Product Description When 12-year-old Dre Parker's mother's latest career move has landed him in China he is left with no friends in a strange land. Dre has nowhere to turn but to maintenance man Mr. Han, who is secretly a master of kung fu. As Han teaches Dre that kung fu is not about punches and parries, but maturity and calm, Dre realizes that facing down the bullies will be the fight of his life .com A remake of the 1984 film of the same name, The Karate Kid well exceeds expectations, delivering a powerful viewing experience filled with action-packed martial arts scenes, great footage of China and its many wonders, and an absorbing story of a preadolescent boy's struggle to find his own inner strength. The title Karate Kid is really a misnomer as it is the art of kung fu that is practiced in this remake, not karate, and other details, including the film's setting in China, also differ from the original film. What remains the same, and just as powerful, is the underlying story: a young boy moves to a new place where he feels isolated and is bullied by his peers. Through an unlikely relationship with an adult, the boy not only learns to protect himself through martial arts, but develops the much more important qualities of respect and the mastery of one's own mind and body. Relative newcomer Jaden Smith (son of actors and producers Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith) is excellent as the main character Drek Parker; Jackie Chan gives a restrained and highly effective performance as his mentor Mr. Han; and Zhenwei Wang is eerily believable as the bully Chen. This is an intense and often violent film that fully engulfs its viewers--be prepared to gasp and cheer out loud, and know that you may never look at the act of putting on and taking off a jacket in the same way again. (Ages 8 and older with parental guidance) --Tami Horiuchi
K**Z
From Karate to Kung Fu!
Excellent family film that both children and adults will enjoy immensely! Mr. Han imparts knowledge, wisdom and ethics and teaches honor, respectfulness, hard work and FOCUS to the 12 year old Andre. The merciless and always enraged "professional" Kung Fu teacher, Master Li, does not teach these values to Cheng and his other students. Master Li encourages anger, rebelliousness, mercilessness and winning a battle at all costs. Soooo many valuable life lessons to be learned from this movie! Highly recommend and perhaps watching it a couple of times could be life altering for today's youth.
D**.
Another Amazon Rental Straight from Our Comfortable Living Room
Hey despite all the channels you’d think we could find all the movies we want to see. But not true. So we are glad we could find it through our Amazon rental! Plus the movie is pretty good too. Not as good as the original 80’s version, but it was good.
J**.
Way, way better than I expected
Like many people, I have fond nostalgic memories of the original. However, I feel this movie is just as good and excellent family entertainment that both kids and adults will love.I'm not a big fan of cliches or being emotionally manipulated and this movie's interpretation of Mr. Han's loss of his wife was very powerful. Jackie Chan and Lil' Smith kid did a great job acting for a tough scene. Sure the end of the scene was a bot cliche, but everything leading up to it made it ok.They referenced and nodded to the original through sight gags and came up with new ways to retell this story creatively and made it very exciting. Since they took some risks, you really doubted which way the move was going - even at the end.Sadly, many of the negative reviews are calling out one of two things: 1) The "karate" kid is now black and 2) He learned Kung Fu, not Karate. I thought it was all about the story?To the first point, both the original and the new version have nothing to do with race - even though both are about different cultures finding commonality in each other (Pat Morita was Japanese, people). In fact, in many spots where a less mature director would take advantage of a black kid from Detroit to bring "street smarts" to China, the high road is taken as are some of the opportunities for Chinese stereotypes. This movie was made with great respect of Chinese culture and not over representing an "American" attitude as a fish out of water.To the second point, I doubt most negative reviews would know that it was Kung Fu if the movie hadn't said so. Karate is a Japanese art, not Chinese, so it makes sense that he didn't learn Karate in China. However, I do have to agree that they called it the "Karate Kid" just for advertising purposes. I think people would have been ok with calling it the "Kung Fu Kid" with a nod as a Karate Kid remake. Why didn't the movie take place in Japan and call it Karate? Not sure.I highly recommend this movie for family and it works just as easily for adults. It's not as kiddie as people make it out to be and the maturity of the kids as both actors and characters far exceeds that of the original movie. I know we all have nostalgia for Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita (R.I.P!), but this movie is about as good a remake as the original and doesn't skimp on the same emotional roller coaster ride and life lessons.
J**O
Great!
I loved this movie! It was a great story about stand up for yourself, face your fears, be humble, honor your parents, honor your mentors, learn, and grow. It was also a great story about make friends, and really take care of your family. The actors did amazing at their roles; especially Jackie Chann, and Jaden Smith. All of the Kung Fu action scenes were super cool, and super well done. The film had a handful of funny moments. A scene I just want to make sure I highlight I loved when Dre managed to kick the bell above his head; when I was younger I said "I have to be able to do that someday", and sure enough I practiced and practiced and today now I can! Without doubt I do say this a great film and is very underrated. Have a great day, and goooo Karate Kid!
B**T
Love it
Love it
R**H
excellent story, actors, background scenes
Ok, the plot is basically the same as that in the previous karate kid movies. There are a few differences. An African-American boy moves to China when his mom gets a job there (US outsourcing, huh?). He likes a girl who likes him back. Chinese bully picks on him. Janitor agrees to teach him KUNG FU. They have match in the end and ... The boy becomes a role model for so many American youth, his shear determination, exerting effort and dedication day after day, growth and maturity in spirit ... He ends up at one point teaching his teacher. That was neat to see. If anybody reads many of my reviews, you'll find that I admire Buddhist practices AND I love architecture. Well, from the Great Wall to Temples to Downtown Beijing, spanning thousands of years, it provides a backdrop to the story, that always mankind is faced with troubles and must learn to first look within before one can hope to successfully take on the fight outside ourselves. Whether I'm right or not, the story is exciting! While I really enjoyed the previous KK movies, this one is my favorite. My kids gave it only 4 stars, but, I think it was well worth 5 stars. Folks who like it will want to watch it again and again. Those who don't will wonder why they bought it. So, for all movies you haven't gone to the theater to watch, borrow this from the public library. I suspect that you will very much enjoy it. If so, then I'd buy it. I think that it is a movie that appeals to martial artists, intercultural studies, eastern philosophy, architecture. It ought to belong in public libraries, some school libraries. I give everything a grade, and this movie I give an "A-". I highly recommend it.
L**A
Again again
Love this movie and so does my 4 year old
S**D
Great movie!
Jackie Chan is great!Beautiful movie for the whole family.
Trustpilot
3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago
