Paul Andrews Kickboxer 3: The Art of War starts as US kickboxing champion David Sloan (Sasha Mitchell) & his mentor Xian (Dennis Chann) arrive in Brazil in Rio de Janerio to take part in a kickboxing tournament against brutal Argentinian champion Martine (Ian Jacklin). While enjoying a bit of lunch on the beach a young local boy named Marcos (Noah Verduzco) steals David's camera, David gives chase & catches Marcos & finds out that he is homeless & trying to get money to support himself & his older sister Isabella (Alethea Miranda). David & Xian take pity on the pair & hire them as local guides, while at a charity event Martine's manager Lane (Richard Comar) takes a fancy to Isabella & has her kidnapped in order to sell her as a sex slave & also tries to get David to throw the upcoming fight against Martine so he can make lots of money from betting which doubly annoys David & Xian who set out to rescue Isabella & beat Martine in a fair fight...Directed by Rick King this was the third film the the Kickboxer franchise which started with the reasonably watchable early Jean-Claude Van Damme flick Kickboxer (1989) & Kickboxer 2: The Road Back (1991) both of which featured the two main character's David Sloan & Xian who also take center stage here in the exotic Brazillian location of Rio de Janerio which is just about the only thing Kickboxer 3: The Art of War has going for it. For a film called Kickboxer there is actually very little kickboxing in it, there are a few fight scenes & the final big fight between Sloan & Martine but otherwise the script goes for plot development. Unfortunately the story just isn't that good, the two homeless kids, the bad guy, the grudge match against the evil fighter, the proverb reciting Chinese mentor & some lame attempts at sporting drama as once again the underdog who has the odds stacked against him comes through & wins in the end. At almost 90 minutes Kickboxer 3: The Art of War feels longer, a lot longer as it's a fairly slow going film that fails to be exciting or surprising or funny or good. I suppose it's competent, it tells a story even if it's not a very good one & some may enjoy the mixing of thriller, martial arts & sporting drama although I didn't.There's not much action here, maybe they blew the budget on the Brazillian locations? There are a few shoot-outs, a couple of fairly lame fights & even a training montage in which Lane tries to torture Sloan but to me was just making him even fitter & stronger by pushing him. Wouldn't it have been better to break his foot or something? There isn't even much of a showdown between Sloan & Lane at the end. Also, why was it OK for Sloan to kill all those bad guy's but when Marcos tries Xian tells him that it's wrong?Actually filmed in Rio de Janerio, this looks alright but has dull photography & forgettable production values. The acting isn't that good, Sasha Mitchell acts more like a Californian surfer dude than a world kickboxing champion while the two Brazillian kids are very annoying.Kickboxer 3: The Art of War is a forgettable martial arts action thriller with little in the way of martial arts or action, there are better films out there. Followed by Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor (1994) & Kickboxer 5 (1995).

AlbertV79 I'm taking it from viewing Kickboxer 3 that the filmmakers are running out of ideas. Sasha Mitchell returns as kickboxer David Sloan, who goes to Rio with mentor and gym partner Xian Chow (played again by the wonderfully talented Dennis Chan in sadly his last American film) to compete in a match versus the deadly Eric Martine, played with some mancing velocity by kickboxer Ian Jacklin. Martine's manager Frank (Rich Comar) also runs a teen prostitution ring. Yeah, definitely diminishing. This film is a decent entry in the series and Sasha gets to do his kickboxing here, but the plot of the crime ring...yeah, too much.

modius Kickboxer 3 isn't worth the money, or the rental. Dennis Chan is a comic sidekick and teacher to David Slone who plays a chilsed jawed kickboxer who seems to resemble that bad karate kid from Karate Kid III.Anyway, the film has David going to Brazil for a kickboxing fight but gets drawn into the seedy world of underage prositutes or something and gets drawn into the local riff-raff.Even though he's only a kickboxer and only there to kick the ass of the Ivan Drago type kickboxer he goes out on a mission to take out the local bad guy, who isn't even Portuegese or Brazilian, but American.The fight sequences are okay - but that is it, nothing compared to other martial art movies you can get for the same price.Avoid it. 1/10

bob the moo David Sloan and his trainer Xian arrives in Buenos Aires for a kickboxing tournament. Once there they befriend a young boy and his sister living on the streets. When the promoter of David's championship rival turns out to be a pimp the boy's sister is stolen away due to the value of virgins. David is held captive by the pimp, Lane and is forced to do heavy work weakening his body. Can David stay focused in order to free the girl and win his fight? This should be called "Kickboxer 3 - so very lame". It should never be a series anyway! Clue to a poor series of films - if Jean Claude Van Damme bails after the first one! The plot here is lazy - it paints it's bad guys big and tries to set up a fight every so often to make it interesting. There's no characters and it's even hard to care about the children. You don't believe that any of the good guys could get hurt, so you don't care what they get into.The performances are pretty bad, the street boy is good but Sasha Mitchell acts like a spoilt kid from LA. With his clothes and tattoos he looks a bit like a clean-cut Eminem. Dennis Chan is supposed to give comic relief as Xian, however he misses the mark most of the time and comes off looking like a low-rent Mr Miyagi from the Karate Kid series. Comar is a terrible bad guy - unbelievable and unsympathetic to the end, while Sloan's championship challenger is your standard mad, bad guy fare.The fights are ok I guess - standard kickboxing stuff, but they are what the film is all about, and as such they should be great! They not - which I guess means the film fails on the most basic level. Overall a pretty poor film that doesn't even reach the low standard it set for itself.