For those who remember seeing the 1984 classic film, The Karate Kid you will be pleasantly surprised with the remake. Now I will be first to admit that I was a little worried about seeing an updated version. Most remakes are a sad shadow of the original but lucky for us, The Karate Kid 2010 does a great job of capturing the spirit of the first one but is different enough to keep your attention.
From the jump, you know that things are different. The kid’s name isn’t Daniel, its Dre. His family moves from Detroit to China. The Dre is a lot younger than Daniel. And Dre doesn’t learn karate; he learns kung fu which is taught in China. Karate is taught in Japan. The audience didn’t know or care. Yet, with all of those differences, the movie still works.
The shell of The Karate Kid as the same. Dre is the new kid and gets beat up twice by a bull over a girl. The second beat down and Dre gets BEAT DOWN, is stopped by Mr. Han, the apartment handy man. Who teaches the bullies a lesson on beat downs. Han teaches Dre the art of Kung Fu and they enter the local tournament. You hear the classic line about the leg and Dre wins. YEAH!
None of the important stuff changed, its how it’s delivered that’s different. Unlike Pat Morita who has a quiet calmness about him that could stop a raging bull, Jackie Chan still looks like the could kick butt. Chan was as calm as he could be but you knew that he was a tortured soul. I never had an opinion of if Chan could act, but in The Karate Kid, he actually acts. He even has an emotional moment and cries. WOW! Those who had seen the movie knew it was coming but it was well played.
The only thing missing was that move. You remember from the original movie, we waited to see Danny do the Crane move. We all knew it was coming. We were at the edge of our seats waiting. Then he did it and we all jumped up and cheered. The 2010 version didn’t have it. They tried with a snake move but it wasn’t the same. They missed the set up but the final blow that Dre gave the bully, who was a little crazy, was amazing! It was an OMG! moment and not a YEAH! moment. But the movie still worked.
Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. Much, much better than I thought going in. Kids will like it and so will adults. Those simple lessons don’t hit you over the head but sink into your heart. It is worth seeing.
Grade: A-
John
