BEST OF THE BEST 3: NO TURNING BACK steps even further away from the tournament set-up of the original movie to offer straightforward straight-to-video action thrills from leading man Phillip Rhee. Rhee is the sole returning cast member from the first two movies, although he steps up to direct here as well as star in what turns out to be a typically over the top, mildly entertaining slice of mid-'90s entertainment.

This time around the setting is the small, ubiquitous town in one of the southern states. Rhee turns up and soon uncovers a hotbed of racism and murder, brought about by the antics of the cult-ish members of the local church, which bears more than a passing similarity to Westboro Baptist Church. Cue lots of violent fist fights, shoot-outs and explosives, achieved in the best low budget '90s way.

BEST OF THE BEST 3 isn't as good as the previous film in this series - the action isn't as hard-hitting or as well staged - but it's not bad and could be a lot worse. Rhee is a dependable hero type, and the supporting cast is packed with familiar aces: THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION's Mark Rolston as the baddie, R. Lee Ermey as a preacher, Gina Gershon as a potential love interest, Dee Wallace-Stone as a townswoman, and the hulking Michael Bailey Smith (THE HILLS HAVE EYES remake) as a thug.

Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back starts as martial artist Tommy Lee (co-producer & director Phillip Rhee) arrives in the small town of Liberty where his sister Karen (Anzu Lawson) lives with her husband Jack (Christopher McDonald) who just so happens to be the local Sheriff. Jack informs Tommy about a missing black Reverend named Luhter Phelps (Andra R. Ward) whose Church was burned down, Jack suspects a local group of racist neo-Nazi thugs lead by the vicious Donnie Hansen (Mark Rolston) but no-one in town will testify out of fear so the Sheriff's hands are tied. Hansen & his white power group hate all foreigner's & the Chinese Tommy Lee & his sister Karen are next in line for the racial abuse & violence but Tommy, being a world Karate champ & general brilliant martial artist, fights back. Things become personal as Jack & Karen's kid is kidnapped & the true extent of Hansen's plans become apparent, Hansen wants to start a war between black & white...

Directed by & starring Phillip Rhee this is the third entry in the Best of the Best franchise & while it's not as good as Best of the Best 2 (1993) it's better than the weak original Best of the Best (1989). Right, first things first series continuity has gone right out of the window here, for some reason Tommy Lee now refuses to teach martial arts & despite being an only child (after his brother was killed by Dae Han in the original Best of the Best) now magically has a sister, gone is his mate Alex Grady played by Eric Roberts in the previous two & this time he's on his own. In fact Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back has very little to do with the previous two films except that it features Tommy Lee (anyone else think the character was originally meant as a homage to Bruce Lee?). A little bit of research actually reveals that the script was originally written as a stand alone film called No Turning Back about a black soldier returning home & finding his town overrun with racists but Phillip Rhee saw the script & turned it into a Best of the Best film. This is all about racism, the effect of it, the causes of it & Tommy Lee single handedly stopping it. There's no great depth here, the racists are seen as pure scum while the abused are pretty much perfection, the biggest problem with the script is why was Hensen stockpiling so many weapons? What was he going to do with them? Kill all the blacks in his town? The State? The whole of the US? What? There's just no reason for it. Having said that the bad guy's are bad enough, the good guy's get to kick ass & there some decent action once it kicks in during the final thirty odd minutes. A little slow to get going Tommy Lee doesn't doesn't beat up his first racist until after the thirty minute mark but from then on it continues to move along at a nice pace until the action packed climax. Not as deep as some films might have been considering it's touchy racial subject matter but as pure action entertainment then this is worth a watch.

The fights are well staged & look impressive, the last thirty minutes are great with lots of shooting, explosions, out of control buses, car & motorbike stunts & a final climatic knife fight between Tommy Lee & Hansen. The violence has been toned down from Best of the Best 2, while still violent it's not that bloody or graphic. All current UK versions are missing about 45 seconds of the attempted rape of Margot, anyone who has this cut shouldn't worry too much as the excised footage is tame & nothing more than Margot being held on a table while someone rips her top off. Set in a small town in the US the picturesque opening credits feature kids playing in fields & fishing & a rickety old school bus picking them up in a really syrupy scene but things soon turn nasty as a Church is burned down.

Filmed in Indiana & Ohio this looks nice enough, first time director Rhee does a decent enough job here although the action scenes & fights predictably fare better than the human drama. The acting is alright, Gina Gershon & Dee Wallace-Stone appear as does R. Lee Emery in a small role while Kane Hodder joins Rhee as being the only actor to have appeared in all three Best of the Best films but unlike Rhee as a different character in each although always as a bad guy.

Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back tries to mix a hard & emotive issue like racial abuse & tension with mindless martial arts action & is somewhat successful, while not that deep it does entertain on a basic level with some good action scenes during the last thirty minutes. Followed by Best of the Best: Without Warning (1998).

White supremacists taking over the town. An Aryan brotherhood preacher shocked to find out that his message of hate has been translated into extreme violence. Lots of use of racial epithets, including the "N" word.

But into town rides a saviour. An Asian martial arts expert that is hurting because he killed a man. He won't let these skinheads terrorize the local people of color.

They didn't need a scriptwriter for this one. It has been done many times. The clichés pour out and the martial arts exhibitions are just so-so. The only real violence (the death of the Black preacher) was done off-camera. The rest was standard knife and gun action with a few explosions.

They had a chance to make something interesting in this film starring Gina Gershon. More action between her and the Asian lead would have spiced it up to a watchable story.

I am not inclined to see Best of the Best 1, 2 or 4.