Review of The Next Karate Kid (1994) by Rudy A — 03 Sep 2010

And now, finally, we are at The Next Karate Kid. After the negative reviews Part III received from critics, Columbia Pictures decided to drop Ralph Macchio from the titular character role and attempt to revitalize the series with this one. And who else do they pick but future two-time Academy Award winning actress Hillary Swank (who earned Oscars for her performances in Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby.) In an unknown amount of time after the events of Karate Kid Part III, Mr. Miyagi leaves California and goes to Boston in order to accept a military award citation for being a brave soldier in the U.S. Army during World War II, despite being of Japanese descent with the anti-Japanese hysteria going on at that time. After catching up with the widow of his former commanding officer, he meets her granddaughter, who is troubled after the death of her parents. It is later revealed that she sneaks out at night in order to take care of an injured hawk, and is also bullied in school. Mr. Miyagi then decides to teach the young girl in the ways of karate in order for her to defend herself.

Basically, a rehash of the first movie, only with a female character instead of a male character. The only difference is that Macchio's character was a very sweet, curious, and innocent character, whereas Swank's character is more of a sarcastic, sassy, emotionally troubled character. Swank and Morita play very well off of each other, though it does make you miss the classic interaction of Morita with Macchio. Now, originally, this movie was supposed to kick-start a brand-new trilogy with a sort-of passing of the torch from Macchio to Swank, but unfortunately, this film underperformed at the box office and got even more negative reviews than the last one, making the franchise disappear from the big screen for almost sixteen years, before being brought back to life with the recent remake/reboot. Which is sad, because I kind of liked this one, and I would have liked to see where the story for this one led.