Caffeinated Clint
By Clint Morris
Most Hollywood remakes of late have functioned like a photocopier with a dead bulb – The resulting copy not coming out even half as good as the original. And thanks to the industry’s determination to keep pushing copies through, were constantly reminded of that age-old saying that “they don’t make ’em like they use to”.
Sometimes, though rarely, a good copy will sneak through though.
John G.Avildsen’s ”The Karate Kid” (1984) is, like its lead character in his final bout with Cobra Kai, unbeatable. It has the performances, the script, the plot and, well, the Morita.
Though still no match for it, Producer Will Smith and director Harald Zwart’s remake is, well, unnecessary, but also surprisingly decent.
As all remakes should (but usually don’t), Zwart has simply kept the basic premise of ”The Karate Kid” but changed up nearly every other aspect of the film – and that includes, rather sensibly, not reusing the beloved characters of Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Myiagi (Pat Morita) from the original trilogy; In fact Zwart is so determined to not merely Xerox Avildsen’s film that he doesn’t even have any Karate in the film! – it’s Kung Fu you’ll be seeing this time around- thus making his film not so much a remake as a reinterpretation. .
When his mother (Taraji P.Henson) gets a job in China, 12-year-old Detroiter Dre (Jaden Smith) is less then pleased to relocate.
Once they arrive, Dre discovers China is quite different from America. He takes an immediate shine to classmate Mei Ying (Han Wen Wen) but cultural differences make any kind of friendship impossible. It’s through trying to court Mei that Dre makes an enemy in school bully Cheng (Zhenwei Wang), a hardhearted student of martial-arts who is quick to let Dre know who’s boss around these parts. Beaten and bloodied, Dre is in desperate need of help.
It’s then that maintenance man Mr.Han (Jackie Chan) steps in. Rescuing Dre from a fight, he ultimately agrees to teach the youngster martial-arts, planning to have his student ready in time for a tournament in which he will take on the bullies who’ve been beating him.
Look, the original film possessed something this does not — it could be that it had more heart, it also wasn’t as brutal in its depiction of fights (this one gets pretty mean at times) and I think that might scare away some littlies who might have otherwise enjoyed the warm story at the core, or maybe it was just the beautifully pitch perfect performance of the late Pat Morita, who earned himself a much deserved Oscar nomination for his role as the near-mute martial-arts mentor in the original. He’s definitely missed here. But Crane-kick or no Crane-kick, the new ”Karate Kid” is fairly good.
The two leads are good (Chan surprisingly subdued and effectual as Han, young Smith proving talent runs in the family with his likable turn as Dre), the fight sequences are fantastic (though, as I said, a bit much for a film of this type), the script flows nicely and features some interesting new flair to the brand name, and the flick looks welcomingly very unblockbusterish- in that it possesses no audience manipulating sparkle.
When Hollywood finally tires of remaking all these movies, ”The Karate Kid” will be one they don’t look back and laugh about.
