Mel J

25 May 2012

A tad silly

While I enjoyed the original 'The Karate Kid', I am a couple of yearstoo young to say I hold great nostalgia for it so I was not thatbothered to hear of the remake (other than wonder why Hollywood can'tthink up new ideas any more). Since watching this, I doubt it will beheld in the same regard by children and young teens today as theoriginal was.The film revolved around twelve-year-old Dre whose mother's job forcesthem to move to China. Life is hard enough adjusting to the culturaland language changes but then finds himself the focus of a gang of KungFu-trained bullies after he is caught flirting with a girl in theirclass. Luckily, the local martial artist handyman Mr Han takes Dreunder his wing and teaches him the skills to fight the bullies in anupcoming Kung Fu tournament.The main problem with this film was the ages of the young cast. JadenSmith, who played Dre, seems to have trained for the film but he looksno more than a tiny ten-year-old child (I think he actually was onlyabout ten at the time of filming) and he looks far too young and softfor such active fighting. At that age, he shouldn't be expected to fendoff bullies alone, and his mother and teachers should be intervening tohelp him. It doesn't help that Dre went from picking up his jacket tobecoming a wonderful martial artist who can take on kids who have beentraining since infancy in a matter of weeks. We see little of hisprogress or anything to convince us of his newfound skills.In the original film, it worked that Daniel was in his late teens andfelt he was too old to look for parental help, and his bullies were thesame age as him. Dre's 'love interest' and the bullies look a good twoto four years older than him, making the whole situation even moreridiculous. Even then, the bullies are still kids too so when Mr Han,with Jackie Chan in the role, looked like an oaf beating them up whenhe should have dragged them all home to their parents.Another major point is that this isn't the early Eighties any more.Hollywood remember when producing remakes that what was acceptabledecades ago is not what we would put up with today. Six kids physicallybeating up another boy to the extent that they could have seriouslyinjured or killed him is not something that you just shove under therug. It is an offence and would probably be a police concern today.In terms of the film, I think primary school children would very likelyenjoy it but anyone older would find these points a bit hard toswallow. With a little thought and a young cast aged around sixteenthen this film might have been of more interest. As it is, it'ssomething I would watch as background noise.

SatiZenBen

25 May 2012

I know Kung-Fu!

I enjoyed it, but I couldn't get The Matrix scene (Neo and Morpheusfighting) out of my mind after watching Karate Kid. I don't know howmuch time passed from the beginning of the film until the end scenes,but it doesn't seem possible to learn that technique so quickly. "Iknow Kung-Fu!" I was really impressed with the Chinese history and cultureincorporated in to the film, though. It was a good film, but the same story as the original. A kid getspicked on. He learns Kung-Fu and fights back. See the movie for yourself and don't just take my words as fact. If yougo in expecting choreographed fight scenes, you will miss the mainpoints of the film. Go in expecting nothing and be impressed. Enjoy.

terrellrobinson71

21 May 2012

One of the best remakes of the year! And you dont need to wax on, wax off a lot.

It's hard to explain the remake of "The Karate Kid" since I just camefrom the movies to see it, but at least it's just like the original butthis time, it's a little different. In this remake, poor Dre Parker(Jaden Smith, son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, who co-produced thefilm) moves from Detroit, Michigan to Beijing, China along with hismom, Sherry (Taraji P. Henson) who's got a promotion in this newcountry. He tries to fit in, especially finding a friend in a violinistnamed Meiyang (Han Wenwen), but his new life is in trouble when thebully, Cheng, is making his life hell. That is until, the Mr. Miyagicharacter or, in this case, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) saves his life andteaching the "real kung-fu" and by putting him in an intense martialarts competition with the "bad kung-fu" kids along with Master Li(Rongguang Yu from "Iron Monkey"), who is hellbent on making the kidsfight other kids without stopping. (What is with the adrenaline thing?)No matter, I actually love this movie because of what made the originala icon and that is exactly what this movie is doing. It's great to seeJackie Chan in the Pat Morita role and he does it without making usprove that this is Jackie Chan and this calls for the best performanceof a lifetime. But the movie's hero or heroes are using China as abackdrop of introducing us to a whole new international world, the140-minute mark that made it work, the beautiful cinematography byRoger Pratt, the charming screenplay by Christopher Murphey and, ofcourse, young Jaden Smith who shines in the Ralph Macchio role and thatis a fact. When I saw the previews, I knew it would be somethinginteresting. Now, I came in, excited, happy and joyful. I laughed,almost cried and cheered all the way into the finale. This is one ofthe best remakes I've ever seen and it's a better "Karate Kid" since"The Next Karate Kid". Bring your whole family to see this piece ofwonderful summer family entertainment, especially kids ages 8 and up,and see how Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith will bring you a great time atthe movies this summer.

