The Karate Kid Reviews

After 2008, it seems that Will Smith, who was one of the biggest movie stars in the world, decided to take a step back to manage the career of his son. You wonder if Jaden Smith would be talented enough to secure such a production on his own but his father giving him some backup, there was no way the studios would refuse. Apparently, it was a smart move to go for this remake since it was quite successful at the box-office but, unfortunately for them, their following endeavor, ‘After Earth’, was a huge flop and you wonder where both their careers will go from there. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, I thought it was a fairly decent remake. Indeed, it followed the same storyline but they changed the setting, switch the karate to kung-fu, and got Jackie Chan to play the mentor which was some smart casting. Concerning Jaden Smith, you can say whatever you want, but the kid really knew how to fight and I was really surprised how brutal those fights looked like. I mean, the guy was just 12 years old but they really showed the real thing anyway! That’s probably the only really improvement on the original version, the fact that Jaden Smith really looked like a child, whereas Ralph Maccio was more a young adult. On the downside, it really took long (1 hour maybe) before they actually started the training and there were many cheesy and rather boring scenes. Still, to conclude, I thought it was not bad and I guess it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

A decent remake, but unlike the 1984, it's not inspiring at all. It's more of a journey of a kid that's all. Also, the 1984 was a little dark whereas this one is not and since there were so many changes done, didn't feel like a remake at all. Despite the fact that many characters are introduced very early in the movie, they become secondary extras as the movie progresses, with some of them not returning at all. Take Harry for instance. Introduced as a potential supporting character but disappears suddenly. The main antagonist Chen starts off great, stands on his own feet, but suffers through bad script-writing. Same goes for Meiying, although I liked her screen-time and presence.

Sorry to say this but Harald Zwart couldn't handle several characters at once and as the film progressed, the sole spotlight was on Dre Parker only, which wasn't satisfactory enough. The cinematography, especially during the fights, weren't that good and were keen on showing the expressions more and the actual fight less. So basically it's a decent movie, nothing special in my eyes and it just didn't have the charm and magic of the original 1984.

Anyway, I would like to use this film as a good example of screen chemistry. And I'm talking about Taraji B. Henson and Jaden Smith. Impeccable chemistry, if you ask me. I would love to see them do another film together, playing the same mother-son roles. Then we have Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. Who better actor to play a mentor? Their chemistry was also great and should they too do another film together, I'm there. From the supporting I liked Wenwen Han as Meiying. Sweet performance and very easy to the eye but I agree, Meiying and Dre are still too young to fall in love. I mean, they haven't even reached puberty yet and it was quite disturbing to see that. All the others were quite OK!

Performance-wise, the film is very good but story-wise, it's quite-disappointing.

The Karate Kid 2010 is the remake of original movie of 1984. The story of kid forced to moved to Bejing, china from Detroit, USA. Mother of Dre Parker had to move to china after closure of automobile factory where she worked in Detroit. The kid found it difficult to manage in this strange world, however he managed to find his way out after inspiring with kungfu.

I'm nostalgic for the original, this one just didn't catch my imagination.

I remember watching the original Karate Kid movie a few times when I was young. It was a good and inspirational movie. It shows the story of a boy who meets a girl and they both seem to like each other, but there's a jelous ex-boyfriend and his gang to bully the kid. The kid meets a Japanese man that teaches him Karate and eventually he enters a Karate tournament to face the guys that use to torment him. It shows a good story about facing your fears and realize that you have in yourself the power to overcome it.
The story of this new Karate Kid movie is similar but instead it shows a boy that moves with his mother to china and instead of Karate, he learns Kung Fu from a strange handyman form his building.
I guess that this movie is a little bit less emotional than the original one. The main character does not seem to be as scared with the situation as Daniel San and there is much more comic relief.
Jackie Chan is awesome. Everybody knows that. But I guess that a lot of people expected a little more of his famous moves in this film. The kids in the Kung Fu tournament are good but there's only one Jackie Chan in this world :-)
In a more technical observation (I'm not comfortable doing it, but what the heck...): Jaden Smith shown again that people can expect good things from him. I liked him in "The Pursuit of Happiness" and in this one he had good acting and commitment with physical preparation for the part. Good one!
Don't miss the scenes in the Wudang Mountains. It has a very beautiful view and the cobra lady is interesting.
I don't really like to talk about the bad things in a movie (unless is REALLY bad) but I have to say two things: first, this remake was a little bit too similar to the original in some aspects. I mean, just because the scenario has changed (Los Angeles for China) and the martial art (Karate for Kung Fu) it doesn't mean that you have enough differences and can't change anything else. I little more insights would be good. I'm just saying :-)
Second, the final hit on the final fight of the tournament was a little too much don't you think? wow. That was almost DragonBall-like kick. Again: just saying.
Finally, "The Karate Kid" kept the spirit of facing and overcoming fear of the original movie, which is always nice, and deserves a good 6!

il primo karate kid potrà essere stato un film che ne ha ispirati altri, uno dei pochi film incentrati sulla filosofia e non sulle arti marziali come puro combattimento, ma stilisticamente a me non è piaciuto...
neanche questo remake è meraviglioso ma a differenza dell'altro mi ha trasmesso qualcosa, in certi punti anche commuovendomi.
finalmente, un maestro che insegna il kung-fu, non per combattere ma per vivere in pace con gli altri...
anche l'allievo se pur giovane riesce a capirlo, anzi è fin troppo perspicace, ma daltronde da un ragazzo che ha perso il padre, ci si deve aspettare una maggiore maturità e una buona capacità di apprendimento che si manifestano gradualmente facendolo crescere.
Direi che alla fine della storia, il ragazzo diventa quasi un maestro della sua vita, riesce a rovesciare il suo odio trasformando la sua vittoria nella sconfitta delle sue paure e non nella sua vendetta.
Dopo un, devo dire, duro allenemanto il ragazzo diventa davvero performante, spaccate, prese, contromosse, salti mortali, direi che Will Smith ha fatto un ottimo lavoro con suo figlio, ovviamente pagando il suo maestro XD.
Il training all'antica è sempre il migliore, ti fa capire che le tradizioni non sono solo chiacchiere tramandate oralmente, ma veri e propri tesori culturali
senza i quali la civiltà non andrebbe avanti.

ééé ...
se a história fosse focada no Mr Han talvez fosse melhor. o personagem do Jackie Chan é muito mais interessante que o boyzinho abusado.

WTF rating is this.. if you like the original you love this. Jaden I though was super cool - and who else to replace the teacher than Jackie Chan. remakes somethimes wall over and sometimes excel - the LATTAR!

This movie 5.9/10 on the IMDB, which differs from what the others think. And why? Because it's a remake! All you fans of the original Karate Kid judged the remake too hard when you saw the trailer. Just because it's a remake, doesn't mean it's always going to be bad. Not everyone will like it, but I did! It completely destroyed my expectations positively. It is only close to being as good as the original, and two memorable scenes are changed, but there are a lot of things Jerry Weintraub couldn't afford back in 1984, such as a real kid (the original kid was, believe it or not, in his early 20's), a true kung fu master, a trip to China or the chick from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It doesn't even beat Toy Story 3, but then again, what will?

What surprised me in this film was that a song from the end credits of Hancock is used, when that was another film by Will Smith. The "Poker Face" song by Lady GaGa is also used, so beware Lady GaGa haters. That's the only song I've heard from her, but I obviously thought that it would get worse if they used Kesha. But this movie also used a song by Justin Bieber, but then again, I did enjoy Bolt... This movie also has some subtlety, such as part-English part-Chinese credits due to the fact it's co-produced in China, and when Dre (Jaden Smith) has problems watching his favourite show since it's dubbed in Chinese. This movie also shows us that that's not the only reason why it sucks to movie to China. Those Chinese bullies make the American ones seem bland. Jaden Smith does a good performance in this, and Jackie Chan makes up for The Spy Next Door. He's no Drillbit Taylor, he''s his old self. And he really lives up to the character he's playing - I heard in an interview that his English isn't perfect in real life, either. But that's not the only thing I heard, because you don't want to mess with Jaden - he got a sword for his birthday!

Like I said, the movie doesn't really improve over the original, but it improves on the other films. And thank God it doesn't have monks playing Zen sports in it, because I'd be disappointed if this remake got a whole quadrilogy. It isn't even just a remake, it's a re-imagining. The settings are different, the characters have different names and races. I'll be happy to go racist over Death at a Funeral, because Jackie Chan was depicted as a dead guy in that remake. The karate isn't karate, it's kung fu, but they do make up for it. Besides, The Kung Fu Kid was the working title until they had problems because Jackie Chan had already voiced a monkey.The relationship between the male protagonist and his love interest brings more charm, the landscapes are eye candy and it's even a little less predictable. That doesn't stop Ralph Macchio's film from being better, but not even he minded!

The remake of Hairspray got 91% when that was released only 19 years after the original, even though some of the singing in that film has made me worry, but I loved the remake 3:10 to Yuma! The moral of the film is exactly the same as the other films of its kind, but the moral of this review is that remakes aren't always necessary; it depends how they turn out.

And by the way, why does Dre Parker's name seem familiar?