The Karate Kid (2010– 140 mins) Jaden Smith, Jackie 

   It seems to be a big thing in Hollywood right now to do remakes. There are a lot of different ways directors like to go. Usually these remakes go with just the basic movie premise and then the story gets its modern twist to it. Take your Oceans 11 types for instance. Here we get a different take on the remake. We get almost a complete scene for scene updating of the original Karate Kid. The whole basic story takes the linear path of the orig. From meeting the bullies to the Miyagi/Han taking out the bullies to training and so on. This might be a turn off to some but to me it completely makes the new version 100x better.

   Smith’s mom is transferred to China with her work and he has no choice but to fit in. While trying to mingle with some of the local kids he finds himself on the wrong end of some bullying when trying to talk to a cute girl he meets at the park. He then gets a steady diet of ass kickings till finally during one of these ass kickings the local handyman, Mr. Han (Chan) has had enough and comes to the kid’s rescue. Upon trying to get the kids to stop picking on Dre (Smith) the leader of the dojo declines the pledge of peace and Han suggests they all settle it in the local Kung Fu tourney. And thus we have the rest of the golden rags to riches Karate Kid story.

   Let’s get one thing straight. The original Karate Kid, while cheesy by today’s standards, is a GREAT movie. It exemplifies the underdog story and has an amazing 80’s charm to it. As usual since the whole world just loved this movie I was skeptical and didn’t think it would be the best thing since sliced bread. As usual lately, I was wrong, but pleasantly surprised to be wrong. It turns out to be a very good movie and a good re-imaging of the original. Like I mentioned before the reason I think it gets a lot more kudos from me is how true and identical it stays to the original. I also have to say that Jaden Smith is a damn likable kid. He does a great job in the movie and we could have another star in the Smith family for sure.

  Jackie Chan is also a great actor of our time for what he does, but he’s just not Pat Morita. He tries to be the mysterious mentor who likes to keep his past a secret but he just doesn’t get it to the extent Morita did. Don’t get me wrong he was still excellent, likable and did it well but I couldn’t help but think that he was no Morita in the role. In the end you still get the same warm fuzzy feeling when the movie is said and done and director Harold Zwart did an excellent job modernizing the story for the new age.

Verdict—> It’s a good family movie. Most anyone who has seen the original will like the way it’s done. I would put this on a nice short list of pick ups from the red box. Throw it with Ondine and have a nice 1-2 for a family double header, or date night.

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