Siskel & Ebert - The Karate Kid Part III (1989)

Siskel and Ebert reviews an American martial-arts drama film, "The Karate Kid Part III", starring Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, Robyn Lively, and Thomas Ian Griffith in June 30, 1989. It is a third installment to the first two films, "The Karate Kid", and "The Karate Kid Part II". Both of them gave the movie thumbs down and found it to be rehashing of elements in the former two movies, including a tournament against Cobra Kai and a romance side-story, a surprising amount of violence, and criticized the character of Daniel LaRusso as a downer. Though, Gene liked the performance of Thomas Ian Griffith as Terry Silver, which he thought was nearly enough to save it. But to me, to be honest, I kind of liked this movie a little bit. I actually do care about Daniel. It's not as bad as they said it was, it's just an enjoyable as a guilty pleasure. Thumbs up for me on "The Karate Kid Part III".
The Karate Kid Part III (1989) 3/4 👍
#siskelandebert #thekaratekidpart3 #thekaratekidpart31989
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[@YD-uq5fi]

Based on this, Siskel and Ebert would have loved Cobra Kai, even if it is a TV show.

[@patrickorourke41]

Could not agree more with Siskel. Terry silver is an amazing villain!!

[@JaxonSmithers]

He's better in Cobra Kai though, scary guy.

[@DMac4214]

Terrys a great villain but this movie is bad.

[@frankdodd3355]

I like how they both basically praise Terry Silver. I always loved him and he is easily the best thing in the film. Ebert said of Nicolas Cage that he "is a good actor in good films, and an almost indispensable actor in bad ones". That is totally true, and I think in this film (hardly a bad film but a dull, mildly entertaining one) Thomas Ian Griffith is that: indispensable. He's ridiculous and hilarious and occasionally reigns in the craziness to put up a reasonable façade to hide his manic glee. But in the end he's entertaining and menacing as hell, and he elevates this film. He's the only reason I'd ever return to it.

[@Nick64266]

Definitely agree. The film on its own is not bad but nowhere near as entertaining as the first two. But man does Silver elevate the film! Probably the best villain in the whole series

[@23ofSeptember]

If Ebert had been a director, I don't think his movies would have had much violence.

[@abonny]

Three years later: Have you seen the movie "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" written by Roger Ebert? A woman gets a gun stuck in her mouth and her brains blown out and a man is decapitated with a sword. The movie is also FILLED with naked and half-naked women. That's Roger Ebert for you.

[@adamrobinette6832]

Well and what made it rough was I found Daniel impossible to cheer for. He was insufferably whiny. He literally forgot every ounce of karate Miyagi taught him somehow, as he won a fight to the death in Karate Kid II, to come back and just be beaten up all movie long. As awful as Mike is, it's hard to cheer for Daniel at the end, when Mike fights all day, Daniel has to fight once, Mike carries him for the whole three minutes, and Daniel wins the WHOLE tournament, with a some kata, a single flip and a chop. Daniel didn't DESERVE the ending, when if not for Miyagi yelling at him to stop complaining and whining, and Mike not carrying out Silver's orders, Mike would have been champ in about 15 seconds. In the first one, Daniel showed Johnny he was the better man that day, beating all of his friends, fighting on one good leg in the final match, fending Johnny's best and relentless attacks, still getting points, and finally winning with something Johnny never saw before. It showed pure guts and determination. Daniel had none of that in the third movie. He had to be blackmailed into it, and then fought like he didn't want to be there in the only match he needed to fight.

[@Ramenshea83]

Cobra kai writers will make this movie look good. They can show the relationship between silver and Kreese, even have Daniel talk about why he was scared of Barnes , maybe the Chozen fight to the death weakened Daniel , stuff like that.

[@michaelreardon303]

Truer words have not been spoken

[@nongthip]

Have seen an interview where Ralph Macchio said something like the first two were good but #3 kinda sucked, to which we can all agree ;-) The main takeaway from the third movie is Daniel has gotten fat and is even way more of a crybaby than before, and that the Terry Silver character is both hilarious and ridiculous. Otherwise it's just a very predictable formulaic plotline that we had already seen before. But Pat Morita was excellent as always. RIP Mr. Miyagi.

[@Dim4323]

Guess daniel had to much food at Okinawa

[@thespaceram2879]

Part 3 was still good.

[@joejacobs3537]

Mike Barnes was the most interesting character on this film..He was cool

[@DMac4214]

Terry and Mike were the best parts imo lol

[@jainee4507]

At least Siskel gave credit to Terry Silver. He was easily the best thing about this movie.

