R.W.R.

Well after having a nice date ( I hope!!) I was able to see the 2010 version of The Karate Kid.  Starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith in the roles of Mr. Han and Dre Parker respectively and directed by Harald Zwart, The Karate Kid is a mixed bag.  I honestly wasn't surprised that this film was remade for a younger audience.  The original Karate Kid came out in 1984 and was seemingly lost to the new generation of movie goers; it was only a matter of time before Hollywood sank its fangs into this one to drain the sweet nectar from within.  Is the Karate Kid remake worth a shot or will this film fall into the cracks of badly made remakes?

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie, now this may have been caused by my date but none the less I was ok with this film.  That does not mean however that this film is excellent or surpasses the original.  Both films are alike so much that you realize this is a scene by scene carbon copy.  Jackie Chan's acting as well as Jaden Smiths' was phenomenal, capturing the essence of each character well.  The locations within China were excellent and hard to keep your eyes off of.  Unfortunately The Karate Kid has suffered the Hollywood treatment we have all come to know and hate.

The story as I said is very similar to the original and I cannot stress how similar they are.  A boy and his single mother move to a new place, the boy finds a love interest, there is a bully who knows martial arts, boy learns martial arts, tournament, and a special kick wins!  Now this isn't fair to the movie, but it also isn't fair to the viewer to sit through what is essentially the same movie twice.  The only reason this film has done well is that it takes no risks in anything.  It creates its borders and stays well within them without fail.  If you do the math 1=1 then how can you go wrong?  The original was a great movie and the remake which IS the original is also great.  On a side note I was happy that Jackie Chan did get a fight scene and they left it at that.  I was half expecting him to start grabbing ladders and spinning with them to take out hordes of preteens.  Thankfully they kept him acting and not impromptu weapon grabbing.

If you have seen the original then there isn't much more to write about this film.  I have to give Hollywood kudos on this one; they really didn't even attempt to make this movie its own. Even the dialog from the evil martial arts teacher is the same; I kept waiting for someone to yell "Get him a body bag! YEAH!" in Cantonese.  For what it's worth though the relationship that Daniel and Mr. Miyagi had was the stuff of legends and jokes for years.  Dre and Mr. Han also share this type of relationship and it does help the film greatly, but like I said it was in the original so how can you go wrong?  If they really had wanted to impress me, they movie should have had Dre pull a gun in the tournament and blow the bully away.  I guess that can be a little much to ask...

Now one of the major issues with this film is in the title, now this has been said so often that is almost not worth mentioning but what the hell.  The Karate Kid contains no Karate at all but instead Kung Fu.  After a little bit of research I found that the title The Karate Kid is only the American name of the film.  In Asia the film is called The Kung Fu Kid and also Best Kid in Korea.  This is one of the major changes in the film as well as the age group for the kids; they seemed a little too young for the situations they were in.  Dre is supposed to be 12 years old but was in a place mentally that most people aren't in until High school.  Now this could have been because of his acting or just poor judgment on the film makers' part.  Marketing this film to a younger crowd will garnish more revenue for the studio so I also understand their approach from a pure business perspective.

That is what this film is about, making money off the name of a well established film. I'm still waiting for the Jaden Smith remake of Home Alone, mark my words it'll happen!!  I know I've spent most of the time bashing this film for its shortcomings but in the end I enjoyed it for what it was.  Plus I was on a date, so give me a break this time! I'm a giant nerd who doesn't date often, enjoy them while you get em!!  So give The Karate Kid a shot and let me know what you think.