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Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back (1995) Online

Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back (1995) Online
Original Title :
Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back
Genre :
Movie / Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller
Year :
1995
Directror :
Phillip Rhee
Cast :
Phillip Rhee,Christopher McDonald,Gina Gershon
Writer :
Barry Gray,Deborah Scott
Type :
Movie
Time :
1h 30min
Rating :
4.8/10
Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back (1995) Online

A martial arts instructor comes to the defense of a schoolteacher who has taken a stand against a local white supremacist organization.
Cast overview, first billed only:
Phillip Rhee Phillip Rhee - Tommy Lee
Christopher McDonald Christopher McDonald - Sheriff Jack Banning
Gina Gershon Gina Gershon - Margo Preston
Mark Rolston Mark Rolston - Donnie Hansen
Peter Simmons Peter Simmons - Owen Tucker
Anzu Lawson Anzu Lawson - Karen Banning (as Cristina Anzu Lawson)
Dee Wallace Dee Wallace - Georgia (as Dee Wallace-Stone)
Michael Bailey Smith Michael Bailey Smith - Tiny
Justin Brentley Justin Brentley - Luther Phelps Jr.
Andra R. Ward Andra R. Ward - Rev. Luther Phelps Sr.
Barbara Boyd Barbara Boyd - Isabel Jackson
Kitao Sakurai Kitao Sakurai - Justin Banning
Cole S. McKay Cole S. McKay - Bo (as Cole McKay)
Steve Hulin Steve Hulin - Tre
Jack C. Thomas Jack C. Thomas - Mr. Morgan

Barry Gray originally wrote the script as its own original action picture entitled "No Turning Back," whose lead was a black marine returning home from the Persian Gulf. But when Phillip Rhee got a hold of the script, he liked it so much that not only did he produce it, he wanted it to become a new entry in the Best of the Best (1989) series. So he asked Deborah Scott to rewrite it with Tommy Lee as the main character.

At the 18 minute mark of BEST OF THE BEST 3: NO TURNING BACK we find our hero Tommy Lee (Phillip Rhee) traveling in his old blue Pontiac on a narrow dirt road to visit his sister. Next, he is abruptly run off of this road by a careless young skinhead racist driving an old blue pick-up truck. We see Tommy swerve off of the road and damage his vehicle. When he swerves we get to see a few clear frames of his license plate. It is a Nevada license plate that reads: "H7E386." It is a reminder of the last film (BEST OF THE BEST 2) when Tommy was engaged in a no-holds-barred fighting tournament in Las Vegas.

Eric Roberts was offered a chance to reprise his role as Alex Grady but decided to appear in The Nature of the Beast (1995) instead. Roberts felt that appearing in the film would undermine Tommy Lee's story.

In the early concept stages Eric Roberts was offered the chance to reprise his role as Alex Grady from Best of the Best 1 & 2. Knewing how important the subject matter was to his co-star Simon Rhee, Roberts declined as his character wouldn't offer anything to the story.

After seeing the finished product Eric Roberts said he was disappointed and that it seemed like an home movie.


User reviews

Warianys

Warianys

Best of the best 3: No Turning Back is a movie with a strong social and political message. Our hero Tommy Lee, as portrayed by Phillip Rhee, encounters and overcomes a myriad set of common problems in the deep south. From strange cuisine to white power groups who value an idea of might makes right. I'd like to digress here to applaud Mr. Rhee, not only did he star as Tommy Lee but also directed and produced. It can been seen that Mr. Lee applied his own experiences as a minority in America to his magnum opus.

Strong political message aside, the inner workings of the film, the basic craft if you will is on point throughout. From inspired lighting and set design to insightful scene transitions, a spinning chain gun into a spinning plastic flower. We can see a juxtaposition of spinning things one on the side of whimsy the other cold raw steel crafted for killing.

Every one understands that no thing, be it movie or sandwich, can be perfect. Thus I must concede that Best of the Best 3: Cool Runnings does have its faults. One half hour is spent before a showcase of Mr. Rhee's fistic acumen. In fact Lee, Rhee's character, seems to have no real competition in the film. Nearly every skinhead he fights falls with little effort, this is strange due to the basic toughness and fighting skill attributed to the skinhead stereotype. Particularly with the basic para military training they are given.

As the plot reaches its climax, beginning with a dirt bike chase no less, and ramps up to a full on assault. We learn here that Lee can outrun an explosion. In a dizzying display of action and full on violence Tommy and his partner, the local sheriff and his bother in law, take out the skin head compound. Of course in the end Tommy proves he is indeed the best of the best. Then again this really never became an issue in the movie.

