The Karate Kid

THE KARATE KID (Blu-ray)

Release date: November15th 2010
Certificate (UK): PG
Running time: 134 minutes

Director: Harald Zwart

Cast: 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

Although not strictly a remake, more of a re-imagining, The Karate Kid was produced by Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith for their young son, Jaden Smith, to star in.

Taking a much beloved classic, changing its characters, settings and pretty much everything else, might have upset a lot of fans of the original. The film is not made for them, but rather for younger audiences who wouldn’t have seen Ralph Macchio training with Pat Morita back in 1984.

This new version sees 12-year-old Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) leaving his childhood home in Detroit to move with his mom, Sherry (Taraji P. Henson), to Beijing, China. Without knowing anything about the language or the culture, he immediately feels homesick and though he makes friends with Mei Ying (Wenwen Han), he also manages to become a target for a group of bullies lead by Cheng (Zhenwei Wang).

Local fix-it man, Mr Han (Jackie Chan), rescues him one day from a severe beating by Cheng and his friends and agrees to teach Dre Kung Fu (although the film’s title implies its Karate!) which will give him the skills and confidence to overcome his difficulties.

Karate Kid did amazingly well at the box office, earning the #1 spot on its week of release, leaving A-Team in 2nd place.

To help us review the Blu-ray, we enlisted the help of pint-sized “Squidget”, who at just 8 years old is an avid movie fan and has been attending cinema screenings and keeps up-to-date on blu-ray releases such as this one. His age also classifies him as the target audience for such a film, so why not get a few of his words on what he thought of the movie! Do also bear in mind that he is not aware of the difference between Karate and Kung Fu, being only 8 years old!

Squidget has never seen the 1984 version of the movie, but with the 2010 version being one of his favourite films this year it is doubtful if he would like any other version. The character of Dre definitely seems to have resonated with him and he enjoyed watching the boy learn Kung Fu and defeating the school bullies. Despite the film’s length, at over 2 hours, he was able to sit enthralled and cheer at all the right moments. He might not be able to recall everything in the past 2 hours, but definitely remembers his favourite parts and won’t mind watching the movie again anytime soon.

Squidget will be reviewing more films with us in the soon-to-be-opened Kids Corner on Static Mass!

Jonathan Samuel

I’m Jonathan, I’m 9 years old and I’m in 5th grade. I like watching The Simpsons, Naruto Uzumaki, Horrid Henry and Harry Potter. I like going to screenings, watching movies and reviewing them. I like reading action books, comics and playing games like Mario Kart, Plants vs. Zombies and Monopoly, the board game.

When I grow up I want to be a mad scientist, my uncle says I’m ¾ of the way there already. Or a gameocologist, someone who makes and plays games and rates them too. For now I’m happy just watching and reviewing movies and being a kid.

Blu-ray & DVD

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