Kickboxer 3: The Art of War

Maybe it's because I don't have too much expectation when I approach the 'Kickboxer' series but I have to say that I find all of these movies enjoyable, all things considered. This third instalment is set in Rio which does add a dash of exotic flavour to proceedings. In it, our Kickboxing champion, David Sloan, arrives in Brazil for a competition but soon becomes involved with rescuing a girl from a sex slave racket.

Apart from the South American setting, what sets this one apart from the other previous entries in the series is that we now have the kickboxer going around shooting people. The introduction of guns into the mix gives this instalment more of a standard action-thriller feel. There are a few fights but the martial arts side of the story is definitely more marginalised in this one. Sasha Mitchell does have a dopey and personable charm in the lead role; while everyone else does what's expected of them. It moves at a fast pace, it doesn't have any surprises but its good straightforward fun.

This is actually my favorite "Kickboxer" movie of all the follow ups. This movie is actually lighter and a little easier on the nerves with the distracting and beautiful backdrop of Rio De Janeiro Brazil.

Sasha Mitchell expertly reprises his role of David Sloan as only he can and I was very happy to see a repeat performance by Dennis Chan as Xian.

The action is good in this movie and the story well written. The dialogue flows and the characters(down to even the most minute ones) work well together to make this a well rounded, well thought out and easy to watch movie.

Sasha Mitchell's character of David Sloan is also more believable in this movie and it is easy to see him as "human" instead of just a "kick ass machine" like he is normally portrayed. I enjoyed getting to see the more human side of him and he displays his great sense of humor (however so subtly, but effectively)in numerous places throughout the movie.

Dennis Chan and Sasha Mitchell are a wonderful compliment to each other and are believable in their characters. I wish they could have made more movies together.

I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes good action, beautiful locale and good flow in a movie.

Champion kickboxer David Sloan (Sasha Mitchell) and his man Xian (Dennis Chan) travel to Rio for a kickboxing exhibition and a payday. He is set to fight villainous Eric Martine next week in Argentina for the championship. Street kids, Marcos and his sister Isabella, try to steal David's camera. David turns around to befriend them. Martine's manager Frank Lane (Richard Comar) enslaves girls to work at his compound and he kidnaps Isabella.

This is not bad for a second sequel to a B-movie without the franchise's big name star. At least, it's not that bad for the first half. I like Rio. I like the kid. I like Sloan and Xian. I like this until Sloan goes get the guns. The movie misses an opportunity when Frank gets them out of jail. Right there and then, he could make them an offer they couldn't refuse. In exchange for Isabella, he forces Sloan to fight in his private tournament where he can make a bundle with his clients in attendance. After a series of grueling fights, Sloan would do the big climatic fight against Martine. Sasha Mitchell is a pretty good actor with good charms and functional fighting. This is almost good.

David Sloan and his trainer Xian arrives in Buenos Aires for a kickboxing tournament. Once there they befriend a young boy and his sister living on the streets. When the promoter of David's championship rival turns out to be a pimp the boy's sister is stolen away due to the value of virgins. David is held captive by the pimp, Lane and is forced to do heavy work weakening his body. Can David stay focused in order to free the girl and win his fight? This should be called "Kickboxer 3 - so very lame". It should never be a series anyway! Clue to a poor series of films - if Jean Claude Van Damme bails after the first one! The plot here is lazy - it paints it's bad guys big and tries to set up a fight every so often to make it interesting. There's no characters and it's even hard to care about the children. You don't believe that any of the good guys could get hurt, so you don't care what they get into.

The performances are pretty bad, the street boy is good but Sasha Mitchell acts like a spoilt kid from LA. With his clothes and tattoos he looks a bit like a clean-cut Eminem. Dennis Chan is supposed to give comic relief as Xian, however he misses the mark most of the time and comes off looking like a low-rent Mr Miyagi from the Karate Kid series. Comar is a terrible bad guy - unbelievable and unsympathetic to the end, while Sloan's championship challenger is your standard mad, bad guy fare.

The fights are ok I guess - standard kickboxing stuff, but they are what the film is all about, and as such they should be great! They not - which I guess means the film fails on the most basic level. Overall a pretty poor film that doesn't even reach the low standard it set for itself.

Sasha Mitchell reprises his role as David Sloan who has since # 2 become a bona-fide kickboxing champion who flies to Rio to compete to defend his championship however along the way he decides to take down a prostitution racket and does so without hardly breaking a sweat. Did I give away too much by the last sentence? Well let's just say that this predictable sequel is a marginal improvement over # 2. This time there is more attractive scenery, more action and more plot than # 2, which was irritatingly straight forward.) That being said the movie is still hugely flawed. The main problem dealing with the fact that K3 has little kickboxing. Indeed the fight sequence at the end as well as the opponent could've easily been written out and it wouldn't have changed a thing. Mitchell and Chan rely on more guns and while this element works for action fans, the lack of training montage and fights make this a tepid effort.

* * out of 4-(Fair)