Surprisingly, given its genre origins, BEST OF THE BEST 3: NO TURNING BACK takes on the serious subject matter of hate groups co-opting government-weary small-town America. Not surprisingly, this also proves to be its greatest weakness. Although it earnestly targets the seduction of
impressionable folks by White Supremacists, this action picture fumbles by portraying the encroaching Aryans as right-wing cartoons.
When Asian American Tommy Lee (Phillip Rhee) returns to his hometown to visit his sister Karen Banning (Cristina Anzu Lawson) and brother-in-law Sheriff Jack Banning (Christopher McDonald), he's disgusted that Liberty, USA has become a breeding ground for intolerance. The militia, headed by Donnie
Hanson (Mark Rolston), has beaten to death an Afro-American, Reverand Phelps (Andra Ward), and later kills a bible-thumping White minister, who fronts for their organization, for espousing a segregationist view that the militia deems "too mild." Bonding with his nephew Justin (Kitao Sakurai) and
Luther (the son of the late Reverand Phelps), pacifist Tommy Lee punches back when Hanson's goons threaten his family. While finding time to woo the town schoolmarm Margo Preston (Gina Gershon), who obstructs the militia's land expansion at a town-hall meeting, Tommy spearheads the campaign to
douse the rising fires of the burning-cross mentality.
Pursued by motorcycling rednecks, Tommy Lee rescues Margo from gang rape but can't prevent the kidnapping of Justin and Luther. Inside the neo-KKK camp where Hanson is training an army with illegal weapons, Sheriff Banning and Tommy Lee create chaos with demolitions, free the children, and attempt
a getaway in a school bus driven by Margo after the Sheriff is wounded. After sparing the life of a new racist recruit, Owen Tucker (Peter Simmons), Tommy Lee knocks the daylights out of, but no sense into, Donnie Hanson. When Hanson cowardly attempts to assassinate Tommy Lee, Owen shoots down his
former wizard like a dog. With the power of the supremacist cabal defused, the townspeople soon restore order.
Those action buffs in the mood for mindless body-bashing should steer clear of this martial arts anomaly, which sorely tries to temper its violence with a contemplation of the side effects of misguided testosterone, hate, and racism. For all its admirable social concern, BEST OF THE BEST 3 can't
overcome the hazards of speechifying, stereotyping, and amorphous direction. The cast, awkwardly headed by leading leg-man Rhee (who also directed), lends the ideal of tolerance a vital dimension, but can't help but emerge as paper-doll figures.
Although specific martial arts sequences (e.g., Rhee's solo salvation of his relatives outside the mini-mart) rate high on the adrenaline chart, the film lacks the skill to link its sundry climaxes in the kind of Hong Kong cinema trajectory that leaves an audience gasping for air. Reminiscent of
classic Westerns like SHANE (1953) and neo-Westerns like WALKING TALL (1973), BEST OF THE BEST 3 delivers ample high-kicking but winds up a bloodier, Big Screen version of an episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger." (Graphic violence, extreme profanity, sexual situations.) leave a comment
