A Look Back: The Karate Kid III
The Karate Kid (1984) is one of my favourite movies – a true sporting underdog story replete with surprises, good villains, and an exciting conclusion. Given its success, a sequel was inevitable. Cue The Karate Kid Part II (1986), which does well to build on the characters we grew to love – Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and Mr Miyagi (Pat Morita) – as well as increase the stakes, with Daniel now fighting for his life. An interesting bit of trivia: in the four Karate Kid movies, it’s Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) – Daniel’s adversary in The Karate Kid II – who’s the only villain to land on a blow on Miyagi. Given…
A Look Back: James Bond
Ian Fleming’s James Bond was a burned out, hard drinking, womanizing secret agent who was a spy for MI6, had a license to kill, and fought the independent organization known as SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion). He lived in this cool (from a creative standpoint) Cold War era when the threat of nuclear between the US and Russia seemed imminent, and everybody was paranoid about spying. Being British, Bond was also the gentleman’s spy – knowledgeable, seductive, and always charming. He always felt more cultured than those he was investigating. The first Bond movie, Dr. No, screened in 1962 and starred Sean Connery as Bond. Connery…