MartianOctocretr5

20 May 2012

Jackie Chan should have karate-kicked the script writer

Could have been better. If Jackie Chan had beaten up the writer. Anddirector. And most of the cast; especially that kid.Such an insult to a classic original. It wants to be a "reimagining."What it is: "ridiculous." It looks like somebody was trying to do aculture clash type story about two cultures they've never seen before.It doesn't really matter, since the whole paper-thin "bullies don'tlike his bad hair day" sub-plot is just an excuse for its half-bakedsports competition finale. The cultures are some kid named Dre withdreads (get it?), and some Chinese kids who you never know anythingabout. Except that their teacher/mob-boss (or whatever he is) wantsthem to punch, slam, and kick everybody senseless. "Show no mercy!"Sounds like the attitude of this film's script writer.Jackie Chan keeps this from being the kind of movie people would walkout of even from an airplane cruising at 38,000 feet. Unfortunately,he's not the center of attention; Jaden Smith as the title character isthe focus. Chan's character rescues him, takes him under his wing, andinstructs him in the ways of the Karate force. Too bad neither Chan oranybody else can do anything about the kid not inheriting the actingtalents of his parents.The actors doing the fight scene stunts were better, but that's aboutall the movie allows them to do. Whoever wrote this thing felt obligedby martial art movie quota standards to stick them with a fewbargain-basement "philosophy" lines. Lines that were obviously writtenby someone who knows nothing about Eastern, or any other philosophy.The reason for the animosity between various characters was poorlyrendered. The child playing the girl-friend was among the better actorsin the cast, but her interest in him made no sense. Like the wholeset-up idea, that a single mom and son would be relocated to a hostileenvironment, doesn't make any sense.See the original Karate Kid. Or one of Chan's other movies. But notthis.

John DeSando

18 May 2012

OK Karate Kid

The Karate Kid is a Sino-American Rocky starring the Will Smith familyscion, Jaden. He goes to China with his mom, gets beaten up by badChinese kids, prepares to revenge in a tournament, and falls in love.Meanwhile, the underused Jacky Chan plays a maintenance man teachingJaden to fight. Jaden shows no exceptional talent, and there's littleof the philosophy that makes a sentimental piece like this bearable.Karate Kid is family entertainment trying to show the importance ofcharity, goals, open-mindedness, and resilience. Unfortunately a slowexposition keeps the film from a fast summer pace.Those who compare this version to the original may be disappointed, andthose who are interested in Chinese American relations may find itproblematic.

leonhaddad

18 May 2012

Exact copy?

Before I watched this movie, I made the mistake watching the originalKarate Kid only 2 days prior. Normally I probably wouldn't have noticedit, but now it was obvious that the script writers were lackinginspiration. This movie is almost an exact copy of the first one andincludes a dozen of the exact same dialogs. I understand that it's aremake but to use the exact same dialogs? Too bad because overall itwas an entertaining movie and I always like watching Jackie Chan. Ifyou haven't seen the Karate Kid, plz go watch this movie and have agood time. If you did see it only a couple of days ago like I did, waita while before spending your money on this one.

18 May 2012

Very Pleased

This review is from: The Karate Kid (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (Blu-ray) I ordered the New Karate kid Blu ray and I knew that I was getting a plain dvd of it too. Then to my suprise when I received it I also got the original karate kid. Very Pleased with how quickly I received it and the nice suprise. I will definately do business again.

17 May 2012

Perfect movie came on time and in perfect condition

This review is from: The Karate Kid [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray) Not much indecision here, really enjoyed the movie in theaters still enjoyed it at home, it came on time and in perfect condition!

15 May 2012

Love It!

