The Karate Kid (2010)
Directed by Harald Zwart
12-year-old Dre Parker could've been the most popular kid in Detroit, but his mother's latest career move has landed him in China. Dre immediately falls for his classmate Mei Ying but the cultural differences make such a friendship impossible. Even worse, Dre's feelings make him an enemy of the class bully, Cheng. With no friends in a strange land, Dre has nowhere to turn but maintenance man Mr. Han, who is a kung fu master. As Han teaches Dre that kung fu is not about punches and parries, but maturity and calm, Dre realizes that facing down the bullies will be the fight of his life.
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10 films that influenced The Karate Kid
What critics say influenced The Karate Kid
It’s the same simple “Rocky” knock-off, with a couple of extra subplots thrown in – and the pre-teen equivalent of violence-porn.
The simplistic but undeniably effective 1984 film The Karate Kid massaged the classic David-and-Goliath underdog theme with the outcast wish-fulfillment of any kid who's ever wanted to best a bully; not by coincidence was it directed by the Rocky-meister, John G. Avildsen.
The lineage of the film is distinguished; the 1984 version was directed by John Avildsen , director of " Rocky ."
Granted, the same pretty much held true the first time around as director John G. Avildsen was simply retreading his own "Rocky" underdog storyline as mixed with the old Charles Atlas "98-pound weakling beats up the bullies" fantasy.
What “The Karate Kid” is honest about, though, is in giving its audience exactly what it’s buying tickets for — a middle-school, martial-arts “Rocky,” with a plucky underdog finally winning big.
It worked so well that director John G. “Rocky” Avildsen helmed two sequels (although the final installment barely blipped the box office charts).
The latest in Hollywood's never-ending infatuation with remakes (and opening the same weekend as The A-Team no less) The Karate Kid is a new version of the beloved 1984 film.
Will Smith isn’t in “The Karate Kid” remake but this is a vanity project nonetheless.
As with the 1984 film, the real sport of "The Karate Kid" lies not in Dre's increasingly violent clashes with his pip-voiced tormentors but in the unhurried rhythms of his relationship with his mentor, Mr. Han.
The Karate Kid will probably surprise many Jackie Chan fans.
The 1984 original , in which Noriyuki "Pat" Morita coaches bullied teenager Ralph Macchio to victory in a karate championship, may have seemed like a standard-issue inspirational sports picture at the time, but (as with another box-office hit of the same year, The Terminator) a generation of remove reveals what a well-crafted movie it actually was.
There were two sequels with Macchio and then "The Next Karate Kid" starring future Oscar-winner Hilary Swank.
And like Rocky Balboa, the Karate Kid came back for round after round, culminating with a girl Karate Kid (Hilary Swank!) in the fourth and final film, The Next Karate Kid (1994).
(Did you forget 1994?s “The Next Karate Kid” with, believe it or not, Hilary Swank?)
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Director Harald Zwart's less than inspired resume includes Agent Cody Banks and The Pink Panther 2. However, he does a fine job with Karate Kid, hitting the right beats along the way to make for a suitably easy-to-root for story for kids.
Director Harald Zwart’s resume includes such stellar entries as “Agent Cody Banks,” “The Pink Panther 2″ and now this dreary recapitulation of a movie that was tired when it was new, 25 years ago.
Not only does the new "Karate Kid" capture all the heart and humor of the original, but it does so with a cinematic eye mostly absent from the first one, and almost entirely absent from director Harald Zwart's resume (" Pink Panther 2 ," "Agent Cody Banks").
Although the uninspired resume of director Harald Zwart (whose previous efforts include Agent Cody Banks and The Pink Panther 2 ) might lead one to expect the worst, The Karate Kid falls somewhere in the middle.
The film, directed by Harald Zwart ( "The Pink Panther 2," "Agent Cody Banks" ), was shot in China and makes some genuine effort to make the location part of the story, rather than just a Generic Exotic Backdrop.
Dormant for two decades, the producer of the original films, Jerry Weintraub, opted not to invite Avildsen back for this update, instead going with the Dutch-born lightweight Harald Zwart (“The Pink Panther 2,” “Agent Cody Banks”), who cobbles together this lukewarm edition.
Ultimately, the story is so similar, yet the visuals so different, that it feels like you're watching Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, or any other example in theater or film where a story was kept the same, but put in a very different visual setting.
A popcorn picture that thinks it’s “The Last Emperor,” “The Karate Kid” is about as likely to grab your youngster’s attention as any other propaganda film made by the Chinese government.
Director Harald Zwart's less than inspired resume includes Agent Cody Banks and The Pink Panther 2. However, he does a fine job with Karate Kid, hitting the right beats along the way to make for a suitably easy-to-root for story for kids.
The remake is directed by the previously undistinguished Harald Zwart ("The Pink Panther 2").
Director Harald Zwart has “The Pink Panther 2’’ to his credit, for which he will never, nor should ever, be forgiven, but he keeps this one moving smoothly, and he uses the Chinese locations well.
Harald Zwart's previous effort as director was the critically panned "The Pink Panther 2," but if, as Mr. Han maintains, "Everything is kung fu," then Zwart has landed a roundhouse kick to the critics who've been hating on him all these years.
But I doubt even they or director Harald Zwart (The Pink Panther 2) thought he would deliver such perfection in this role.
What director Harald Zwart (2009's " The Pink Panther 2 ") and writer Christopher Murphy reaffirm, however, is that it is okay to follow conventions as long as it is done with a modicum of stamina and smarts.
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But his social standing is turned upside down when he moves to China, because of his mum's (Taraji P. Henson, who played Brad Pitt's mum in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) new job.
Henson (Oscar-nominated for her work in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) is embarrassingly broad, as if she were stuck in a Will Ferrell comedy.
As in the original, Smith's character, Dre, is the new kid in town, after his single mom (Taraji P. Henson, " The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ") relocates for work.
This was an unexplored element of the original and while it might help soften Dre's attitude, it is shot like a rocket into our lap by using John Mayer's "Say", an ode to speaking your mind to those you love before its too late that was the theme to The Bucket List of all things.