Crowd Pleasing “The Karate Kid” a Worthy Remake
Learning that Hollywood was going to needlessly remake the 1984′s classic The Karate Kid, it was easy for me to root against this movie. I decided to skip it during its theatrical run and give it a chance a little bit later with a more objective mind. The result is that I mildly enjoyed this crowd-pleasing reboot. Who knew Jackie Chan could actually act? The Hong Kong action star demonstrates surprising emotional depth in a subtle and low key performance.
Twelve-year-old Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) and his mother (Taraji P. Henson) recently moved from Detroit to Beijing. When Dre starts befriending irresistible cutie pie Meiying (Wenwen Han), he becomes the focus of the class bully, Cheng (Zhenwei Wang), and his gang. One day, during a particular harsh beat down, Dre finds himself saved by Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), the lonely maintenance man living in his apartment complex. Having witnessed Mr Han’s kung fu prowess, Dre convinces him to teach him self-defense and prepare him for a tournament in which he will have to face down his bullies.
First, to make things clear, this should have been renamed The Kung Fu Kid because there is absolutely no karate in this movie.
Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan are worthy successors to Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita, sharing great chemistry and friendship on screen. Smith is up to the task in his first star vehicle, showing the budding charisma and persona that made his father the mega-movie star that he is today. Jackie Chan is terrific as the beaten-down Mr. Han, a maintenance man with some hidden talents and a tragic past. Chan had been lamenting for years that no one would allow him to do any dramatic acting and this could be a huge step forward for him. Finally, Zhenwei Wang is effective as the one-dimensional bully, displaying impressive wu shu skills.
The Karate Kid isn’t without flaws, it starts slowly and stretches to nearly 2 hours and a half. Parents might also be concerned that the film does feature some distasteful violence directed at pre-teen children. Certainly, it would have helped if the kids were a few years older, if not only for the violence but seeing 10-yr old kids making out is a bit pushing it.
A formulaic but well-executed remake, The Karate Kid is a winning and crowd-pleasing family movie that will satisfy kids.
B-
(6.5/10)
Notes: Rated PG for bullying, martial arts action violence and some mild language, 140 minutes.
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23 Comments
Hrmm hrmm Gone in 60 seconds? =)
I watched it yesterday. Review coming sometime in the next day or two lol
I assume the LOL means that you understand the greatness of it???
ROFL LOLOLOL LMAO!! ^^ woot woot
This might be the most anticipated review in here for a long time. Gonna be interesting to see how many have seen it!
Ahah probably just you and me…
Interesting review if we get back on topic with Kung Fu Kid. I might check it out but am a little scared of the long running time.
I had read that it was only marketed as Karate Kid in America (the continent) – I think someone told me that in Europe and Asia they were calling it Kung Fu Kid – though I haven’t checked and they might be BSing me.
It was marketed as Karate Kid in Sweden aswell. I made a point calling it Kung Fu Kid because I think that title would have made more sense and still work quite well.
I think most audiences would connotate the original even if its not the same “sport”
Someone in Germany told me “They’re marketing it as Kung Fu Kid here” – maybe they did BS’ed me. xD
“Who knew Jackie Chan could actually act?”
Awwwww… poor Jackie. You should really catch Shinjuku Incident. You’d be even more surprised.
I used to think that too, but he actually is a better actor than most people think he is. I read that he’s frustrated at the very limited type of roles Hollywood’s offered him and started his own production company that produce more character-driven films. As for this movie though, I’m still not sold on it. I like Jackie Chan but Jaden, major meh.
Okay, here’s my cultural question Castor.
Sure I’m biased for growing up with the 80s Karate Kid (I even had my headband and all), so I was mad when it was announced. The hate wained eventually, of course.
I mostly hunt for reviews in English, because it’s faster… considering it opens first in America and all. I was very surprised how well the film was received, and most people I know from the US told me the movie wasn’t half bad, and it was enjoyable.