All in all Best of the Best 3: the lion the witch and the wardrobe does a fine job of telling a complex story in simple terms that can be appreciated by young and old alike. 4 giant clown shoe beat downs out of a possible 10.
Kitaxe

Kitaxe

what happened to the great martial arts action of: best of the best? yes, this movie has a good storyline, and phillip rhee is great in this film... but why name it after a great movie when it has nothing to do with the series? Oh yeah, and check out the final fight, it's a thrill (stupid-wise). I rank this movie a **** out of ********** !!!
Gardagar

Gardagar

This was a movie that had an overused plot. The martial arts expert who comes in and single handedly saves a town. If the movie were to be rated just by the plot, I would give it a 1, but I do believe that a movie is more than just the surface appearance. This movie also had a strong anti-racism message behind it. It showed the affects of racism and the sheer hate and terror that go with it. Watching it is enough to make you want to do something about the problem of racism yourself. So on moral grounds, I would give this movie a 10. However, the plot was inconsistent at times, the acting was cheesy, and this type of movie has been made so many times that you get tired of just hearing about it. Overall, I can only give this movie a 4.
Nettale

Nettale

I picked this up 2nd hand and really enjoyed it, in a campy way. Tommy turns up in some rural town and steps right into a race war. Tommy is basically given reason after reason to take on guys of 4 or more and throw them through various fruit stalls, ticket offices, coffee tables, and french windows. The gorgeous Gina Gershon does her best as a choir teacher helping Tommy out, but whenever she needs to be "helpless" it kinda doesn't work because she now plays such strong, female roles.

The acting and direction are seriously questionable but this film is obviously about fight scenes and they are entertaining enough, from the moment we see Gershon's house is full of glass tables, flimsy bookcases and china filled cabinets we know we are in for a treat.

Terrible, patronising attitude toward racial issues but, hey, its got a rocket launcher and plenty of flying kicks.
Haal

Haal

Any 'message' this film might impart is totally lost in the goofiness of setting a martial arts film in the middle of a Mississippi race war. The writing and performances are so terrible that I found them weirdly entertaining. The cliches come so fast and furious that you may find yourself laughing out loud at things you would never ordinarily laugh at. Gina Gershon is hilarious as the choir conductor. The biggest joke about this movie is that it dislikes racism enough to support the plot about really stupid white supremacists, but not enough to allow Gina Gershon to fall in love with the Asian lead. They had to bring in a totally pointless white character for that... Dee Wallace-Stone is one of the greatest actresses who has ever lived and she is so sadly underrated and underused. She's the only thing in this film that isn't a really funny joke.
Original

Original

Phillip Rhee goes it alone (After Roberts wisely stepped out) to face off against a band of white supremacists who hold the town in a grip of terror. Seems that nobody of color can even go out at night without being hassled, that is until Rhee arrives on the scene and makes them pay with his fist and foot. Think Billy Jack but with a much more mean spirited vibe. The beginning sequence makes this an ugly movie. In it a black man is beaten with a baseball bat while a choir sings. This is a mean spirited scene and also the movie labors to lay on a message so thick headed that one wonders why they bothered in the first place. The action sequences are okay but hardly save such a ugly film. Also the pacing is way off and the film includes an attempted rape scene, lots of racial insults and just a lot of badness. The acting is universally horrid and it's just a terrible movie. Offensive too.

1/2* out of 4-(Awful)
BroWelm

BroWelm

There's some bad stuff going' down in the small town of Liberty (either Indiana or Ohio, we're not entirely sure, but it's a rural burg and that's all the viewers need to know, apparently). White supremacists are taking over the formerly-peaceful town, led by the hate-filled preacher Brian (an uncredited Ermey). Just as their evil empire is growing, none other than Tommy Lee (the drummer from Motley Crue) (just kidding, it's Phillip Rhee of course) rolls into town to visit his sister who just happens to live in this town, and her husband Jack (McDonald). Jack also happens to be the sheriff, but is powerless to stop the hate-filled mobs. Lee finds he must use his fists and his feet not only to defeat the stupid racists, but to defend choir director Margo (Gershon). Will Tommy Lee beat the neo-Nazis and ride off into the sunset? To Best of the Best 3's credit, it has an extremely professional look, with very good production values. This was Phillip Rhee's first directorial effort, and it seems like he had been building up to this for a while, because he does a very competent job, with a lot of interesting shots and as mentioned, the technical aspects are very good. Plus, with its themes about racism, it was at least trying not to be the same old dumb meathead movie. It made an effort to make you think, which is more than you can say about some of this movie's competitors (or other entries in the series, for that matter).