[@EvaSlayAllDay334]

They don’t get it. The three films Daniel learns defense, not offense. The films teach viewers to use violence as a last resort - but to stand up to your bully and your fears and use what was taught to you.

[@DMac4214]

Part lll was just a semi rehash bro.

[@jedidiah.j.decena]

RIP ❤❤❤

[@shaunkenneally7597]

I miss Siskel and Ebert

[@QoQabai658]

I don't.

[@Aurora-nh8dr]

@@QoQabai658 why?

[@jameswilliams-zr8co]

@@QoQabai658 yes you do kid lol

[@patrickmichael3384]

The worst of the sequels with Ralph Macchio no doubt, but the remake from 2010 was THE worst. I would’ve liked to have seen either a Miyagi exclusive movie or a Karate Kid-ish bonsai movie; as bonsai seems to be one dominant theme of this movie. Either of those I think (and this is only MY opinion) would’ve been better than this or the later 2 after this.

[@anthonycoscia5501]

I love this movie. Ralph-Macchiato, could have done a much better performance. That is true. And Robyn Lively was just there for no reason. I mean...She didn’t help or hurt the story. Beyond those two-factors, I loved the movie.

[@roostermcscratch9060]

“Ralph-Macchiato?” 😂 The coffee kid

[@Moviefan2k4]

Robyn's character was originally meant to be Daniel's new girlfriend, but Ralph Macchio had recently gotten married at the time, and didn't want to disrespect his wife. So as a result, Robyn's role was demoted.

[@YD-uq5fi]

@@Moviefan2k4 Plus Robyn Lively was just 16 and Macchio was 25.

[@MovieLover1995]

This wasn't a good sequel, though it wasn't really a bad sequel either. It was just okay.

[@joeyankee4281]

I like it better than the 2nd

[@Peppers19781978]

The first two are great, 3rd movie is fine but Daniel goes through everything in Part 2 and then in Part 3 is a cowardly wimp again. Made no sense. It recycles the Johnny Lawrence character with bully Mike Barnes. I liked Terry Silver despite being over the top at times and btw Thomas Ian Griffith is a year younger than Ralph Macchio yet is supposed to be the same age as John Kreese...who is far older. Of course regardless of it's flaws it is far better than The Next Karate Kid.

[@MovieLover1995]

The Next Karate Kid was a completely pointless waste of time.

[@noahstewart5054]

I really don't think it's true. I like "The Next Karate Kid", and I thought it was really enjoyable.

[@brianshoman1723]

This movie came into being in a time when Hollywood had this idea that if a movie makes a lot of money the best thing to do is to make a sequel to that movie. It has no other reason for existence, the character development is zero, the script is substandard and the plot is boring...makes me miss the first two.

[@andrewcutler1380]

That time is still happening today in 2021

[@thespaceram2879]

I like the whole trilogy and I still do. Even if you both just like the first one.

[@timothygrant7266]

Don't remember much about this, and I think that's for the best.

[@JoeBuck207]

The Karate Kid 3 was very entertaining.

[@DerekBoldiene360]

Would I recommend this movie maybe not. That being said there were 2 things I liked about this movie the most. Thomas Ian Griffith was tremendous in this movie. Will also say I had the best Mr. Miyagi fight in my opinion.

[@natejamesr1081]

This movie got the MST3K treatment on Mike Nelson's new show, Riffrax. They made a few jokes on Ralph Macchio's obvious weight gain. The scene where he talks about eating macaroni and cheese "by the ton" Mike goes "Yeah, we can tell!"

[@ronaldshank7589]

Girlfriend? They were only friends... and nothing more. You know that you're off to a bad start, when the movie reviewers can't even get their facts straight! I declare, it's as if they got some information on this movie from another source, and decided to copy it, or something.

[@navylaks2]

I honestly thought that Terry Silver was overacted

[@joeblough261]

Okay, WTF is up with these two (especially Ebert) not pronouncing Miyagi properly? Dozens of us wrote about it on their KK2 review, and here, 3 years later and the 3rd freaking film, and Ebert fucks it up over and over. I love Ebert but I want to smash him every time I hear "Miya-jee", especially since the 1st movie and the mailman scene of part 2 all include the running gag of everyone mispronouncing it. Ridiculous, especially for a character they claim to love, and who by 1989 was firmly entrenched as one of the great film characters of all time. Now I have to watch the review for the original and see if they did it there....

[@Ghosthead83]

Yeah Ebert wouldn't it be fun if they solved their problems at the end of the movie with a heart to heart? Lmfao