When it finally opened here, and finally saw it… I just couldn’t stand Dre. Specially since most of the English opinions were about how charismatic the Smith kid was, but I just couldn’t bring myself to like him. I thought it must be me, and not liking little kids and everything. However, the more people I talked with about the film here, it was a consensus – the fighting was kinda cool (though a little overdone), but that Dre was just a spoiled brat.
Specially the parents of the kids, I asked them about why the American public found Dre and Smith so likable, and most told me that it’s because Dre’s cocky, and Americans like the attitude. Lol, then it just went onto a political rant, etc.
I particularly found that scene where Dre throws the dirty water at the Chinese kids irritating. Sure the other kids were mean to him when he met the little girl, but that didn’t mean Dre had to chase after them and throw dirty water at them. That’s just asking to be picked on…
Jaden was thrashed in Swedish media nad almost all reviews focused on him being Will’s son.
LOL, they didn’t trash him here. It was more of a “wow, he’s annoying” they went on about “how petulant he is in the movie for being an American kid” and then to “he’s in the movie because of his dad”.
So I was wondering about the cultural aspect – do American critics/audiences find him charismatic because he’s got an attitude… or international audiences and critics find him annoying because he acts like a “petulant american kid”.
I know I’m another generation, but if I had talked to my parents like that – my dad would’ve whooped my ass. LOL
And as much as I could hate the primary teacher who punished me (and others) for not doing homework by cleaning up the school bathrooms – which you know would be viewed as psychological abuse because she made the other students watch – I even gotta admit that it fixed me. I never missed homework again. Tough discipline, man. LOL
Wow thats rough!
To add to my comment there was a lot of critique on him behaving like he did in the movie aswell. Hard to discuss when I haven’t seen it myself. I’ll try renting it when its released.
I didn’t think much of Jaden Smith. he wasn’t particularly good but he wasn’t bad either. Since he was only 11-yr old (?) at the time the movie was made, I’m really not going to focus too much on his performance.
I also didn’t think Dre was particularly “cocky”, he was just unhappy to have moved to China. Now, American cinema has often been into portraying kids as being more mature than their age would suggest which can be annoying at times.
I didn’t think much of this movie when I saw it. Jaden was more uneven than a mountain road. He definitely had his moments, but each scene I felt he dominated, there were several where I was wondering if he was even awake.
What I really disliked about the film, and perhaps really skewed my judgment, was I felt the movie was much better off when it didn’t try to mimic the original. The movies obsession with more ‘mysticism’ (such as the whole stupid temple sequence) forced in the dull stereotype, Asian = Weird Mystics, that grates on my nerves. I did find the movie passably entertaining, but not one I’d revisit.
Very Inspiring movie. I appreciate the role of Jackiechan where he give chance to the kid(Jaden smith) to be a main role. BTW Jaden smith prove his talented acting. A promising actor in the future. Hope he is better than his father Will Smith.
I was pleasantly surprised by this one, too. A bit overlong, but not as bad as I feared. The change of location really gave it an exotic air that I think helped it avoid the “been there, done that” feeling that most of us were expecting.
Although, I missed “Cruel Summer” Will Smith couldn’t cover Bananarama for his son? Really?
I only watched this recently – it really is a good film and a great update of a ‘classic-80s’ film. I also think jaden was really good – and great castig in Jackie Chan…
Who think sequel …?
Excuse me while I groan.
I had a lot of fun with this one– it’s got the same sensibilities as the original, it knows how much to indulge itself, the martial arts are pretty good for a kids’ kung fu movie, and it’s got a lot of heart. Most of all it’s got Chan. This should be a big movie for Smith, but Chan does his best work in years here. He gives Han a lot of soul and makes a very real character out of him instead of simply trying to replicate what Pat Morita did with Miyagi in the original film. Chan just does his own thing and makes the character his. And that scene in the car is kind of heartbreaking.
I was pleasantly surprised. I really expected to hate this. Maybe it helped that I saw it for free at an advanced screening, and maybe it helped that the crowd I saw it with ate it up. Either way, I dug it.
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