Very well executed

Too much of everything

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Ace kickboxer David Sloan (Mitchell) travels to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, along with his trainer/mentor Xian (Chan) for an exhibition bout. When destitute street scamp Marcos (Verduzco) tries to steal his camera, Sloan realizes Marcos and his sister Isabella (Miranda) have a hard life and need some guidance and understanding. So he takes a liking to the two urchins. Meanwhile, Sloan prepares to face off against an evil, ruthless kickboxer named Martine (Jacklin). His manager is Lane (Comar), a criminal who also has his hands in white slavery and prostitution. When Lane and his goons kidnap Isabella, it becomes personal for Sloan, and he, along with Xian and Marcos ("The gringo, the philosopher, and the boy", as their "Machine Gun Joe" character notes) go on a revenge mission to save Isabella and get justice. Will they succeed? We really enjoyed Kickboxer 3. It's a lot more entertaining and fun than you might think. The whole concept of a guy, who, as far as we know, is just a simple kickboxer, going on a dangerous mission and shooting people to save a girl he really just met is just so great. More plots should be like this. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is, but something about Sasha Mitchell is also very appealing. He makes a good lead man. A total change of pace from Van Damme, Mitchell appears to be the ultimate California dude. A cross between Freddie Prinze Jr. and Keanu Reeves, when we first see him in the movie he's wearing red overalls with no shirt. And his outfits just get better from there on in. Plus he has a winning chuckle that really brings you over to his side. And when Lane hatches his nefarious plan to "tire him out" before the big fight, his assistant says, "he's like a machine!" - the fact that he's an indefatigable warrior who is proficient in guns as well as fists, but that he also cares about children, makes you really root for him.Mitchell has some amazing line readings as well...but his wardrobe is quite impressive: he has not just one, but two Benny The Jet shirts. Giving him a counterpart in the clothing department is his wise sensei Xian. Xian is always ready with a learned maxim, such as "clothes don't make a woman beautiful...but it helps!" A movie highlight comes when, in their travels around Rio to get answers, they run into a gay Samba choreographer. For some unknown reason, this guy has goons! In the midst of some sort of Carnival rehearsals, he sics his goons on Sloan, Xian and Marcos! It's nutty ideas like this that move Kickboxer 3 above its seemingly lowly status as a third entry in a series. But let's also remember director Rick King's previous movie before this was Prayer of The Rollerboys (1990). So, there you go.But back to Sloan's true nemesis, Martine, Ian Jacklin doesn't say too many actual lines of dialogue (It's mainly just your classic yells of "RAAAAHHHH!!!), but he's still sufficiently evil. He even taunts his opponents by spontaneously breaking into a dance of "The Running Man". Weirdly, Ian Jacklin, here more than ever, resembles another Ian, Brown. Both the actor/fighter and the singer for The Stone Roses have a distinctly monkey-like face and could be brothers. No insult is intended, it's simply a description. Ian Brown should have gone into acting instead of pursuing a solo career. Then a movie could be made where Keanu Reeves and Sasha Mitchell are brothers, and Ian Jacklin and Ian Brown are brothers. Sadly, it looks like we won't see that imaginary film any time soon.While there is a bit of filler during the "evil training" sequence, Kickboxer 3 provides solid entertainment and is pretty crowd-pleasing. Some of its more absurd moments and ideas help a lot, as does its winning cast, so we can certainly recommend it.