As a fan of the original, this movie stood on it's own. Why? Because even though the title was that of the original, the story stood alone. It was wonderful to see Jackie Chan in something other than a comedy. And Jaden is a rising star. If you were comparing it to the original then you missed out because it wasn't. I plan to add it to my library along side with the first one. BTW in the original the lead clearly was not a martial artist but in the remake you can see that Jackie Chan of course and Jaden Smith are both highly skilled.

15 May 2012

A terrible remake of an 80s classic and theres only one karate kid, not this one!

First of all, I was thinking this would be good until the trailer revealed it all. Man, I was so wrong about it and it ruined my weekend the week this pile of garbage came out as my martial arts school was paid so much to do promotions by performing in theaters to lure in customers. This will leave dissapointment to fans of the classic, the only people that would like this are kids of the current generation. I wasn't born in the 80's, since I'm from the 90's generation. I grew up watching the classic and it's been a part of my childhood since then, my papa used to rent the movie so much for me. Unfortunately, that was it after the trilogy and it went downhill w/"The Next Karate Kid" and the Jaden Smith one is worse than the previous. Here's why this movie isn't good The title left confusion, leaving many people wondering as to why it's called that when they could've just called it "The Kungfu Kid". What's wrong with calling it that? The movie is known by a different title in Asia of what I just mentioned. Casting of characters was just blah! Jaden Smith's acting wasn't good and he seems to try too hard to be likable. Personally, I didn't like how Hollywood decided to pick this kid that looks nothing more than some hoodlum of a thug wannabe, his image shows it in the movie. He talks too much with cheesy lines after another, making him rather annoying than likable. His character didn't even bother to learn Chinese, which makes it pointless to live in a country that you don't know speak the language for, let alone that he can't even use chopsticks. His mom gets annoying with the whole "pick up your jacket!" and wearing all these flashy looking clothes to try to fit in with the Chinese. Overall, Ralph Macchio beats his act. Jackie Chan's acting wasn't good, no offense to you JC fans out there. I appreciate his previous flicks to where he's not some grumpy man (like Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino) who hates his life after he got his wife and kid killed in a car crash for simply arguing w/his wife which explains the whole wreackage of the car he has which made no sense. His character's attitude seemed like he wanted to get off the set as soon as possible. That's not the Jackie Chan we all know and love. Also, even I heard some Theater staff saying that JC was even upset with the title. Noriyuki Morita's acting as Mr.Miyagi was a whole lot better and the opposite of JC's grumpy Mr.Han. Next off is those Chinese kids that bully Jaden's character. They are such douchebags, which makes Johnny Laurence and his Cobra Kai gang more likable and less annoying. The leader of the Chinese kid is the worst of all, in the movie they did far much worse than what the Cobra Kai gang did to Daniel. What was really immature of them (Chinese kids) was when they flopped Jaden's lunch tray, ruining his clothes and when they grabbed his backpack, they tossed it around and kicked it for a bit, such jerks! Johnny Laurence was a douche on his part, but he made up for it with some of his lines that was funny. Also, the Cobra Kai followed their teacher's order completely by not messing with Daniel until the Tournament, not unlike Cheng and his gang of immature losers. Dre Parker is already hitting on some girl and he only 12 years old and yet to hit puberty. The movie shouldn't involve some elementary age kids that know little or nothing about acting, it could've been saved from suckage if they didn't choose first timers that made their bad acting obvious with all these lines they throw in. It would've been better if they involved teenagers, not some wannabe looking hoodlum and a group of wannabe bad boys in an elementary school setting. Enough said about this, for it will damage the name of the classic for years to follow. I can just imagine how I'd be talking about the one and only and when people jump into the conversations, they'd be asking "Which one? The Ralph Macchio one or Jaden Smith?" There's only one Karate Kid out there and that's Daniel Larusso. Stick with the classic if you want to see a good movie, not those crappy remakes.

