The Karate Kid (2010)
In this 2010 completely mistitled version of "The Karate Kid", the 12-year-old American boy Dre Parker is forced to move to China with his mother due to her career. As he tries to adapt to his new home, he falls for the local girl Mei Ying, which brings him to the wrath of the martial arts savvy bully Cheng, and his gang. Constantly harassed and with nowhere to turn to in the foreign land, rescue comes in the form of the cranky maintenance man, Mr Han, who turns out to be a master of kung fu. With Han as his master, Dre must now stand up to his bullies in the upcoming kung fu tournament to end their feud and earn their respect. The story is pretty much the same as the original, with China as the backdrop instead of California. The re-imagining of the story turned out very well. China's landscape and rich culture has much to lend to a movie like this. The scenery is breathtakingly beautiful, and the cinematography was nothing short of impressively pleasing to the eye. The fight choreography was above average ant the training sequences were superbly-handled and very entertaining. The music score was surprisingly appealing - James Horner definitely deserves accolades for the very good and energetic music he gave in the movie. Jackie Chan is simply great as Mr. Han. Here, Chan plays introspective and quiet, a man carrying a large burden. Director Zwart lets the relationship between the two develop naturally - the grow closer as the training continues. Jaden Smith has true talent. It's in his genes, there's no doubt about it. He was impressive as Dre, and this film belongs to him! He delivers competently a youngster's transformation from the rash rebel to the calm and mature martial artist. Taraji Henson's acting was completely over-the-top, but that didn't bother me at all, because actually she was hilarious to watch! Overall, "The Karate Kid" is a highly enjoyable, consistently entertaining and visually stunning family film, that in some ways surpasses the original! This is the way to do a successful remake!
- My Rating: 7.50/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 68% (6.3/10)
- IMDb: 5.9/10
6 comments:
With June so full of movies, I missed this one, but will watch it on NetFlix.
Also gave this one 7,5/10 rate in my review here. Wholly entertaining, Karate Kid take the previous film's basic premise and make it its own.
Yes, it was :) I have yet to see "Splice", 'cause I missed it, and it was one of my most anticipated summer releases.
Alex, dearest, make sure you watch this one when appear on NetFlix. It was surprisingly well-made and super-engaging :)
I've read your 'Karate Kid' review before and it was awesome. I'm glad we agree 100% on this one :) It was great that they decided to set it in China!
Yes.. Someday we should go there and try to learn a bit of their genuine Kung Fu too.
Yes, we should:) It's another dream of mine! I'm so obsessed with Chinese culture/Martial Arts, that I'm thinking, I might have been a Chinese in my previous life.
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