We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
Modern youths, '80s inspiration.
THE KARATE KID (2010)
If you've ever wondered why Will Smith has an executive producer credit on the Cobra Kai TV series, the answer goes back to 2010, when Smith's production company Overbrook Entertainment acquired the rights to The Karate Kid so he could produce a remake of the 1984 classic for his son Jaden Smith to star in. Despite the fact that I grew up watching the original Karate Kid movies, it took me eleven years to get around to watching the remake, as I just didn't have much interest in it. To be honest, the fact that the elder Smith decided to revive the property just to give his son a starring vehicle didn't sit that well with me, and my interest was lessened even further by Jaden Smith's age; his character in the film is only 12 years old, and why would I want to watch a bunch of 12 year olds beating each other up?
Directed by Harald Zwart, the 2010 version of The Karate Kid sticks so closely to the scenes and structure of the original film that the original film's writer Robert Mark Kamen receives a story credit, while Christopher Murphey earned the screenplay credit. Even though this is, at its core, just the '84 movie all over again, the remake earns some points by not committing sacrilege. It doesn't say that its lead characters are Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi. Those characters belong to Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita. The characters here are Dre Parker and Mr. Han - and if there's one thing this movie got perfectly right, it's the casting of Jackie Chan as Mr. Han.
The film begins with Dre and his widowed mother Sherry (Taraji P. Henson) leaving Detroit so Sherry can take a new job in China. As you might expect, Dre finds adjusting to life in a country where he doesn't speak the language to be complicated, and when he approaches a girl named Meiying (Wenwen Han) he becomes the target of a group of bullies led by Cheng (Zhenwei Wang). Cheng isn't Meiying's boyfriend, but clearly doesn't want any other boys to be hanging around her. Making matters worse for Dre, Cheng and his pals are being taught kung fu at a studio where the motto is "No weakness, no pain, no mercy."
Mr. Han is the maintenance man at the apartment building Dre and Sherry move into, and while he's standoffish at first, he does step up to help Dre when the kid is getting knocked around by Cheng and the other bullies. This means Jackie Chan has a fight scene where he's taking on a bunch of kids, but it's shot in such a way, and the choreography is so cool, that it works. He manages to handle the young attackers without actually hitting any of them himself. Then he and Dre go to talk Cheng's teacher Master Li (Yu Rongguang) about his students' behavior, a conversation that ends with Han saying Dre will fight Li's students one-by-one in an upcoming tournament.
Yep, if you saw The Karate Kid, this whole story will be very familiar to you. The biggest problem is, this movie shouldn't have even been called The Karate Kid, despite how closely it follows the events of The Karate Kid. That's because there is no karate in here. Master Li teaches Cheng and the others kung fu. Han teaches Dre kung fu to prepare for the tournament. The movie doesn't try to hide the fact that the characters aren't doing karate, they don't say they're doing karate, they always say it's kung fu. This should have been called The Kung Fu Kid. Apparently the cast members did refer to the movie that way during filming, and in China the film is called The Kung Fu Dream, but producer Jerry Weintraub - who produced all of the previous Karate Kid movies - insisted that they had to stick with the title The Karate Kid even in the absence of karate.
Jackie Chan is the main draw of this film, even if he's not the one doing most of the martial arts on display. The fight he does have is a standout moment, and he also turns in a terrific performance. Much like Mr. Miyagi, Mr. Han has a tragic back story, and Chan does great work in the scene where he reveals that back story to Dre. I have to admit, Jaden Smith surprised me, too. He was actually a decent little actor, and there's a whole lot of Will Smith evident in his performance here. It doesn't seem like the kid skipped his kung fu training, either.
"The Kung Fu Kid" can't match up to The Karate Kid for me, it never stood a chance, but it doesn't tarnish the legacy of its predecessor. This is a well-made, respectful remake.
The film was a financial success and a sequel was announced, which might have been interesting to see, but it just couldn't make it into production for whatever reason. Sahara director Breck Eisner had been attached to take the helm, and it seems like this happens to him all the time; he signs on to direct a high profile film and it crumbles out from under him. Creature from the Black Lagoon, Friday the 13th, The Karate Kid 2... That can't be fun to go through again and again.
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