Colin George

14 May 2012

Overlong, But A Focused, Contemporary Remake

Sure, I went through a brief martial arts phase as a kid—I just didn'thave the attention span to devote myself to the discipline (Really, Ithink I just liked the idea of colored belts). Consequently, my grazinginterest in the eastern fighting styles took me only as far as theninja turtles; I saw the original "Karate Kid" last week.Its remake, which swaps sunny California for China and Ralph Macchiofor Will Smith's son Jaden, plays by the same basic rules as the 1984version, and despite a strikingly similar screenplay, manages to feeldistinct through its subtle updates in plot, protagonist, and setting.Carefully arranged and deliberately paced, this new "Kid" is anythingbut a quick cash-grab. It's a carefully, almost delicately constructedfilm, but like the original, one that overstays its welcome at two plushours. The pacing is curious for several reasons, not the least ofwhich (as I might once have whined) is the attention spans of itstarget audience.Normally, I would defend a film that takes its time telling the story,but both versions of "The Karate Kid" suffer from thematic redundancy.Every scene with our hero fleeing from oppressive bullies, wooing thegirl, or training under his enigmatic master (a respectable turn byJackie Chan this time around) serves the same principle function, andwhen you ultimately shortchange the audience on a convincingprogression anyway, there's no reason not to trim the excess.But those boring patches are generally made up for by the surprisinglyintense fight sequences—Especially from an audio perspective. Theimpact of each blow is authoritative, loud, and visceral, and duringkey showdowns, my audience became a chorus of 'oofs' and applause. "TheKarate Kid" is a crowd-pleaser, no question, and a lot of fun to hear areaction to.The brutality of the combat is also surprising because the film is madeand marketed for children and their parents. I don't think anyone whosits down to watch a movie about kids fighting each other has muchelbowroom for offense, but many may be expecting something tamer. "TheKarate Kid" also has a strong moral core, teaching the tried and trueself- defensive approach to practicing martial arts. Above all, it'snice to see a film with almost an entire cast of children that doesn'ttalk down or pander to a young crowd.Of course, it suffers like so many sports dramas do, from the inherentpredictability of an underdog story—And doubly so as remake of anexisting film. 2010's "Karate Kid" suffers from a lack of genuinesurprises, but polishes it's tired archetypes to a like-new finish;which is fortunate, because Jackie Chan swatting a fly is about theextent of the filmmakers' willingness to innovate.Still, it's a movie that's just too adorable to stay mad at. Chan andSmith work well together, validating the latter as a genuine talent(even if it's largely as a carbon copy of his father), and contributingto the former's best performance in years. Their bond is convincing,and their relationship is the emotional anchor for this more serioustake on the 1984 original.It's worth noting that 2010's "Karate Kid" has no actual karate in it,since Chan and China dictate kung fu be the more socially relevantdiscipline. I imagine this may confuse inspired kids, who show updisappointed to their first week of karate class.Nevertheless, the film, like the values it teaches, is well balancedand focused. Maybe it would be more fun if it were aggressively on thenarrative offense—But I guess that would be against the rules, wouldn'tit?

Bence Locsei

14 May 2012

Unacceptable lack of reality.

Mom figures, it's a fairly good idea to break away her 12 year oldchild from his environment in the United States of America and move himinto a communist country on the opposite side of the world. After all,it's not her problem, that he doesn't even speak the language or has afair chance of ever learning it properly. She'll just teach him realfast on the plane, it's a long flight anyway. I guess Hong Kong (orwherever this is) is not the a place where a 12 year old child gettinglost would be anything to be concerned about anyway. But damnungrateful kid is even throwing his fu*ki/n jacket on the ground everytime he gets it off, shame on him for not respecting his lunaticmother. Damn kid should just get his s/*t together and learn f/*in*Chinese from scratch really quick.Well, fortunately this specific rich part (?) of china is a placefairly similar to America, just with Asian people and in the end thetransition feels like having moved from Detroit to Toronto at best.Here Jaden Smith meets the token American school bully and his gang andthe Disney certified musical love interest took from a Barbiecommercial and her strict but in the end honorable father, allexclusively American people just with Chinese accents. The way in whichmoving this story to politically more and more influential China was astrategic decision and barely more than an alibi for this remake to getfinanced is fairly obtrusive.So here we are, in this advertisement for modern China and fortunatelythe kid doesn't need to go to school where his lack of knowledgeregarding the Chinese language would be a problem. Also this leaves himtime to be taught the ancient art of kung fu, by hanging up his jacketfor five days. After training for a month or so his kung-fu might notbe perfect, but it's more than enough to win a tournament againstbrutal, over trained kids doing this since they were 3 years old. Afterall, he did have previous baseball experience.The surprisingly harsh fight scenes might be an occasional refreshment,but unfortunately they are rare and the rest of the movie is exactly asmuch longer then bearable as much time Harald Zwart decided to insertinto merely every scene to have Jaden Smith deliver one liners,"character building dialog" barely carrying any kind of information orshow him "looking" for long seconds. So about 45 minutes. The attemptto make this movie as emotional as possible is obtrusive as every givenopportunity is used to have the severe score blaring for minutes. Thechild is learning martial arts, he doesn't bring f*/*in democracy tochina.So, verdict.The target audience might like it, I guess. After all this is THEclassic story and they will not care about the details. And besides thepoints mentioned the execution is pretty good. As an interesting add-onJackie Chan actually delivers his best performance as an actor so far(whatever that means), having the chance, of rightfully speaking badEnglish and being able to concentrate on his performance rather thanthe pronunciation. But for adults the movie might rather appear asoverlong, cheesy, dated, clichéd, fairly unrealistic and for some mayberoughly commercial.

