Although he won an Oscar for directing Rocky (1976), and his original, The Karate Kid (1984) and the sequel, The Karate Kid Part II, went on to gain critical acclaim and $130 million each at the box office, John Avildsen appears to have forgotten how to make film.
The Karate Kid III is an obvious rush job, with a wildly meandering screenplay by Robert Mark Kamen (also a veteran of the previous two karate films) and a fight-scene finale that is as thin as rice paper.
Aimed at a youthful audience with the hopes of, again, instilling the notion of karate as a means of defense and philosophy, The Karate Kid Part III is, instead, a rather vicious melodrama and morality play that will bore most kids silly.
Ralph Macchio, repeating his role of Daniel LaRusso, still holds his title as Valley Karate Champion in a Southern California town. Daniel and his mentor pal, Miyagi, played by Noriyuki "Pat" Morita, have returned from Okinawa, where Kid II concluded.
They discover that their apartment residence is being torn down. They move and decide to open a bonsai tree store. Daniel uses his college education money to secure a lease and put Miyagi into business. Graciously, Miyagi makes Daniel a partner in the little-tree emporium. Yawn.
Enter the villain, a slick-haired, filthy-rich martial arts creep named Terry, played by Thomas Ian Griffith. He is a dear chum of the dreaded dojo master, Kreese, again played by Martin Kove.
Terry sends Kreese to Tahiti for some rest and relaxation and begins to implement a devilish plan to taunt Daniel into entering a karate tournament.
Terry conspires to befriend Daniel, train him in ruthless fighting techniques and then have his golden boy fighter, Mike, played by Sean Kanan, make the kid suffer in competition and nab his title. In return, Mike gets a cut of the dojo action, Kreese gets revenge on Daniel and Miyagi, and Terry gets his pound of flesh.
Whew! You'll be exhausted from all the jabber. And forget any dramatic build- up to a climactic fight-scene ending. The tournament footage lasts barely 10 minutes -- and it's decidedly lackluster at that.
With the exception of Morita's sensitive performance, which, unfortunately, is lost in the shuffle of stilted dialogue and a lame metaphor about Daniel's karate being like "a root of a bonsai tree; when root strong, no matter how tree grows," Kid III is a snoozer.
Macchio gives an annoying and hyperactive performance, while Griffith skulks around and sneers and, sadly, receives no comeuppance for his evil doings. Kove is simply awful.
Prepare to be disappointed; The Karate Kid films have come to a depressing and slipshod end.
THE KARATE KID PART III
Daniel enters a karate tournament against the wishes of his mentor.
Credits: With Ralph Macchio, Noriyuki "Pat" Morita, Thomas Ian Griffith. Directed by John Avildsen. Written by Robert Mark Kamen..
PG - Violence, brutality, coarse language.