11 Responses to “Kickboxer 3: The Art of War”

1. 

   Charles

   June 27th, 2013 at 9:37 am

   Growing up I was never able to get into any of the KICKBOXER sequels. First they didn’t have JCVD in them, and then on top of that I always associate Sasha Mitchell the guy they got to replace JCVD with the role of Cody he played on the STEP BY STEP sitcom. Then Mitchell a legit martial artist when to jail for kicking his pregnant wife in the stomach and I had no desire to ever check out any of his work. I can’t help but think of that heinous act every time Mitchell is brought up.

2. 

   Timmy

   June 27th, 2013 at 10:45 am

   Some friends and I watched this as research for a tournament movie we were writing (ended up scrapping it). We were totally surprised how the heroes casually slip into Gun Murder Mode, it was very off-putting! Loved the “Make you tired” sequence and the over-the-top evil of the bad guys.

3. 

   CJ Holden

   June 27th, 2013 at 10:54 am

   Wait, is the thing with his pregnant wife something that happened recently? Because I’ve never heard of that. I do know about the other story that took place in the mid 90s, when he was accused of beating his wife, but he just tried to stop her physically abusing his kids. (She was also a drug addict.) He didn’t went to jail for that and even got full custody for his children!

4. 

   Charles

   June 27th, 2013 at 11:32 am

   CJ, it happened in the 90’s. I think STEP BY STEP was still on the air at the time but I can’t remember. I also remember him being interviewed by Oprah or somebody live via satellite from jail discussing the incident.

5. 

   Charles

   June 27th, 2013 at 11:45 am

   CJ, I tried to look it up and I think we are talking about the same incident. It looks like he never served much jail time, and the time he served was all related to probation violation. You are correct that in the end he was never convicted of spouse abuse, but I don’t think he denies hitting his ex-wife. I am glad that the story seems to have a happy ending and he has a relationship with his children and seems to be in a better place now.

6. 

   neal2zod

   February 9th, 2022 at 7:41 pm

   Well I’m not gonna say that this is the Step Up 3 of the Kickboxer franchise, but it’s the one where all the pieces of the franchise fall into place and it makes you think “oh maybe they should have been like this from the beginning”. There’s a nice combination of goofiness and grittiness, likable heroes and interesting bad guys. It nicely brings back the travelogue aspect of Part 1 (which simultaneously made Thailand look like both a beautiful paradise and a dangerous hellhole). And the fight scenes are actually pretty good this time, not relying on endless slo-mo closeups of dudes getting kicked in the face. That final fight where they fall out of the ring and slam each other onto the announcer’s table seemed to set the stage for every modern day pro-wrestling match.

   That training/torture montage is hilariously out of left-field, as is the aforementioned twist of having the heroes suddenly mow people down with machine guns even though I don’t think they even picked up a gun or killed anyone last time. I also love that Xian seems to get younger and younger with each subsequent entry, and he makes a great partner instead of just a mentor. This is my favorite of the franchise by far.

7. 

   Pacman2.0

   February 9th, 2022 at 11:26 pm

   I still haven’t seen any of the OG KICKBOXER sequels. They fall into one of those weird distribution holes where KICKBOXER 3 and 4 have been released on bargain bin DVDs in the UK multiple times, but KICKBOXER 2 hasn’t been seen since a its original VHS. KICKBOXER 5, best I can tell, has never been released in the UK.

8. 

   neal2zod

   February 10th, 2022 at 8:56 am

   Pacman – that’s funny b/c I started binging these Kickboxer movies because I finally cut that cord and have to mail back my DVR soon and am frantically trying to watch everything on it. I figured these OG Kickboxers were gonna be super hard to find, then I saw the whole franchise (including Retaliation but not Vengeance, weirdly) are all free on Tubi. Not sure if Tubi is available or has a different lineup in the UK, but you might want to check it out.

9. 

   Pacman2.0

   February 10th, 2022 at 10:16 am

   neal2zod- Thanks for the tip, unfortunately Tubi is not even accessible in the UK, but something to keep in mind if I ever get a VPN. They’re the kind of films you expect to be on YouTube, but no luck so far! (Ok, KICKBOXER 4 is)

10. 

    CJ Holden

    February 10th, 2022 at 10:43 am

    Pacman, I made some good experiences with the Hola Browser. Hola is a free VPN, that I used as plugin in Firefox for years. It worked well for Tubi, but a year ago became pretty slow and unusable. HOWEVER their browser, which is basically built to only use the VPN, is running stable for me and allows me to watch Tubi and the (way more fun and varied) US version of Pluto TV.

    Sure, the best way is to actually pay for a good VPN, but honestly, I don’t wanna spend money on ANOTHER monthly subscription, just to watch some FREE streaming sites.

11. 

    Pacman2.0

    February 10th, 2022 at 11:53 am

    Thanks, I’m in the same boat, I’ll give it a look.