But we didn’t expect his episode 3 appearance to portray him as reformed into a furniture salesman. In the season 4 finale, Silver teased the return of Barnes with a parting shot to Kreese “I’m sure I can dig up an old friend or two to help out with Cobra Kai while you deal with your legal problems.” With that, we all knew Barnes was coming soon. “Thank God I said, ‘I was on cocaine back then.’ Because how do you explain that?” says Griffith. And the previous over-the-top villainy from the film is easily explained away with one line in Cobra Kai. Silver emerges from being a subservient Sensei, roped back into the martial arts by his old war veteran buddy, into a truly despicable character. In the finale of Cobra Kai season 4, the reveal of Silver’s true intentions with his double crossing of Kreese was another brilliant Cobra Kai twist. It also relieves the pressure of wedging a superfluous romance story arc into a redundant martial arts tale. Unlike LaRusso’s previous two romances (both Ali and Kumiko were way out of LaRusso’s league), LaRusso’s friendship with Andrews feels genuine. So, despite its undeveloped characters and weak storyline, The Karate Kid Part III has the best martial arts demonstrations of the trilogy.Īnd the LaRusso-Andrews platonic relationship is kind of charming. “I started martial arts as a kid to get out of trouble,” says Griffith, “and has been my ‘go-to’ my whole life.” Griffith started Taekwondo when he was 18 and Kanan began Shotokan Karate and kickboxing when he was 13. In contrast, both Griffith and Kanan were lifelong practitioners. Consequently, LaRusso has a physical awkwardness, but that only amplifies his underdog status. Macchio had not studied any martial arts prior to getting the role and it shows. In many ways, that was part of the charm of Daniel LaRusso. Although The Karate Kid is such a groundbreaking martial arts franchise, until Part III it actually had mediocre martial arts. Subscribe Why Karate Kid Part III Succeedsĭespite their mawkish roles, Griffith and Kanan brought something new to the franchise – real martial arts. Uncomfortable with that arrangement, the script was rewritten so Jessica was only a good friend. But at the time of filming, Lively was only 16 and Macchio was 27 (although his character LaRusso was 18). Robyn Lively was cast as Jessica Andrews, who was originally intended to be LaRusso’s third love interest after Ali (Elisabeth Shue) and Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita). On top of cliche villains, hackneyed plot, and set accidents, there were other issues to contend with. He was rushed to the ER where the surgeons were barely able to save his life. He suffered internal bleeding from a ruptured connective membrane and collapsed four days after the shoot. What’s more, Kanan almost died while filming an action scene. Silver enlists “Karate’s Bad Boy” Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan), another cookie-cutter villain, and together, the pair terrorize poor hapless Daniel-san in completely psychotic ways. The entitled inheritor of a sketchy toxic waste disposal company called DynaTox, Silver hatches his evil plots against Daniel-san as he soaks in a bubble bath, smoking a cigar. Silver is indeed a caricature of a baddie replete with stereotypical “bwahahaha” laughs. “Robert came in thinking he had to create a villain badder than Kreese. “When I read the script, it’s like, they were rewriting it because they had lost Kreese…” recalls Griffith to Den of Geek. Kreese is unceremoniously sent off to Tahiti by the new villain who supplants him, Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith). Why Karate Kid Part III SucksĪmong the many issues that ruined Part III was the loss of Sensei Kreese (Martin Kove) as a main villain. Is Macchio (and mostly everyone else’s) estimation of Karate Kid III a fair one? And if so, is there any chance that the Karate Kid III-centric Cobra Kai season 5 redeems it? Let’s discuss.
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