Ya just gotta ask, "What were they thinking?" The first movie was a classic - a genuine piece of pop culture, and a great "underdog" movie. While the second wasn't as good, it was still a decent movie which expanded on the story of Daniel & Mr. Miyagi. But this one stunk up the joint... first off the new bad guy Terry Silver (the millionaire mogul/karate expert) is laughable as a villain - his performance is *so* over the top it's ridiculous. It's obvious they got someone who knew his karate, but didn't know jack about acting. It's also ironic that he's actually younger than Ralph Macchio
Robyn Lively - she's attractive enough, but belongs in sitcoms. Also, what's with Daniel *never* getting the girl in the long term???
As for Macchio - I don't know... he seemed to be *way* too enthusiastic. Was he this much of a motormouth in the first two movies? It's almost as if he was trying too hard to compensate for the fact that he is five years older, trying to portray a character that is only one year older.
The pacing of this movie is all wrong. They spend way too much time on trivialities such as the Macchio/Lively relationship. What was the point of that anyway? There was hardly any time spent on the training and actual fight (and as any fan of the Rocky movies could tell you, that's the most important part!)
As for the karate itself, it's L A M E. The Karate Kid series has always been more about the philosophy behind martial arts rather than the physical aspect. All of Mr. Miyagi's wise platitudes are dead-on, but the "crane technique" would be easily countered by any half-competent black belt. Even so, it worked in the first two flicks. But in this one, it's just ridiculous. The final fight, the "bad boy of karate" is whipping Daniel like a government mule, then in sudden death Daniel decides to break into his "Secret Miyagi family kata", which causes both his opponent and his partners to suddenly back away in fear! This is so absolutely ridiculous it's pathetic. Once again, any competent karate student would simply look at Daniel with a bit of confusion, then continue on with the business of kicking his butt. It just seemed all too anti-climactic.
I'm really surprised they made a fourth movie after this stinker, but at least it gave us our first look at Hillary Swank. Yum :)
Robyn Lively - she's attractive enough, but belongs in sitcoms. Also, what's with Daniel *never* getting the girl in the long term???
As for Macchio - I don't know... he seemed to be *way* too enthusiastic. Was he this much of a motormouth in the first two movies? It's almost as if he was trying too hard to compensate for the fact that he is five years older, trying to portray a character that is only one year older.
The pacing of this movie is all wrong. They spend way too much time on trivialities such as the Macchio/Lively relationship. What was the point of that anyway? There was hardly any time spent on the training and actual fight (and as any fan of the Rocky movies could tell you, that's the most important part!)
As for the karate itself, it's L A M E. The Karate Kid series has always been more about the philosophy behind martial arts rather than the physical aspect. All of Mr. Miyagi's wise platitudes are dead-on, but the "crane technique" would be easily countered by any half-competent black belt. Even so, it worked in the first two flicks. But in this one, it's just ridiculous. The final fight, the "bad boy of karate" is whipping Daniel like a government mule, then in sudden death Daniel decides to break into his "Secret Miyagi family kata", which causes both his opponent and his partners to suddenly back away in fear! This is so absolutely ridiculous it's pathetic. Once again, any competent karate student would simply look at Daniel with a bit of confusion, then continue on with the business of kicking his butt. It just seemed all too anti-climactic.
I'm really surprised they made a fourth movie after this stinker, but at least it gave us our first look at Hillary Swank. Yum :)