For reasons explained in my review of "Kickboxer 2: The Road Back", I STILL haven't seen the first one.In a wooded area outside Rio de Janeiro,a beautiful girl in a dress that doesn't cover much is being chased by a man who wants to kill her.Meanwhile, kickboxing champ David Sloan and his trainer Xian are on a plane to Rio as David is about to face Argentinian champ Martine.And there is nice music in Frank Lane's restaurant, where it appears wealthy men are being set up with hookers.And where do the hookers come from? There is a large group of young girls in a room, who are shown what could happen to them. Remember the girl who was being chased?In Rio, Marcos and his sister Isabella work together to steal the camera David and Xian brought with them. David chases Marcos and discovers he is one of a large group of kids who are basically homeless, though their shelter is an unfinished hotel. David and Marcos become friends, and David and Xian try to keep Marcos and Isabella safe while working to improve their circumstances.Before the big fight, David participates in an exhibition to benefit the homeless. The people in charge of a fundraiser don't seem to get the irony of treating the very people they are helping as second-class citizens. In an exhibition, no one is supposed to get hurt. Martine doesn't seem to understand that and David gets involved when he sees how Martine's opponent is treated. They will get a rematch.Frank is Martine's manager and he becomes friends with David. But you know he wants something. In Frank's restaurant, there is more good music, this time with a female vocalist, and dancing. Marcos wants to set David up, and he too has a good time dancing. David gets to demonstrate his skills.Eventually, David and Xian must fight, using weapons rather than just their bodies. David also gets a new trainer who is quite brutal compared to Xian. And the outcome of the fight with Martine could have deadly consequences for one of the stars.This film is more of a comedy than the second one, and that's fine with me. Most of the scenes with David and Xian are funny, as are many scenes with Marcos. Even the villains give us some funny lines.In the first film, Sasha Mitchell didn't seem that much like Cody. But he either hadn't played the character yet or hadn't played him very long. In this film, the Cody personality is there from his first line. That's not to say he is always there. Sometimes Mitchell is quite serious and tough. But either playing Cody all those years reduced his IQ or David has been getting hit in the head too much. Since I liked Cody, it was okay with me.Dennis Chan isn't quite as good as in the second movie, in terms of quality, but he is a lot funnier.Noah Verduzco does a very good job as young Marcos, and unlike Joey from the first movie, a similar character, he gets to stay around for the entire movie.One of the villains is in charge of some kind of holiday celebration involving dancing by the locals. They're quite talented.A woman selling some kind of merchandise has only a couple of lines but is very convincing as a real Brazilian.And there's a great fall out of a window. To which David responds, "Now THAT's number seven!"The fighting is good, if you like that sort of thing. It's not nearly as bloody as in the second movie, and in fact this one had a TV-PG rating when I saw it while the other was TV-14. But don't be fooled: this still isn't family fare.It's entertaining enough.

Kickboxer 3: The Art of War (1992)Trades Martial Violence for Mindless GoreIt's not fair to call Kickboxer 3: The Art of War a bad movie, even it is by most measures a very bad movie. It's not meant to be a good movie. It's meant to show off a little kickboxing and a little raw physicality, spiced up with moral justice vigilante style, and fully enhanced with lots and lots of dead people.At first we are on the side of this seemingly peaceable, obviously buff athlete of a dude visiting Rio. He presents himself as above the cheap tricks and meanness of his rough Third World hosts. But when it comes to beating the Third World thugs and their nasty ring of enslaved sex girls, he gets down and dirty--not with kicks and strategy, but with lots of guns, and good old shoot-em-up gore. It's awful, and not very well sequenced. Even a movie like this could give a sense that he would, in fact, not get shot at dozen times first. But he has the protective halo of bad directing by Rick King.Sasha Mitchell as the Kickboxer is what you expect. Though showing no acting genius, it's not his fault the movie struggles around him. How do all these people take such sensational raw material and make it actually a bore? Ha.

I'm taking it from viewing Kickboxer 3 that the filmmakers are running out of ideas. Sasha Mitchell returns as kickboxer David Sloan, who goes to Rio with mentor and gym partner Xian Chow (played again by the wonderfully talented Dennis Chan in sadly his last American film) to compete in a match versus the deadly Eric Martine, played with some mancing velocity by kickboxer Ian Jacklin. Martine's manager Frank (Rich Comar) also runs a teen prostitution ring. Yeah, definitely diminishing. This film is a decent entry in the series and Sasha gets to do his kickboxing here, but the plot of the crime ring...yeah, too much.