Perfectly adequate summer entertainment with Jackie Chan sliding into the “elder sensei” role like a well-deserved glove, but the real shocker is that while it’s still only visible through a rudimentary level of acting talent right now, Jaden Smith has pretty much all of his father’s screen presence and natural charisma; he’s going to be huge.
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I really liked The Karate Kid, up to the tournament. I mean, I know it’s a remake, but did you have to redo the tournament from the original note for note? Ugh.
Also, I didn’t really get the motivation for the main bully. Was he being overprotective of Meiying? What was the point of it all?
But yeah, Jaden was good in this. In fact, several of the child actors were also pretty good, I thought: Meiying and main bully did well.
I think in order to dub it a “remake” it should follow the source material a little better. Miyagi was Japanese, who did Japanese things, and went to Japan to speak Japanese while eating Japanese food. The word “karate” is Japanese even…
Jackie Chan’s character is Chinese, etc… They could have called it The Kung Fu Kid and I would have been all over it.
for our nation’s youth I hope this doesn’t lead to another wave of interest in enrolling kids for martial arts
I barely survived Power Rangers.
@lance,
I was part of that wave, and I can tell you that the 65-pound fourteen year old me was no more happier to be punching and kicking than my instructors were to be trying to teach me to do so. You know, for whatever that is worth.
They did call it the Kung Fu Kid, at least in the asian releases, and apparently that’s how everyone working on it referred to it. The Karate Kid title is just to appeal to the whole nostalgia thing.
@lance I hope it does. My daughter’s teacher’s dojo could use the business.
I wish they’d just rolled with the character design of Jayden Smith looking like a Boondocks character and made “The Adventures of Riley Freeman in China.”
C’mon, seriously, wouldn’t you want to hear the words, “Jackie Chan (n-word), you gay,” uttered on screen?
Wait til he stars in the remake of “Back to the Future.” Co-starring Clarence Williams III as Doc Brown. Release date: Summer of 2015.
If you saw “Pursuit of Happyness”, you would have already seen Jaden’s future. There he was, out-acting his Dad. A phenomenal performance.
@greg You give me that movie where he goes back in time to the 1980’s ala hot tub time machine, and I’m in.
@ nate: That’s exactly what happens – and along the way, he’ll inadvertently inspire Chris Rock to perform standup, Barack Obama to run for president and perform “Parents Just Don’t Understand” While Will Smith’s cousin Marvin is DJ’ing a school party.
Also starring Tiny Lister as Biff Tanen. Or Craig Robinson – I’m not sure which one I like more in my head… 😉
I think “Kung Fu Kid” even sounds better as a title. A lot more curt and catchy.
@CB
Yes. Exactly.
@Stormland
No. Most definitely “No”. For the last time, the Boondocks is a *parody*. It isn’t a “homage” or a “deconstruction” or a “slice of life” of the Black existence. It’s a parody. Saying that the main character should mimic the actions of an entirely different character from an entirely different form of entertainment (due to sharing the same taste in hairstyles) is as sensible as someone saying that Reese Witherspoon should have played her character in “Legally Blonde” as a pastiche of Kelly Bundy because both characters have blonde hair. It’s silly.