An Exercise In Nonsense

A lot of fun.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Phillip Rhee is a great, underrated screen martial artist. Both in reality and on screen, Rhee's techniques look great and the man clearly has an excellent command of martial arts, so why is it that in a movie starring this guy, in a series about martial arts, do we not even seen him fight anyone until about 40 minutes into this one? Now, I'm not saying that an action movie can't have build up and suspense, or it should be all fighting and no plot, but Best of the Best 3 starts the movie off with the heavy subject of violent racism and doesn't dial back from there. With virtually no relation and continuity to the other 2 movies in the series, Best of the Best 3 has only one constant, the character of Rhee's Tommy Lee, who is down South visiting his sister that he's never mentioned (although he does apparently have Indian grandparents and a brother from the second) and has to intervene in the grand plot of a White Supremacist group.Compared to the other 2 Best of the Best movies, which were about fighting tournaments and the comradery between the martial artists on the team, this one is totally Tommy Lee's show, and deals with an intense, sensitive, and serious issue. But it deals with it via motorcycle chases, explosions, and kicking. Even though the film has a good message, the corny acting and dialouge and overall 90's action movie goofiness just doesn't work for the hard hitting subject matter, which is something that deserves serious examination and treatment.It's not to say that the movie doesn't have it's entertaining moments, but whenever you get into some of the action, it draws you right back to the ugly topic it's all based around, but the poor execution makes it hard to enjoy. Overall, Phillip Rhee would've been better off including Eric Roberts, a major character in the other 2 movies in some way, and continuing the story and through line he had established with 1 and 2, which were also cheezy martial arts movies, but stayed within their depth and didn't try to tackle something this hard hitting and real. Since this installments attempts and fails, I have to say it's the worst of The Best of the Best.5 out 10.

Although movie has the quality of Phillip Rhee's movies, somehow the mood doesn't match him. They should have kept the main character a black marine from the gulf war. That would make lot of sense in this movie.Skin heads aren't interesting as far as enemy is concerned. It's obvious that they're no match for the martial arts instructor. And on top of that they're just dumb and below the level of worthy opponent for anyone with Rhee's caliber.So where does this movie fit into the Best of the Best series ? It doesn't.The chemistry between the co-stars aren't as tight either. Rhee just isn't someone from the podocs. He fits in better in the city environment.Watch the other Best of the Best series to really get the best of the best.

Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back starts as martial artist Tommy Lee (co-producer & director Phillip Rhee) arrives in the small town of Liberty where his sister Karen (Anzu Lawson) lives with her husband Jack (Christopher McDonald) who just so happens to be the local Sheriff. Jack informs Tommy about a missing black Reverend named Luhter Phelps (Andra R. Ward) whose Church was burned down, Jack suspects a local group of racist neo-Nazi thugs lead by the vicious Donnie Hansen (Mark Rolston) but no-one in town will testify out of fear so the Sheriff's hands are tied. Hansen & his white power group hate all foreigner's & the Chinese Tommy Lee & his sister Karen are next in line for the racial abuse & violence but Tommy, being a world Karate champ & general brilliant martial artist, fights back. Things become personal as Jack & Karen's kid is kidnapped & the true extent of Hansen's plans become apparent, Hansen wants to start a war between black & white...Directed by & starring Phillip Rhee this is the third entry in the Best of the Best franchise & while it's not as good as Best of the Best 2 (1993) it's better than the weak original Best of the Best (1989). Right, first things first series continuity has gone right out of the window here, for some reason Tommy Lee now refuses to teach martial arts & despite being an only child (after his brother was killed by Dae Han in the original Best of the Best) now magically has a sister, gone is his mate Alex Grady played by Eric Roberts in the previous two & this time he's on his own. In fact Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back has very little to do with the previous two films except that it features Tommy Lee (anyone else think the character was originally meant as a homage to Bruce Lee?). A little bit of research actually reveals that the script was originally written as a stand alone film called No Turning Back about a black soldier returning home & finding his town overrun with racists but Phillip Rhee saw the script & turned it into a Best of the Best film. This is all about racism, the effect of it, the causes of it & Tommy Lee single handedly stopping it. There's no great depth here, the racists are seen as pure scum while the abused are pretty much perfection, the biggest problem with the script is why was Hensen stockpiling so many weapons? What was he going to do with them? Kill all the blacks in his town? The State? The whole of the US? What? There's just no reason for it. Having said that the bad guy's are bad enough, the good guy's get to kick ass & there some decent action once it kicks in during the final thirty odd minutes. A little slow to get going Tommy Lee doesn't doesn't beat up his first racist until after the thirty minute mark but from then on it continues to move along at a nice pace until the action packed climax. Not as deep as some films might have been considering it's touchy racial subject matter but as pure action entertainment then this is worth a watch.The fights are well staged & look impressive, the last thirty minutes are great with lots of shooting, explosions, out of control buses, car & motorbike stunts & a final climatic knife fight between Tommy Lee & Hansen. The violence has been toned down from Best of the Best 2, while still violent it's not that bloody or graphic. All current UK versions are missing about 45 seconds of the attempted rape of Margot, anyone who has this cut shouldn't worry too much as the excised footage is tame & nothing more than Margot being held on a table while someone rips her top off. Set in a small town in the US the picturesque opening credits feature kids playing in fields & fishing & a rickety old school bus picking them up in a really syrupy scene but things soon turn nasty as a Church is burned down.Filmed in Indiana & Ohio this looks nice enough, first time director Rhee does a decent enough job here although the action scenes & fights predictably fare better than the human drama. The acting is alright, Gina Gershon & Dee Wallace-Stone appear as does R. Lee Emery in a small role while Kane Hodder joins Rhee as being the only actor to have appeared in all three Best of the Best films but unlike Rhee as a different character in each although always as a bad guy.Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back tries to mix a hard & emotive issue like racial abuse & tension with mindless martial arts action & is somewhat successful, while not that deep it does entertain on a basic level with some good action scenes during the last thirty minutes. Followed by Best of the Best: Without Warning (1998).

Looking for a martial arts movie with realistic villains? A made-for-TV-movie with a 'theatrical' budget? An ethnic hero whipping some redneck racist butt? Well, you'll find it here, albeit with sub-par results.While the actual fighting in the film is all right (though I've seen better), some of the dialogue and characterizations need re-editing. The acting ranges from passable to 'William Shatner' (especially from the Klan leader - the guy with the goatee). The plot for BOTB3 is shaky - you can easily predict what the racists are going to do next and what the hero is going to do about it. The climax can be described as similar to the average horror/chop-sockey movie: not quite believeable (how can one guy take on 50 (or so) villains - with guns no less?) and devoid of thrills. Oh yeah, that Owen kid (the troubled teen who joins the racist gang) is heavily involved in the climax, and EVERYONE who watches this movie will be able to guess what he does at the end, even if they turn it off half-way.This film is kind of like an episode of 'Walker, Texas Ranger' - tame, predictable, and really not worth bothering with, since there are so many better choices available in your video store.