Like China O'Brien (1990), the "rural action movie" angle is used, and, like Substitute 4 (2001), the "white power" angle is used. Interestingly enough, the director of Substitute 4 is Robert Radler, the director of Best of the Best 2 (1993). There's even some Jackie Chan-like martial arts, as evidenced by the scene in which Rhee fights some baddies in a clown outfit. You truly haven't lived until you've seen thugs get kicked by a man with giant shoes.

As we've seen in everything from American Ninja (1985) to terrorist training videos, the army of bad guys have their own training camp, complete with, you guessed it, monkey bars. Exactly how these monkey bars would help someone defeat Tommy Lee in a fight is not known. And the head Nazi guy wouldn't even come close to challenging Lee in a fight. He only holds his own for a long time because that's what a lot of final bad guys do. A lot of action movies fall into that cliché: Although the main baddie may have no martial arts or combat training whatsoever, when the hero faces off against him in a fight, after handily defeating hundreds of goons, NOW the final fight is actually a challenge for the hero. It's just silly, but you can't really help it.

If you have Netflix streaming, you should view Best of the Best 3 that way, as the quality is excellent and it's in widescreen. The movie has never looked better.

So grab a Like soda and cheer for Phillip Rhee, Christopher McDonald and Gina Gershon in a truly hard hitting tale of racism.

For more action insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
terostr

terostr

BEST OF THE BEST 3: NO TURNING BACK steps even further away from the tournament set-up of the original movie to offer straightforward straight-to-video action thrills from leading man Phillip Rhee. Rhee is the sole returning cast member from the first two movies, although he steps up to direct here as well as star in what turns out to be a typically over the top, mildly entertaining slice of mid-'90s entertainment.

This time around the setting is the small, ubiquitous town in one of the southern states. Rhee turns up and soon uncovers a hotbed of racism and murder, brought about by the antics of the cult-ish members of the local church, which bears more than a passing similarity to Westboro Baptist Church. Cue lots of violent fist fights, shoot-outs and explosives, achieved in the best low budget '90s way.

BEST OF THE BEST 3 isn't as good as the previous film in this series - the action isn't as hard-hitting or as well staged - but it's not bad and could be a lot worse. Rhee is a dependable hero type, and the supporting cast is packed with familiar aces: THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION's Mark Rolston as the baddie, R. Lee Ermey as a preacher, Gina Gershon as a potential love interest, Dee Wallace-Stone as a townswoman, and the hulking Michael Bailey Smith (THE HILLS HAVE EYES remake) as a thug.
invasion

invasion

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).
Abuseyourdna

Abuseyourdna

Part one was about teamwork...part two was about vengeance...in this third chapter of the Best of the Best series, Tommy Lee finds himself fighting for the greatest prize of all: salvation. A lot of people look at this movie as a step down for the Best of the Best series, but in my opinion, it isn't. If anything, it was a growing step up until Without Warning (the fourth Best of the Best) was created.

Picking up from the events of Best of the Best 2, Tommy has left his good friend Alex Grady behind and comes to Liberty to see his sister Karen, brother-in-law Jack (who's the town Sheriff), his nephew Justin and Luther, Justin's friend who's father is a preacher who goes missing earlier in the film. Tommy is glad to see his family and is enjoying the love and warmth that he receives, but when he learns that local supremacists have taken over the town and are responsible for the death of Luther's father, Tommy must decide whether or not to use his lethal skills again in order to help the locals take back their home from predators who use fear as a weapon and violence against the innocent just because they're 'different'.

A lot of people think that this Best of the Best just follows a tired old cliché story that people have seen and heard hundreds of times before. Yes, the topic at hand does revolve around racial conflict, but in this story, the victims in this decide to butch up and fight back. Most movies I've seen about 'hate crimes' in the past have the same plot: a hate crime is committed, people want to come forward but are too scared for fear of retaliation from the haters, the law does all they can to put a stop to it but are unable to and the people who are victims just try to rely on religion alone to get them through the incident. But how often do we see movies where those who are unjustly persecuted for their race decide to take a stand against that kind of tyranny and terrorism? The movie has many messages mainly about redemption and salvation. Tommy is trying to live a life of peace, but the supremacists make that extremely difficult and force him to use lethal countermeasures to put a stop to their bullying and he hopes and prays that the situation won't result in more death at his hands.

Another message in this film is that even if you despise violence, you have to be ready to use it at a moment's notice. Nobody likes violence and would like to resolve conflicts without it...but violence is all some people know in this world. And the enemy won't learn anything about respecting another individual's rights until someone 'teaches' it to them. And rest assured, Phillp Rhee's character has a lot of teaching to do in this film.

