Kickboxer 3: The Art Of War (1992)

If you're as equal parts bemused and angered by the burning dumpster fire of the world around us then you can seek to find answers in many different places. Art can be one of those places. Films can often provide insight into human nature while maintaining a comforting layer of artifice. Sometimes there are answers, but sometimes it's just enough to see other people struggling with the same questions that we all have. Oh, and sometimes you need to escape reality by watching people kick each other in the face. Kickboxer 3: The Art Of War is here for those who need that last option.

I watched this a couple of weeks ago, and spoke about it on my podcast, but I am not going to pretend that it made any strong impression on me. It was fun though, a distraction that I was happy to experience ahead of numerous, more sophisticated, alternatives. I knew what I was in for, considering I also recently enjoyed Kickboxer 2: The Road Back, and it gave me what I wanted, more or less.

Sasha Mitchell is back in the role of David Sloan, and Dennis Chan returns as Xian. The two characters end up in another country, and it's not long until there's the opportunity for some fighting to happen. There's a man named Lane (Richard Comar) who wants to present audiences with an impressive spectacle, but Lane might have his fingers in some other business interests that make him a lot less pleasant and accommodating than he appears.

Kickboxer 3: The Art Of War is very silly stuff. Dennis A. Pratt may not be the best writer, and Rick King isn't a top-notch director, but both do enough to make this a fun and entertaining, if tame, action movie. There's a crime ring to be busted, some youngsters to be protected, and (of course) faces to be kicked.

Mitchell has a bit more fun this time around, due to the fact that the screenplay isn't trying to add extra weight and importance to the fighting (beyond allowing our hero to be heroic), and Chan also seems even more playful than he was in the previous movies. Noah Verduzco and Alethea Miranda are there to be threatened by the villain, which they do, and Comar does well in a role that is the best in the film. His character is atypical when compared to so many other action movie villains, and that's something I will credit to both the writing from Pratt and Comar's performance.

I admit that before being reminded of the existence of this film I had completely forgotten how many sequels Kickboxer has. Now I'm ready to eventually get through them all, especially when needing a face-kicking distraction from the madness of the real world.

6/10

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