Ip Man 3

Wilson Yip directs charismatic star Donnie Yen in this third film in the Ip Man series, which centers on the real-life martial arts legend Yip Man, best known to western audiences as the man who taught Bruce Lee. Ip Man 3 opens in 1959, and it follows an exiled Ip Man as he protects a school from local thugs backed by evil developers and a corrupt government. That’s pretty much the same plot as The Trial of Billy Jack, but we’ll allow it—if Ip Man 4 turns out to be an indirect remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, then the jig is up. The fight sequences in Ip Man 3 are fun but far from definitive, and the film is all over the place, never fully satisfying as an outsized genre piece (Mike Tyson snarls and punches his way through a glorified cameo) or as a substantial drama. D.B.