Karate Kid 3

[granmasterchen]

I sat down the other day and forced myself to watch karate kid 3, i had to foce myself because i detested the first two. The only problem that i have with the karate kid movies is that the actual show of martial arts and acting is just outright terrible, but once i got past that i found that this movie was full of martial arts philosophies from start to finish. Overall i really liked the movie (aside from the martial arts and acting) and due to this I feel that i will have to rewatch the original two again to see if I can find more underlying philosophies in the movies. I just felt like I would post this since for years I have held a strong hatred for the karate kid movies and now I have found myself after years of refusing to watch them that this one at least wasn't that bad. It has probably been close to ten years since i watched any of the movies and i have made great changes in my martial arts outlook since then, so I have a feeling that I will find myself enjoying the whole series now when i get around to watching them.....aside from their true lact of skill and acting of course.

[Fairfax_Uechi]

I sat down the other day and forced myself to watch karate kid 3, i had to foce myself because i detested the first two. The only problem that i have with the karate kid movies is that the actual show of martial arts and acting is just outright terrible, but once i got past that i found that this movie was full of martial arts philosophies from start to finish. Overall i really liked the movie (aside from the martial arts and acting) and due to this I feel that i will have to rewatch the original two again to see if I can find more underlying philosophies in the movies. I just felt like I would post this since for years I have held a strong hatred for the karate kid movies and now I have found myself after years of refusing to watch them that this one at least wasn't that bad. It has probably been close to ten years since i watched any of the movies and i have made great changes in my martial arts outlook since then, so I have a feeling that I will find myself enjoying the whole series now when i get around to watching them.....aside from their true lact of skill and acting of course.

I sort of felt like you did. When they came out, I was not involved in martial arts, and felt that they were just cute kids movies. When I started training I watched them again. The first one wasn't too terrible. Well, after the awful beginning, at least. And some of the techniques I can relate to since Uechi uses circular blocks and wrist strikes, so the wax on/wax off is close to home! The second one was just bad, and the third one I shed tears as the destroyed a beautiful classic Cutlass! (isn't anything valuable anymore!).

I think you're point about martial arts values is great. The one thing the movies do well is show the difference between those who train to be abusive and those who train for the right reasons. Overall, I'd recommend the movies with a grain of salt. Afterall, how many nice movies are made that you can show to your family that are martial arts related. Oh yea, and HBO shows them fairly often.

One other movie that is pretty nice is Bullet Proof Monk. It's not for real small kids but any over 7 or 8 should be fine.

[elbows_and_knees]

karate kid 3 sucked.

However, the first one is one of my all time favorite movies. There are A LOT of martial arts related themes in it. Not only that, but they depict old school point fighting, where you could actually hit someone without getting warned for excessive contact all the time. There were kick catches, leg sweeps... it was a great movie.

[marie curie]

Yes, the KK movies were probably #1 for managing to squeese the most MA philosophies in

[jaymac]

I hated the Karate Kid when I first watched it. Mostly because it took a long time and hard training for me to earn a black belt and this movie made it look easy. However, years of watching it (and why did I keep watching it if I hated it--I don't know) I have actually come to appreciate it somewhat. It did alot for martial arts. The increase in MA interest among children, teens, and adults alike was huge after that first movie. For years also, I think there was somewhat of a negative image regarding MA, and I kind of think those movies helped clear that up.

[glockmeister]

The thing I hated about those movies was the kid got his butt handed to him throughout the whole movie only to come bakc at the last second of a match and win. I thought #2 was a little better because at leats he put up a heck of a fight with that Okinawan kid in the end, but usually, his other movies he's just getting knocked around, and his sensai has to keep showing up and bailing him out of trouble. Also, I never cared much for Ralph Machio, add to the fact that the people who make those movies gave him horrible scripts.

[Ironberg]

I enjoyed KK when I was younger. Now that I know better, I'm not crazy about the whole shlamock.

[elbows_and_knees]

The thing I hated about those movies was the kid got his butt handed to him throughout the whole movie only to come bakc at the last second of a match and win.

you just described almost every action movie ever made...

I thought #2 was a little better because at leats he put up a heck of a fight with that Okinawan kid in the end, but usually, his other movies he's just getting knocked around, and his sensai has to keep showing up and bailing him out of trouble. Also, I never cared much for Ralph Machio, add to the fact that the people who make those movies gave him horrible scripts.

In the first one, he kicked butt the whole tournament. He didn't start losing until the match with johnny, and the main thing there was that bobby kicked his knee.

[granmasterchen]

i think (rewatching it now) that it is a very good representation of martial artists when they first start out in the martial arts lifestyle......BUT the movie portrays him as a black belt....and whenever we see a black belt in a movie, especially during that time frame it sybolized a MASTER.....so we this "master" getting beat up and making the dumbest decisions in the world.....i swear he's an idiot.....i wonder how many times miyagi just shook his head in wonder of his incredibly dumb..."master" student....oh well. I still like the ideas though....but everything else about the movie is just hard to watch, lol

[battousai16]

man, the third one was mostly awsome because of the cartoonishly evil villians. that scene where they reveal their overly elaborate death conspiracy scheme (in true batman villain fashion) and trap danny in the dojo, only miyagi comes in at the last second and takes them all down is one of my favorites in cinema history. gets me every time...