11 May 2012

They put some sweat and tears into making this movie

For all my reviews visit my websiteI am NOT reviewing the DVD. Just the movies unless otherwise stated.Please note that the rating above might not accurately reflect my thoughts, you will see a rating sentence at the end of the review.So, this movie has it's ups and downs. First off, they couldn't stick with the names Miyagi and Daniel. Okay, so now the mentor is Chinese (more on that later,) but the kid is still American, why Dre? Why not Daniel? It just seems that they were trying to make their movie stand alone. But at the same time, play with the details we've come to know and love (would you like your car waxed on, or waxed off?) Well, they succeeded, with 70% going to Stand Alone, 20% going to playing with details, and 10% going to sticking with the original script. (You ready?!?!?! LEGO'S!!!!!! This is 10% duck, 20% krill, 15% concentrated juices to fill, 5% cheddar, 50% Cane, and 100% reason to eat it again!) Speaking of such, this movie also had a great score. Both original songs and some familiar ones, some of the familiar not so great, but one in particular was spectacular. (I have the Air Conditioning on Dude! Cheese, the room is Pitch Black! I'll be Back in a minute!) Yeah, needless to say it's 10:30 P.M. on a Wednesday night.I don't like the idea of coming to China as part of the script. How bout Japan if they wanted some foreign country with a language no American can speak? How bout Japan, because Miyagi was Japanese!!!! Nope, gotta be EXTREMELY Typical. Gotta just make everyone a stereotype. Gotta make it Kung Fu in China. Instead of Karate in Japan, like IT SHOULD BE!!!! The only thing non-stereotypical about this is the new Miyagi, Mr. Han (which is Mr. Chan-C.) His accent is more real then a lot of other faces and accents. But, his one liners! Nowhere near the stuff of the original! (YOUR FOCUS NEEDS MORE FOCUS?!?!!? @#$%!) Also, his last name is such a stereotype (Han? For real? The only time it's used outside Chinese stereotyping is Star Wars....) Now you must hear me do STAR WARS!!!! THIS IS A STAR WARS!!!! WE ALL LOVE...STAR WARS!!! A WAR IN THE STARS!!!! The only thing I think they got better than the original was Mr. Han's history. (Try saying that 10 times fast.) He gets drunk and cries and breaks down at one scene, because it is the anniversary of...well...I won't spoil it for you, but it's a scene extremely well done. I haven't even told you what I thought this was a mix of. Take The original Karate Kid, The Karate Kid Part II, The Next Karate Kid, (No, I'm sure not part III because even though I haven't seen it I know enough of it,) Clash of the Titans (2010), a juicy New York Stake and a rotten tomato (sign) and put it in a blender. All force it down an audiences throat with a little pop culture music on the side. The girlfriend is done typically in half the time, but the other half you REALLY like her character, and not in an innuendo way. She is just an awesome personality. Of course, she plays violin (and I say that because of King of the Hill, not because of any other stuff.) But, it works out in favor for the movie, because she's awesome at it.Now, onto the bad guys. Well, Dre's one good male friend (of course, an American White Blonde...THIS IS CHINA!!!!) Looks more like the bad guys of the original, and the bad guys (besides being Chinese) look more like the old Daniel. Well, Dre is a totally new look for a child star. You notice that a lot of 80's movies with child actors don't have African-American child actors? Ah well, I'm getting on my political high horse again. (Which is more like a Zebra than any other horse, and not just because of the stripes.) Now I'm hungry for stripes Gum!!!! Okay, get on track Ca$hman. This movie was able to immerse yourself in multiple ways, made you feel like you were part of the experience. Better than any 3-D movie in recent years. You see, it's not physical but mental Hollywood! The settings and props were pretty great looking as for what they had to work with. You know, I can see the director and producer held no punches making this movie, but the writer and editor maybe had a beef with Director and Producer.All in all, definably worth a watch in theaters. Don't get too excited, because, like the original, it works against you. I rate it, 3.5678124982/5

