Review by Doug Cooper
Stars Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan, Taraji P Henson, Wenwen Han, Rongguang Yu, Zhensu Wu, Zhiheng Wang,
Zhenwei Wang, Jared Minns, Shijia Lu, Yi Zhao, Bo Zhang, Luke Carberry | Written by Christopher Murphey
UK certification PG | UK RRP £24.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 140 minutes | Directed by Harald Zwart
Now that this remake of the 1984 surprise hit has arrived, movie afficionados are referring to the Ralph Macchio original as a "classic". Come on guys, be serious. John Avildsen's effort, despite an Oscar nominated turn from Happy Days funnyman Noriyuki "Pat" Morita, can hardly be classified as such. It's a dependable time filler, efficiently done, that hits all the right buttons but suffers from overlength.
This new movie, with Will Smith's 12-year-old son Jaden in the lead and Chan in the Morita role, is of the same order. And at 140 minutes, some pruning would have been welcome. It's solid enough though and on the whole works well, following the plot of the original faithfully. Only this time it's set in China – so there's a nod to The Karate Kid Part II (1986) as well – with Smith's character recently settled in the Far East with his caring mother (Henson) and constantly bullied by a group of mean spirited students who are deft practicioners of kung fu. So the title is nonsensical, along with the storyline. Chan plays a dissolute janitor who witnesses Smith being set upon and defends him with his trademark martial arts skills. He enters the boy in a kung fu competition to save face and trains the tyke to a high calibre. But will the kid make it? After all, he's also romancing a pretty girl (Han) whose parents disapprove of him, and his opponents are not averse to nasty underhand methods in trying to beat him.
Director Zwart, who debuted with the highly enjoyable One Night at McCool's but also has Agent Cody Banks and Pink Panther 2 on his CV, does a good job overall. The first hour is most entertaining as the conflict between Smith and his enemies is well drawn if bereft of subtlety. But once he is entered into the competition, the bully boys are ordered to leave him alone for the duration of his training, and the movie consequently sags. We are then witness to the soppy romance and the film comes to a standstill, all life being sucked out of it – though we do get to see some marvellous tourist shots of China, such as the Great Wall, Forbidden City etc.
In the last half hour however, once the kung fu tournament begins, it picks up again and builds to a resolutely cliched but nonetheless exciting climax. All in all, it's a clunky but high spirited cheesefest, obvious but agreeable, silly but watchable, dumb but persuasive. By the end, you just can't but help liking it.
EXTRAS ★★★ The Double Play pack has both Blu-ray and a DVD. As you'd expect, the film looks and sounds magnificent on the Blu-ray disc. And along with the film itself, the bonus features are: an alternate ending to the film, in which Chan beats up the bad guy (3:32); an interactive map of China, in which director Zwart guides us around some of the film's locations; a series of production diaries, hosted by Chan (29:44); Chinese language lessons; the featurette Just For Kicks: The Making of The Karate Kid (20:09); a music video starring Justin Bieber; trailers for the original Karate Kid, the Smurfs movie and Open Season 3. Shame, though, about the lack of an audio commentary. The DVD features the movie and the same three trailers that are on the Blu-ray.