Basically put, there's plenty of gunfights galore, high-kicking action, explosive pyrotechnics and behind it all, a message about being ready to go to war if you ever want peace on your land. That's the main thing everyone should pay attention to when they watch this film...God knows, it got my attention.
Blackworm

Blackworm

Tommy Lee (Phillip Rhee), comes into town to visit his sister Karen, right after the mysterious disappearance of a black reverend. His chinese-american sister is married to a white sheriff, one of the few lawmen in this small southern town. As it turns out, a super-rascist skinhead cult is taking control of the town. It was a little ridiculous, as they had a huge compound with plenty of C-4 explosives and grenade launchers which would surely attract the attention of the FBI and ATF. The sheriff and Tommy Lee take the law into their own hands, and it is up to one martial arts superhero to save the day.
Kerdana

Kerdana

Overall, the BEST OF THE BEST series is one of the most enjoyable martial arts franchises in film. It took two movies before tae kwon do bigshot Phillip Rhee was properly established as the real star of the story, and I'm pleased to say that even in the disappointing absence of Eric Roberts & co., he proves to be a solid solo action hero, not to mention a better first-time director than his more-recognized cohorts Seagal and Van Damme. It's a bit strange that he chose a story dealing with domestic racial terrorism as his first project, but while not perfect, I think it came out much better than anyone could have expected.

The story: Following the events of the the second film, Tommy Lee (Rhee) rides into a rural town besieged by a neo-Nazi militia. When their violent mania takes its toll on the family of his brother-in-law (Christopher McDonald) and his new romantic interest (Gina Gershon), he uses his championship-caliber martial arts skills to fight back.

Neo-Nazism, neo-Confederatism, and white supremicism remain lingering social problems, but while they've been tackled before in drama form (e.g. American HISTORY X), I'm pretty sure that Phillip Rhee is the first filmmaker to make an action film that predominantly dealt with the issue. It's a movie decision that you'd expect Steven Seagal to make, and it's quite possible that despite this one's strong production values, the storyline is what kept it from getting a theatrical release. It's kind of heavy-handed, with a rather tasteless scene early on wherein the militant leader (played by great villain-actor Mark Rolston) beats a black activist priest to death with a baseball bat, but the film does make a point of differentiating between the racial separatism ideology and racial warfare, as well as depicting the kind of social hopelessness that can lead some folks to grasp at extremes. Still, it's an action flick, so don't expect a completely empathetic movie.

Speaking of action, this one's offering is pretty darn good, being mostly limited to four fights and an explosion-filled invasion scene. During his relatively short career, Phillip Rhee was one of the most consistent martial arts performers, and his outing here helps build this reputation. During three one-against-many fights and a single one-on-one brawl with bad guy Rolston, Rhee goes through an encyclopedia of strikes and throws, for the most part exquisitely choreographed and competently filmed. The showdown at the end sort of disappointed me for its change of pace, but by most standards, it's still pretty good, and it doesn't deter from the glorious scene in the first half of the film wherein Rhee - dressed as a clown - takes on a bunch of brutes at a fair. The segment wherein Rhee and Christopher McDonald launch an attack on the supremacists' base is also pretty good, practically at Commando levels of explosions. There are even parts with motorcycles and a rocket launcher.

The cast and their performances round off the good parts of the movie. Along with the aforementioned members, an uncredited R. Lee Ermey plays a racist pastor with his usual infectious talent, and Peter Simmons gives a pretty good performance as young supremacist recruit with mixed feelings about his actions. The fact that the film only connects with its prequels via a minute's exposition is somewhat disappointing - I'd have liked to see the ending of the last movie weigh in more on the events of this one - but Rhee proves himself such a consummate performer that you don't miss the other characters *too* much. This one could technically stand alone, but it still feels like a part of the series. Action fans should definitely give it a try.
Kaghma

Kaghma

I tough the movie itself was pretty good, but it feel so far from the first movies. You don't even hear the theme song one time, which i found very disappointing as its one of the best theme song to show a training sequence...

I got the story, and i felt touched by it, yet even with the couple links to BOTB2(Tommy mentioning he killed a guy) the movie feel so out of the series based on the first 2. I don't mind Alex being absent(characters separate sometimes), i don't mind Tommy having a sister(that we previously didn't heard of), all i mind is that this movie should had stayed a Stand Alone movie, and not a BOTB. BOTB 2 in particular is one of my classics of Martial Arts, i enjoyed the original, but the second one is the one i saw as a kid and still remain a cult classic in te MA gender for me(and i own hundreds of them). Yet the fighting scenes in BOTB3 are good, sure but any character could had been Tommy here. Anyway like i said i enjoyed it sure, but not on the level of the second movie.

