Review of The Next Karate Kid (1994) by Alexandrebarata — 09 Apr 2020

TL;DR: Is it a great movie, or it will go down in history as a classic? Hell no! Does it deliver, as a remake of a classic? More less. For this movie, Pat Morita got paired with Hilary Swank, instead of Ralph Macchio, which had paired with him during the 80's making one of the family friendly classics of the decade. Hilary Swank does her role without much of an hiccup (she acted way more convincingly than Ralph did), but the role is so weak it makes it hard to come above water. Pat Morita is Mr. Miyagi, and does Mr. Miyagi things, without anything fresh on the character.

The antagonists are a replica of the single minded ones from the 1st movie. And the story is, more less what you'd expect from The Karate Kid if it was done with a girl in mind for the "kid" role. It's full of clichés, it's overly long, and it's predictable, in all accounts.

Why a 5 then? It has some funny parts, it's a light family friendly movie, full of cliché good messages about friendship, goodness and life. Although as an original movie it fails in all accounts, as a remake, full of female empowering pitches for the teen girls it does its job, and although it seems it was recorded with '84 in mind, although being released one decade later, the message is timeless enough to be relevant in today standards still.

Not a must watch, but a pleasant watch for teen girls and boys alike.