War. Silver announces that Kreese has passed away and apologizes on his behalf.

Accompanied by Silver's goons Dennis and Snake, Barnes repeatedly harasses Daniel and Jessica. They wreck Miyagi's shop, and steal his entire stock of bonsai trees. Daniel decides to dig up and sell a valuable bonsai, which Miyagi brought from Okinawa, in order to replace the missing trees.

Barnes and his two henchmen appear. They force Daniel to sign up for the tournament, by trapping him and Jessica at the bottom of a cliff. Daniel accepts Silver's offer to train him for the All-Valley, after Miyagi refuses to do so on principle.

At the Cobra Kai dojo, Daniel is subjected to a brutal training regimen which takes a massive physical and emotional toll on him, while further alienating him from Miyagi. This culminates in a now-aggressive Daniel attacking a stranger, who was bribed by Silver to provoke him. Disturbed by his own actions, Daniel makes amends with Jessica as she prepares to go home. She encourages him to patch things up with Miyagi, which he does.

Returning to the Cobra Kai dojo, Daniel informs Silver that he's changed his mind about competing in the All-Valley. Silver discards his ruse and brings out Barnes to attack him, whose escape is blocked by Kreese as Daniel tries to leave. Miyagi arrives; he effortlessly defeats Barnes, Kreese, and Silver, then agrees to train Daniel for the All-Valley Tournament.

On the day of the tournament, Silver reveals his plan to re-establish Cobra Kai as a business franchise. In the finals, Silver has Barnes torture Daniel by alternately scoring points and losing them via illegal strikes. The match ends in a draw, necessitating sudden death overtime.

Severely pummeled, an uncharacteristically-fearful Daniel wants to quit, until Miyagi insists that Daniel's best karate is still inside him. He perseveres and performs the kata. Daniel scores on Barnes to win the All-Valley, foiling Silver's revival of Cobra Kai.[b]

Robert Mark Kamen had originally wanted The Karate Kid Part III to be a prequel with the two main leads still involved. The original plot would have involved Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi traveling to 16th century China in a dream and meeting Miyagi's ancestors.[4][5] Kamen envisioned the sequel to resemble a Hong Kong-style Wuxia film and would also have a female protagonist.[5] However, the producers balked at the idea and Kamen was reluctant on rehashing "the same story all over again"; he only returned after the studio agreed to pay him substantially more.[4]

After Robyn Lively was cast as Jessica Andrews in The Karate Kid Part III in 1988, producers were forced to modify her role of protagonist Daniel LaRusso's new love interest because Lively was only 16 at the time of filming and still a minor, while Ralph Macchio was 27 (although his character Daniel is 17). This situation caused romantic scenes between Jessica and Daniel to be rewritten so that the pair only developed a close friendship.[6] Although he plays a Vietnam veteran who is roughly 20 years older than Daniel, Thomas Ian Griffith is actually a few months younger than Macchio.[7]

John Kreese was initially intended to have a larger role in the film, but due to Martin Kove's filming schedule conflicts with Hard Time on Planet Earth, the character of Terry Silver was written into the script.[8]

The film featured the same crew from the first two films, except for two key people: executive producer R.J. Louis, who was replaced by Sheldon Schrager, and cinematographer James Crabe, who was forced to pull out due to the AIDS virus making him severely ill at the time, was replaced by Steve Yaconelli. On May 2, 1989, Crabe died from AIDS at the age of 57; the film was dedicated to his memory.

The film was released in the United States on June 30, 1989. In the Philippines, the film was released on September 6.[9]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 15% based on 33 reviews and an average rating of 3.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Inspiration is in short supply in this third Karate Kid film, which recycles the basic narrative from its predecessors but adds scenery-chewing performances and a surprising amount of violence".[10] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[11] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.[12]

Roger Ebert, who praised the first two films, did not enjoy Part III.[13] His colleague, Gene Siskel, also did not recommend the film, though he commended the performance of Thomas Ian Griffith, which he thought was nearly enough to save it.[14] Critic Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times stated that "writer Robert Mark Kamen gave director Avildsen and his cast too little to work with".[15]

Caryn James of The New York Times was critical of the lack of character development for the film's protagonist, saying that he "has aged about a year in movie time and hasn't become a day smarter" and criticized the film for having "the rote sense of film makers trying to crank out another moneymaker".[16]