But shuuuut to all people saying this is a crappy movie, its pretty good by itself.
Berkohi

Berkohi

You know how Tommy was raised by Native Americans? Well, his sister lives in the deep south, married to the local sheriff. Now, this area is in major trouble because we've got the old white supremacists out on the warpath, led by none other than R L Emery. There's this other guy who doesn't think Emery is white enough who, at the start of the film, bludgeons to death a black reverend while all his skinhead mates look on. And one of the skinheads is the teenage son of Dee Wallace Stone.

Now that's a lot of story with no Tommy involved, right? It does take some time for him to show up but doesn't take much time for the old Nazis to get right on his case and also start hassling his sister. Didn't they watch Best of the Best 2? No one messes with Tommy's family! Eric Roberts isn't in this one by the way, and I think it was probably because his character took the rap for killing the bad guy in the last film. Otherwise I can't think of a reason how Tommy got away with breaking a guy's neck in front of a screaming crowd.

Anyway, while a schoolteachers goes up against R Lee Emery (who doesn't get a credit here for some reason), Tommy goes up against the far more dangerous henchman, played by Drake from Aliens! Drake is all up for a bit of ethnic cleansing and gets his army of skinheads some hardware while Tommy breaks all their noses while dressed as a clown.

Just when I thought this film was never going to get going Drake kidnaps Tommy's nephew and the fight is on! Tommy and the guy from Happy Gilmore head off to the Nazi compound and start wasting their way through a skinhead army in a whirlwind of machine gun fire, explosions, and even an M80 machine gun. Thank God for that.

Tommy also directs this one (under the pseudonym Phillip Rhee) so you'll have to ask him how Tommy manages to kick three guys off three separate bikes using just two legs, or how we see the schoolteacher getting attacked in her home, then cut to Tommy on his bike, then cut back to the schoolteacher's house where Tommy suddenly appears.

It's okay this one once it gets going. The big battle at the end kind of makes up for all the drama and such like so there's not much to worry about there.
Thorgahuginn

Thorgahuginn

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.
Qucid

Qucid

this movie represents a step down in quality from the first two movies in the series.to me,it's basically a run of the mill story,with a setting that has also been done before.in fact,it's almost a carbon copy of at least one other movie.and they don't really add anything new to it.also missing are the spectacular fight scenes from number two.there are plenty of fights,but they are pretty much ho-hum.the action is boring for the most part.there are some plot holes and inconsistencies.that normally wouldn't be a problem,except that they are very obvious.and since the film itself isn't very exciting,it's much easier to focus on the negative.the other problem is the acting,not so much from the main c characters,but the other characters.i won't say too much in that regard,other than--it was bad.when you put it all together,this film does not live up to the standard of the first two.it isn't the worst movie of the genre,but it isn't very good either.for me,it's a 3/10,at best.
Bloodfire

Bloodfire

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.
Zeus Wooden

Zeus Wooden

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.
Utchanat

Utchanat

White supremacists taking over the town. An Aryan brotherhood preacher shocked to find out that his message of hate has been translated into extreme violence. Lots of use of racial epithets, including the "N" word.

But into town rides a saviour. An Asian martial arts expert that is hurting because he killed a man. He won't let these skinheads terrorize the local people of color.

They didn't need a scriptwriter for this one. It has been done many times. The clichés pour out and the martial arts exhibitions are just so-so. The only real violence (the death of the Black preacher) was done off-camera. The rest was standard knife and gun action with a few explosions.

They had a chance to make something interesting in this film starring Gina Gershon. More action between her and the Asian lead would have spiced it up to a watchable story.

I am not inclined to see Best of the Best 1, 2 or 4.
Jum

Jum

I had the chance to see this film last Saturday on TV, and well I wasn't very impressed by what I saw.

Basically Tommy Lee (Rhee) return again now to help a town against a white supremacist gang that is planning to tear the city apart.

The plot is just a retool of the basic hero comes to town plot. The violence in this film near the same as Best of the Best 2, and it sorta feels like it at times. There is clearly a anti-racist message in the film, and so obvious from the start.

The acting at times, could be better, as most of the white supremacists sound like their are rednecks, and the other characters just sound a tad wooden. Some of the fight scenes are good, some I have to wonder, what in the world the producers where either drinking or smoking, because they are good, it's just the set up to them is just plain bad.

If you don't like racial slurs, then avoid this film, since that's pretty much every other word out the mouth of the racist, and everything else is about Tommy not teaching any more. If you are not offended by racial slurs, then you can watch this film, but like my summary says it not the "best" of the best