Targe

10 May 2012

The Kung Fu Kid

The hardest part for me was trying to fathom why Wil Smith would try tore-invent a known movie. The one thing holding this movie back was thefact that it was a copy of that pathetic summer b movie with RalphMachio.This movie was far superior to the original Karate Kid. The fact thatthey copied that movie is why I rate it so low.I enjoyed watching this movie. The setting, in smog-choked Beijing, wasvery interesting, and I find Kung Fu much more interesting than Karate.Why Didn't They Call It "The Kung Fu Kid"??? I will never know. Is itnot cool in Hollywood to change the title when you are blatantlycopying? Well, we know that is not true from all the blatant copyingthat goes on every day.Jackie Chan was fantastic, other than his silly 'jacket on' 'jacketoff' technique. Note to non martial arts practicioners - THIS DOES NOTWORK. It is stupid and silly. Choosing a far more believable technique,such as making the kid polish his car-crash Scirrocco, would have beenmore believable.Finally, I was appalled at the violence at the end of the movie. Chinadoes not have full contact kung fu competitions with NO SAFETYequipment, not even for adults, never mind these kids beating eachother senseless!!! I am sure China was quite insulted by this movie.

09 May 2012

the karate kid

This review is from: The Karate Kid (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) (Blu-ray) the movie is good but I only received the Blu-ray. The package Supposed to be Blu-ray/DVD combo+ Digital Copy. My children were pretty Sad and I was pretty Pissed

moviewizguy

09 May 2012

THE Movie to See this Summer

12-year-old Dre Parker could've been the most popular kid in Detroit,but his mother's latest career move has landed him in China. Dreimmediately falls for his classmate Mei Ying but cultural differencesmake such a friendship impossible. Even worse, Dre's feelings make anenemy of the class bully, Cheng. In the land of kung fu, Dre knows onlya little karate, and Cheng puts "the karate kid" on the floor withease. With no friends in a strange land, Dre has nowhere to turn butmaintenance man Mr. Han, who is secretly a master of kung fu. As Hanteaches Dre that kung fu is not about punches and parries, but maturityand calm, Dre realizes that facing down the bullies will be the fightof his life. --© SonyI'm sorry. It's not going to wait. I have to say it now: THE KARATE KIDis easily one of the best movies of the year. And I'll be honest, I'mpretty glad to say that because it has been a pretty mediocre year formovies so far, and we're halfway through it! But before I say anythingelse, I need to come clean and say I haven't seen the original film.OK. Now I got that out of the way, let's begin. I liked the story alot. Sure, underdog films are predictable, but I personally enjoy themimmensely, especially if they're well made, like this film. There's alot of heart in here.The thing that stuck out most for me in this film is the setting ofChina. The film really benefits from this because there are rarely anyHollywood films that take place in this beautiful country. It's greatto see scenes that are on location from the Forbidden City to the GreatWall. There's no CGI or built sets from California. The scenery is justfascinating. What you see is what you get. And seeing the story takesplace in this country, there's an authentic feel that is brought to thefilm. The gorgeous cinematography just adds more to the "wow" factor toaudiences who have never been to China.The second thing that impressed me was the diverse cast. It's great tosee Asians and African Americans filling the roles of a Hollywood film.You don't see that much these days. And the missing stereotypes is ahuge plus in my book! Some of you might be hesitant about Jaden Smithplaying the lead role but I gotta tell you, this kid has a lot ofacting chops. His performance is vulnerable and you sympathize for hischaracter. Oh, and this is the best performance I've ever seen fromJackie Chan. He gives a really powerful and emotional performance.There was one or two scenes that made me cry because of how raw hisacting was. The chemistry between these two actors could not have beenbetter. Taraji P. Henson is good although wasn't as great as Smith andChan. Lastly, Wenwen Han was pretty good as Smith's love interest.Now, the fight scenes. You wouldn't notice by the trailers but, I haveto admit, they were pretty damn brutal and shocking. The fact that mostof the fighting is done by kids just adds on to the surprisingly heavyquality of the film. The running time for the film is around 140minutes, which may seem long and tedious and more than it should be,but due to the great pacing of the film, you would hardly notice it atall. It gives the characters, especially our protagonist, time todevelop and grow. The score by Howard Shore is fantastic as well.Overall, THE KARATE KID is THE movie to see this summer. Theperformances are freaking fantastic and the third act will certainlymake you stand up and cheer. It's also a great movie for all ages.Sure, the story is predictable but it's well made and there's a lot ofheart to it. If that's not good enough for an underdog film, then whatis? I know it's stupid and clichéd but I'll just say it anyway: Thefilm is a winner!

