I Suck At The Karate Kid

Last night, Karen, our baby daughter (Briana) and I had a family night. It's been some time since the three of us watched a movie together. Since my father-in-law lent us a couple of movies awhile back, we felt that we had to at least watch one of them so that we can return them in a timely fashion.

The movie that we ended up watching last night was The Karate Kid. Now, I suck at The Karate Kid.

(The video below is a trailer for The Karate Kid.)


This version that we watched was not the 1984 original, but the 2010 reboot starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. The new version is about a 12 year old boy who moves to China with his mother. He gets bullied and learns martial arts from an unlikely maintenance man.

Needless to say, I was not expecting much from the movie. After all, the original movie is considered a classic 1980s film. The movie produced such famous quotes like "Wax on. Wax off", "Sweep the leg". Plus, it produced the cult iconic villain William Zabka.

And really, if you think about it, the new movie's title actually is incorrect for the plot. The kid is in China, where the martial art of kung fu is taught. It's not karate, which is a Japanese martial art. So naming the movie "The Karate Kid" doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And if anyone is curious, DC Comics actually granted the original movie permission to use the name "Karate Kid" because it came up with the name "Karate Kid". There was a superhero of the same name before the 1984 movies ever came out.

Regardless, the movie in and of itself was not awful. For me, I think the movie would have been better had the main character not been in middle school. Of course, I'm not saying bullying is more accepted in high school. There's just something about little kids fighting each other that seems weird to me.

And perhaps it's because I am a fan of the 1980s, but I definitely thought the original movie was much better than the reboot. And of course hands down, Joe Esposito's "You're the Best" is definitely a much better movie theme than Justin Beiber's "Never Say Never".

(The video below is Joe Esposito's "You're the Best".)


But like I said, the story in and of itself is not that bad. The original movie from 1984 just told the story better in my opinion.