Review of The Next Karate Kid (1994) by Allen R — 23 Aug 2013

I had never seen this last film in the franchise, but finally clocked it in. I will say it isn't the awful train wreck I've read it was in some reviews, but it isn't anything special either. Maybe the best thing was the foreshadowing that Swank would become such a great actress.

The biggest complaint I can see is that it is really just a reboot of the original, only with a female lead this time round. We do get a mention of Daniel, but that is all of him in this one.

But same plot. Girl is being picked on by bullies at school and learns to fight them back. Morita gets a lot of screen time here and like before, is quite good. Swank is really good here. You can tell she does all her own stuff, and I found her really good looking here too.

Ironside is okay as the thug leader, but he doesn't get very much screentime. Another thing that bugged me was the amount of harassment and violence he and his boys get away with in this film. But look for Walt Goggins as one of the lesser thugs.

The boyfriend character looks like he's 35, so yeah...wtf?

But everything here is just not as good as in the original, but it's not all awful.

But come on: Bananarama trumps The Cranberries any day of the week! :).