Review of The Karate Kid (2010) by Nathanl. — 11 Jun 2010

I have been to the theater over a thousand times and I have never seen a crowd like I saw this morning. This is the greatest compliment I can give this movie. It is one of the few films that can quite literally be called a crowd pleaser.

This will not be on my top ten of the year and will not go down in history as some great film altering movie. That said, I will never forget looking over at my children as they stood up cheering along with over 400 people (sold out MORNING crowd) for the wonderful charasmatic Dre (a fabulous Jaden Smith with every bit his fathers talent) as he landed the hard earned punches or thunderous applause as the enemies bowed before Mr.

Han (Jackie Chan in a career best performance) in respect. I know these moments are engineered to create these actions in us. Film is largely an art of manipulation. However, it is to be respected when it works as well as this one does.

I have never heard such applause in all of my life. I know that every person in that theater loved the character they were rooting for. This is a rare thing and in a summer filled with decent films that seem to be very mixed with audiences it is nice to see an audience fall in love with film again right before your eyes.

And they have good reason to here. This is a solid story that borrows its outline from the 1984 original (which I grew up with) but, expands on much of it in wonderful ways. This movie knows when to give you comedy, action, suspense, and emotion.

This all comes from a deep rooted love for the central characters. This may have been directed by Mr Zwart (Pink Panther 2 sadly) but, it owes everything to the Smith family. Will has been attempting to create family friendly films with characters we care about for years with minimal success.

Here he hits a home run and everyone invloved has the world to thank of him for handing them this wonderful child of his to carry this film. Throw in some beautiful cinematography and a stunnig soundtrack, composed by the great James Horner, and you have a move worth rooting for.

This is the biggest surprise of the year to me.