derk814151977

09 May 2012

I was expecting this film to be bad, but is a good film

When I saw the trailers for this film I was expected a bad film, but itwasn't when I watched and surprised how good it was.I loved the original movie as I was a child of the 1980s, but honestlyand objectively speaking this remake is a better film than theoriginal. Better acting and superior fight scenes. I was shocked by therange of emotions Will Smith's son showed in the film and the film hadgreater depth than original.I do get why people gave this film lower ratings. If you watched theoriginal and love it, you won't get that warm buzzing feeling you gotwhen you watch this movie. That's because films like this were freshand new in the 1980s. In the same way The Fighter is a better film thanRocky, but you won't as excited after you seen the fighter as you gotwhen you first saw Rocky 3 or 4.People expecting to feel the same waythey felt when they watched the original as a child are going to bedisappointed as that is impossible when you are 25 years older.My issue with the film was I wasn't quite sure who the film was aimedat. At times the film had the depth of an grown up film that would borekids and because the kids are much younger looking than the originalversion it didn't seemed aimed at teenagers or adults.

thunder_go

09 May 2012

Really? Shao Dre?

I've decided to watch the new "Karate Kid" only because of the successof the original one. Wrong! If you don't want to ruin all the goodmemories with the conversations of Mr. Miyagi and Daniel-San and thechemistry between them, do not watch it! What the hell is wrong withyou people? Who let this to be produced at all? And a sequel is coming?Really guys, what's wrong with you??? Even the lowest rated of the"Karate kid" parts is better than this one. If you are willing to do aremake, do it the same way - no Chinese stuff, no "put it down, put itup", no car accidents, no "Shao-Dre" (wtf!??!), no stupidconversations. I'll suggest you, instead of watching this, give themoney to buy the original. Watch it first. Than if like it, do notwatch the remake. If you don't then watch it. I'm sure this movie is"the best movie ever" for like 10-13 years old boys, but only if theyhad the chance to watch the original first, I'm sure they'll have thesame opinion as mine. I gave it two, only because of the soundtrack.And don't forget - wax-on, wax-off :)

ailatsirc

07 May 2012

Great movie for everyone

I went into this movie with high expectations, and i came out extremelysatisfied. This new Karate Kid has everything, comedy, action, drama.Having seen the original, i feel that they did an excellent job atpaying tribute to the classic Karate Kid, while making it feel likesomething new. I have to admit that I was a little skeptical when I sawthat Jayden Smith was going to be the lead, but he did a great job withthe roll, Jackie Chan surprised me a little, he's acting is much betterthan in previous films. All the kids in this movie did an amazing job,I loved the scenery and cinematography. This is a great movie to seewith the entire family. To all you haters, grow up, enjoy the movie forwhat it is, not for what you think it should have been.

07 May 2012

Movies

This review is from: The Karate Kid (DVD) I bought this movie for my daughter and she loves it! Jaden is a great actor and did an awesome job acting! And of course my all time fav Jackie Chan was awesome! Thank you for this DVD!