A 2008 DVD review of the film from Scott Weinberg of the website JoBlo said it was the installment of the series "where the wheels started to come off", remarking that it "approaches the Karate Kid formula as if it's the world's last home-cooked meatloaf", deriding the "cartoonishness" of the villains, and saying that "it all feels cynical and hollow...which is NOT the vibe we still get from Part 1".[17] Reviewing a 2001 UK DVD of the film, Almar Haflidason of the BBC praised the disc's picture and sound quality, but dismissed the film as a "desperate continuation of The Karate Kid franchise [which] shudders to a pathetic halt" and criticized its loss of "any warmth of the previous two films".[18]

In 2015, director John G. Avildsen called the film "a horrible imitation of the original...hastily written and sloppily rewritten",[19] adding that it "will baffle those who haven't seen the first two (movies) and insult those who have".[20] Ralph Macchio was also disappointed with the film, stating that he "just felt for the LaRusso character; he never seemed to go forward", and that when doing The Karate Kid Part III it "felt like we were redoing the first movie as a sort of cartoon, without the heart and soul which sold the original. It didn't help that we had characters mysteriously popping up for the sake of dramatic convenience."[21]

The Karate Kid Part III was nominated for 5 Razzies at the 1989 Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Picture (Jerry Weintraub); Worst Screenplay (Robert Mark Kamen); Worst Director (John G. Avildsen); Worst Actor (Macchio) and Worst Supporting Actor (Pat Morita).

  1. ^ This story takes place after the events of The Karate Kid and The Karate Kid Part II.

  2. ^ In the first season of Cobra Kai it is revealed that the actions of Cobra Kai in the All-Valley Tournament earned the dojo a lifetime ban from participating in future tournaments.

  3. ^ a b c "The Karate Kid Part III". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Archived from the original on June 14, 2017. Retrieved July 9, 2017.

  4. ^ "The Karate Kid Part III (1989)". December 30, 2016. Archived from the original on May 25, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2020.

  5. ^ "The Karate Kid Movies at the Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on June 15, 2019. Retrieved May 8, 2016.

  6. ^ a b "What was the original plot of The Karate Kid Part III?". 2012. Archived from the original on January 1, 2021. Retrieved December 22, 2020.

  7. ^ a b "The Karate Kid Part III We'll Never See". December 30, 2021. Archived from the original on January 3, 2022. Retrieved January 3, 2022.

  8. ^ Below the Belt Show (October 25, 2017). "Below the Belt Show: Interview: Actress Robyn Lively from Teen Witch and Karate Kid III (10/25/17)". Player FM. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2019.

  9. ^ Adey, Oliver (January 7, 2022). "Cobra Kai Season 4: Terry Silver and Daniel LaRusso really are that old". Archived from the original on September 15, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.

  10. ^ "Karate Kid & Cobra Kai Stars William Zabka & Martin Kove at Niagara Falls Comic Con 2019". YouTube. Convention Junkies. June 9, 2019. Event occurs at 17:16. Archived from the original on October 24, 2021. Retrieved November 20, 2019.

  11. ^ "Grand Opening Today". Manila Standard. Kagitingan Publications, Inc. September 6, 1989. p. 26. Archived from the original on January 8, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.

  12. ^ "The Karate Kid Part III (1989)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on August 10, 2022. Retrieved June 10, 2022.

  13. ^ "The Karate Kid Part III Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on January 9, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2020.

  14. ^ "Find CinemaScore" (Type "Karate Kid" in the search box). CinemaScore. Archived from the original on January 2, 2018. Retrieved September 2, 2020.

  15. ^ Ebert, Roger (June 30, 1989). "The Karate Kid Part III Movie Review (1989)". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Archived from the original on September 17, 2020. Retrieved September 5, 2020.

  16. ^ "Siskelandebert.org Is For Sale". siskelandebert.org. Archived from the original on May 3, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2017.

  17. ^ Thomas, Kevin (June 30, 1989). "Movie Review: An Anemic Outing for 'Karate Kid Part III'". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 26, 2019. Retrieved November 25, 2010.

  18. ^ James, Caryn (June 30, 1989). "Review/Film; 'Karate Kid' Enters Round 3". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 22, 2014. Retrieved May 21, 2010.

  19. ^ "The Karate Kid Collection | DVD Reviews". JoBlo. Archived from the original on January 17, 2008. Retrieved July 2, 2020.

  20. ^ Almar Haflidason. "Films - review - The Karate Kid Part III DVD". BBC. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved May 8, 2016.

  21. ^ "10 Things You Didn't Know About Karate Kid 3". YouTube. September 15, 2020. Retrieved May 20, 2022.

  22. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Karate Kid Q&A W/Director John G Avildsen & Cast Part 2". YouTube. December 4, 2015.

  23. ^ "The Reason Ralph Macchio Disliked One of the Karate Kid Films". February 2, 2021. Archived from the original on October 8, 2021. Retrieved October 8, 2021.