Movie Review: The Karate Kid

Warning: May contain spoilers. You've been warned.

I'm actually quite impressed with this movie. I honestly had no desire to see it, but I enjoyed it.

Like I usually do, I'm going on the record to say that I have only seen one of the four films in the original series with Mr. Miyagi and that was The Next Karate Kid. You know, the one with Hilary Swank.

First, we'll talk Jaden and Jackie...

I actually liked Jaden. Which comes as a surprise to me, because I'm not normally one that buys into kids of celebs trying to make it in film. In the first film I saw him in, The Day the Earth Stood Still, I didn't much care for him or his character. But I liked Jaden in this film. And he looks so much like his mother, and his comedy and mannerisms are so much like his father's.

Jackie Chan surprised me as well. Normally, you'd think "Jackie Chan = Kicking Ass." You never (in an American film at least) would see him cry. His emotional drunken scene made me so sad. He shocked me. He was great in this film.

In the original Karate Kid, a white, Italian boy from Jersey moves to California and is bullied by a surfing crowd (who apparently dip into karate as well). In this movie, a black boy moves with his mom to China and is bullied by Chinese boys. I like this movie's scenario more.

I would also like to say that the woman who played Jaden's mother, Taraji Henson, made this movie. She was the absolute greatest choice. She was absolutely hilarious. (Video below)

Finally, I want to discuss the rating of this film. It was rated PG for bullying, martial arts action violence, and mild language. This movie had to have been borderline PG, almost PG-13. The bullying in this movie was brutal! It was so hard for even me to watch and I'm an adult. Children need to know that they can always tell an adult when something is going on. Although, in the movie, the bully's coach was also a bully. Stupid dickwad!

Just to let you know, if you haven't seen the movie, the bullies and the "bad team's" coach are very difficult to watch. Those situations really aggravate me. While watching the movie, I kept saying "I hope the bully dies." Isn't that terrible? That just shows how awful they were.

The movie was great, regardless of the evil bad people. Haha. It's definitely worth the rent, or maybe even the purchase!