The Karate Kid Review
The Smith Legacy carries on - this time with the remake of an extremely popular film. Before I do anything else I would just like to say how risky it is to put together a remake in general . Often the remakes don’t succeed because people are comparing them to the original and it if is not as good, they’ll hate it. Like the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory remake. Or, they are just plain horrible films. For example, the remake of Planet of the Apes. The only thing this move accomplished was it did put me in touch with my inner monkey, since I did have an urge to throw feces at the screen.
I would like to say however, that I really did like this particular remake though I have nothing to compare it to since I have never seen the original. I know, I know, I can’t be a critic since I have seen the original Karate Kid. Still, there are a few things that just don’t make sense or make me feel a bit awkward in this movie and I have to address them.
First of all there are the fight scenes. All of them are tense, impressive, and keep you on the edge of your seat. Why is this a bad thing? Because they all involve children. In every fight scene we just see children whaling on each other and it is always bordering on the line between exciting and disturbing. The only exception to this is when Jackie Chan, playing Mr Han, a maintenance man who is a kung fu master takes on six bullies who get themselves into a fight scene that’s both impressive and a little bit funny. The excitement is of course because this is the first and only time we see Jackie Chan fight in the movie and I’m savouring every second of it. But of course, Jackie Chan’s slapstick style of fighting adds a bit of hilarity to the mix. And no... I’m not going to make any jokes about JC beating up children because the way he fights he’s actually making them beat each other up - which isn’t any better in my books - but what can you do, it’s a kung fu movie.
The characters are all pretty good. I believe them as actors and none of their motivations really seemed out of character. Dre, our main character, is nice, but a little reckless and impulsive. He’s also a little quick to pull out his gun, which really does make sense. Not only has he lost his father, but he’s had to leave his family and friends behind when he moves to China. There’s also our female lead, I honestly say I can never remember her name. I think she may be says it once in the entire movie. But she’s a very nice girl who happens to very conveniently, know English. We also see she knows a bit about American dance when she and Dre play DDR. (Get it... they’re in China...DDR). I could kind of buy their relationship but of course, there is someone out to sabotage it. Enter our main villain, Cheng, a talented Martial Artist who happens to have a crush on our female lead. This causes the central theme of the movie, Cheng beats up Dre, several times, and Dre wants to be able to conquer his fear of Cheng and learns the ancient ways of Kung Fu from a quirky Asian man, who is Mr Han, who I already have explained a bit about. There is a really tragic plot point about him, but I really don’t want to ruin it for you.
Eventually, Mr Han trains Dre to be the Karate Kid, which is a bit of weird naming, since I don’t think they ever actually refer to the Martial Arts they are practicing as Karate. It is always Kung Fu – so shouldn’t it be named the Kung Fu Kid? Actually, no, that doesn’t have the same ring it. Dre enters a tournament to face off against Cheng in a tournament but one of Cheng’s friends almost breaks Dre’s leg and is disqualified. Which I never really got, since Cheng, during the tournament, punched one of his opponents in the face when he was down, continually punched one of his opponents over and over again even though he’d already won the match and the ref had to wrestle him off, and even hit one of his opponents with a flying pile driver that scientifically could have killed him, and yet he stayed around til the finals. What are the rules for this tournament? You may punch someone repeatedly when they are down, you may continue to whale on someone, when the ref is telling you to stop, and even perform near fatal Karate moves, but if you dare try and hurt someone’s leg, you are disqualified.
Overall though I would really recommend the Karate Kid, it is a very enjoyable movie that has some truly beautiful settings. It went from intense to casual, over and over again which made you want to see what happened next.
This is Dr Nova, saying there’s a fine line between insanity and a stable mind, but in order to appreciate life you have to spend it right in the middle.