This all feels a little like déjà vu, especially after watching American Ninja 3. Once again there is a fighting tournament in a tropical location. This time Rio De Janeiro. An American kickboxing champion, David Sloan, arrives with his sensei, Xian, in tow. On first sight Xian looked a little like Lee Van Cleef, or maybe that was the spectre of 1984 TV series Master Ninja repeating on me. Either way, it helps signify that this was the tale end of a long running era of budget American martial arts films and television shows. The first classic cliché comes quickly when the hapless heroes are mugged by a small Brazilian boy, Marcos, and his sister, Isabella. Naturally, after a long chase through the back alleys of Rio and the kicking of same random thugs, they befriend the knife wielding thieving children. Onto classic cliché two, when Isabella is kidnapped by a local gangster as part of his people trafficking business. Of course this is just a side line to him being a kickboxer manager, looking to fix the match between David and his own fighter, so as to make a ton of cash.
It’s seriously average stuff, but at least there’s enough action to keep things going. We get street fighting, bar room brawling, and ring matches. They even tool up with automatic weapons in another back alley, making them professional vigilantes. The theme of the film is that Rio is a sort of unruly wild west. Kill or be killed. So that’s what they do, giving us some gunplay and a Beverley Hills Cop style mansion assault. The story takes some odd twists to help fill the running time, and give our bulging hero some unusual endurance tests to prove his might.
I’m sorry to say that the only thing that sounds dumber than the plot is Sasha Mitchell playing the part of Sloan. He doesn’t have the charisma to carry the film, and is no great actor. Surprising then that he is the lead in three of the four Kickboxer sequels. Although, familiarity is an important ingredient in B-Movies, and they weren’t likely to get Van Damme back. There is a lot of playful banter between the two leads, but it’s neither actors’ strong points. Plus the dialogue was a poor imitation of many of the buddy cop movies of the 80s. Most of the jokes fell flat for me. For a change I found myself most forgiving of the child actors’ performances. They managed to hold their own, and outshine a lot of the wooden bit parts. Most disappointing was perhaps, Dennis Chan, who feels surplus to requirements as Xian. All he does is make random philosophical comments, and occasionally remind Sloan to meditate. As the role also requires a calm demeanour, he tends to fade into the background.The villains were par for the ‘in the shadow of Miami Vice’ times. Sharp suits, colourful shirts, sensible middle-aged haircuts, and a dire need for some anger management classes. They do make for a laugh though. I liked that the chief kidnapper Bronco cited his day job as an investment banker. Something which in the current economical climate would be enough to shoot him regardless. Also, one of the most unintentionally funny lines was from the big bad gangster Lane about his child trafficking prostitution ring, delivered mid fight, “Kids are more mature now, it’s the nineties pal.” The defence rests.
As you can tell, it’s a pretty adult plot, but the only real gratuity is the fighting and body count. There’s little profanity, and nothing sexual. A contrast to modern western films where those would be pre-requisites. Kickboxer 3 is an action film first, and, well, not much else. Would you expect any less from a writer whose next film would be Leprechaun 4: In Space? Marvellous. Despite all this, I much preferred American Ninja 3 and that had a really goofy plot in comparison.[2.3/10 | 659 votes | stats from 3rd April 2008]
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