Where to watch Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back
1 1/2 Stars
While visiting his sister, Tommy Lee discovers a band of ruthless white supremacists is planning to shatter the peace of a small rural community. But what these thugs don’t realize is that with Tommy, they’re in for the fight of their lives. With the help of an honorable sheriff and a headstrong young teacher, Tommy battles back against the hateful group, waging war with everything he has to protect the town. Now, there’s no turning back.
Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson once stated in an interview that the B-movie producer had a motto: if Corman’s production company produced a Wilson martial arts flick, then it’s a Bloodsport movie. That became increasingly befuddling to audiences that expected continuity or, at the very least, for Don Wilson to portray the same character in each installment. Best of the Best 3 (and part 4) are tenuously connected to the first two films in that Phillip Rhee appears in all of the entries. Rhee, an athletically gifted taekwondo specialist, takes over writing and directing duties on this third installment, which is wildly different than its predecessors.
Best of the Best 3 is too slow to get going; it takes 20 minutes to get Rhee on-screen, while the setting, subject matter, and the Tommy Lee character are so far from anything previously presented that I had to check to make sure I was watching a Best of the Best movie. Rhee’s Tommy Lee character has morphed from an Olympic gold medalist to a mythical, indestructible Billy Jack caricature. Best of the Best 3 relies on the tired concept of the rogue Nazi militia that dominated numerous direct-to-video titles during the 1990s.
Phillip Rhee kicks and punches with impressive agility, even in the movie’s best scene, which showcases Rhee fighting a group of thugs at a fair while dressed as a clown complete with comically oversized shoes, which is right out of the Jackie Chan playbook. Mark Rolston does a fantastic job as the repulsive head baddie, while Christopher McDonald plays a good guy in a rare case of casting against type. However, Gina Gershon is overshadowed and forgotten by the writers once the boys get down to fisticuffs.
Directed by: Phillip Rhee
Written by: Barry Gray, Deborah Scott
Starring: Phillip Rhee, Christopher McDonald, Gina Gershon