The Karate Kid (2010)

"Kung fu lives in everything we do," Mr Han says to young Dre Parker. "It lives in how we put on the jacket, how we take off the jacket. It lives in how we treat people. Everything is kung fu." Right, well that's all good and dandy, sir, but please explain why you're saying this in a remake of The Karate Kid? The Kung Fu Kid is thataway, man, not hereaway. Is hereaway a word?

Yes, Hollywood has remade 80's classic The Karate Kid. Come on, you knew it was gonna happen! And unsurprisingly, they've changed pretty much everything that was established in the well-respected and beloved original by John G. Avildsen. Karate is now apparently called kung fu and the 1984 version's setting of Los Angeles has been moved 6,200 miles over to China. Not to mention that the main character is now a 12 year old black kid with a braid hairstyle, whereas in the original he was 16 and white with a bad haircut. Well, they've both got the bad haircuts.

There are the obvious differences between the two versions, so that's already a reason to loathe the film. Or love it, it depends on you really. No doubt, this movie has garnered much hatred for its far stray from the fan-favourite, claimed to be another filmic cash-cow or as producer Will Smith trying to build a career for his spawn, the movie's main star Jaden Smith. I was one of the people with these opinions, I watched the film with a very biased view, wanting to detest it after I saw the trailers and TV spots. But god damn, I am astounded and flabbergasted to tell you that The Karate Kid remake is friggin' awesome!!

Smith stars as Dre Parker, a timid yet smart-mouthed young boy from Detroit who moves to China with his mother (Taraji P. Henson) to start a new life there. Dre develops a crush on and befriends violinist Mei Ying (Wen Wen Han) at school, but local bully Cheng (Zhenwei Wang) decides to separate the two, fighting Dre and continually taunting him.

During a pretty brutal fight in which Dre is being beaten up, Mr. Han (Chan), the maintenance guy at Dre's new apartment, shows up and takes out Cheng and his 12 year old thugs with masterful fighting skills. Go child abuse! Turns out Mr. Han is a wise, all-knowing kung-fu master and Dre persuades him to train him in the art of self-defence.

Mr. Han's training methods are a bit odd, starting off with getting Dre to continually hang up his jacket, drop it on the floor, pick it up, hang it up, put it on and repeat again and again and again. Soon, fighting skills come in and all this is leading up to the kung fu tournament where Dre plans to kick his bully's asses one by one. Fuck yeah!

As you can assume, the film is quite predictable, you can see the ending coming a mile off. Buuttttt, this does not stop it from being overwhelmingly entertaining. That's right, The Karate Kid remake is actually fun and cool and quite the hunky-dory family flick.

Now I'll admit, I have very little memory of the original Karate Kid from 1984. I probably watched it when I was little and have just forgotten, but all I remember is there's a bit with a fly in between some chopsticks, Mr Miyagi teaches his student to wax his car and there's something about a beach. I think. So, I can't really compare the two films aside from the blatant changes getting much attention on the interwebz, and I know many dedicated fans will be nitpicking at it for this.

What I advise viewers to do is to base your opinion on the film while thinking of it as a movie in of itself, not a remake, because in this way, it very much holds up as a fantastic and solid piece of light entertainment to take your kids to see.

The film is quite long, managing to make it to 140 minutes due to its somewhat slow pace, but I personally didn't feel my ass getting sore at any point. I admire it for the length as it lets us fully get involved with these characters and for them to all be developed properly, managing to fit in many subplots to keep us in enjoyment mode.

Smith and Chan both perfectly portray their characters, making them likable for the most part, especially Chan (how can you not love Jackie freakin' Chan?). Jaden gets a lot of shit for being a horrible young actor, but here he gives what I can't call anything less than a great performance. As for Chan, there's an immensely touching scene where the disturbing past of Mr Han is revealed and his performance in this sequence really shows that he can do much, much more than just kick some serious ass in fight scenes.

The two have a monumentally captivating chemistry together, one which is most prominent in the impressive Rocky-style montages of training. They have their differences and a couple little conflicts, but within their friendship is a connection that I for one responded to with much emotion and admiration. My heart isn't that cold really.

One of the things that really stood out for me in this film is the choreography in the several fight sequences. God damn, the choreography is off the chain, gloriously earning the movie more respect points from me. And those things are valuable! The action scenes don't shy away from realism, despite the over-the-top kung fu moves the kids are dashing out. You can practically feel every punch as they knock the wind out of poor little Jaden, shot in a particularly brutal style which I was not expecting. This is a film reliant on the kung-fu scenes to work, and they certainly do not disappoint.

Aiding in the film's appeal are some moments of comedy intertwined with the drama and action. The movie itself is not a comedy, but there are many humorous points used as unforced comic relief. The fact that the movie is about kung fu when the title is The Karate Kid is made fun of, with Dre's mother getting confused between the two. "What's the difference?" she asks. Indeed. Also, the film pays a little tribute to the original, with Mr. Han watching a fly, holding chopsticks much like Mr. Miyagi in the 1984 version. But this time, instead of catching the fly with the Chinese utensils, Mr. Han simply splatters the thing with a flyswatter. Unexpected and hilarious. Wait, that poor fly....

So to sum up, this film is unexpectedly awesome, working on pretty much every level it touches upon. Both Smith and Chan's performances are strong, the fight scenes are magnificent, the chemistry between the two main leads is quite touching and there's plenty of belly-laughs along the way. Great fun for all the family. Jacket on, jacket off. And hats off to what I'm surprised to say is a teriffic family film.

9/10.