Karate Kid Movie Remake - a minor review...

[Hardrock69]

Saw this tonight. Had tivo'd it out of curiosity.

Story was 2-dimensional. Stupid plot holes big enough to drive a jumbo jet through. Jackie Chan as old maintenance man. Afro-American lady and 12-year-old son get transferred to China from Detroit for some mysterious "job", Kid gets picked on by bullies. Jackie teaches him Kung Fu. Somehow magically enough that kid competes in Kung Fu tournament and beats several kids who have been training since they were toddlers (of course under the tutelage of a fucking asshole).

Will Smith's son did really good for his first big flick.
He has a career in the fambly business ahead of him if he wants it.

Some nice scenery shot in China.

Predictable (of course).

Brought something to mind though, as I was watching this.


Out of the big 3 on the planet....US, Russia, China.....which 2 are all buddy-buddy? Which 2 are so interlocked financially now that our cultures seem to be on the verge of merging?

China and the US.

Bruce Lee was the first big Chinese action hero of the silver screen in the US. And the Hong Kong film industry saw a boost of viewership in the US in the 70s and 80s. But eventually, (especially in the past 10 years), the really big production movies have been made that were huge in America, like Crouching Dragon, Hidden Motherfucker and stuff like that. House Of Flying Daggers was a beautiful film, and one of my favorites.

But along the way, and parallel to the film business.....look at "business". Is the US setting up factories in Russia? No. Is the US importing tons of Russian made films? No. Is Russia really, really trying to do anything to try to interlock their business and culture with the US? No.

Really interesting how China and the US have become interdependent on one another.

What made me think of all this was that this film was produced by Jerry Weintraub. And I was thinking the overall vibe of the film was to show life in China amongst "common people" and in a sort of sympathetic way. Seemed to go out of it's way to portray Chinese people as "humans", with the same fears, hopes and dreams as anyone else on the planet. Rightly so, of course.

Once I figured that out.....the rest just sort of was obvious. Almost as if the film industry is doing what it can to brainwash the populations of China and the US to accept what is going on between our two nations, for better or worse.

I could see China and the US merging in less than 100 years. Russia is going to be left out of the picture.

Of course, in 100 years I am going to be long gone, unless someone develops some sort of immortality drug, lol.

Anyway, the film is mindless fun. None of the originality and inventiveness that was in the original, or even the first sequel. The second sequel was a lame piece of shit.

Jackie Chan is beginning to show his age a bit as well.

[Little Texan]

To quote Roger Ebert, I hated, hated, HATED this movie! It paled in comparison to the original, and the way in which Jackie Chan's character taught the boy Kung Fu was so stupid! Why do they keep making these ill-advised, lame remakes of classic movies?

[Dan]

Wax On,Wax Off.

[sadaist]

It paled in comparison to the original

And the original was no Citizen Kane.

I liked the original just for it's silliness and innocence. If I saw it once & never heard of it again I would have been content. I never bought it or rented it. Just caught it now & then of the 100's of times it's been on TV the last 25 years. But it wasn't a great flick by any stretch. Just kinda weird how all of the sudden with the remake coming out so many are putting the original way up on some pedestal like it was Raiders Of The Lost Ark or something.

[Matt White]

Yup..the original "Karate Kid" sucked dog balls..........

I hate the vast majority of "remakes"...........no originality left in Hollywood....and there rarely has been since the start of the industry..............

I recently learned "The Maltese Falcon" was a remake.......not that anybody remembers the original

If your going to remake something at least attempt to make it BETTER than the original........................

[Hardrock69]

I really was not writing this review to review the film....it was more (to me) about how China and the US populations are the subjects of subtle propaganda campaigns through Hollywood. I have ranted many times in other threads about the unoriginality of Hollywood these days.

How many Soviet films are made for American audiences? None. How many big-budget Hollywood films examine the "rich" history of Russia? It's legends? It's mythological figures? It's historical past?

None.

The best you can hope to see in American theaters or on American television are movies like old James Bond flicks where the Russians are the villains.

You don't see any blockbuster films where China is portrayed as a vicious villain these days. They are all films sympathetic to Chinese people, or about Americans moving to China, etc. etc.

Seems the American Government has no interest in doing business with Russia, being friends with Russia, or portraying Russia through the media in any sort of positive light.

I think I will ask a friend of mine in Moscow about this. Get his take on it.

[Matt White]

How many Soviet films are made for American audiences? None. How many big-budget Hollywood films examine the "rich" history of Russia? It's legends? It's mythological figures? It's historical past?

None.

"Doctor Zhivago"???

Makes your point that much moreso......................

[sadaist]

Rocky 4 had a big giant Russian in it. Oh yeah, and her boyfriend played the Russian boxer

[Hardrock69]

I am speaking about the past 20 years or so for the most part.

Doc Zhivago was banned in Russia until the early 90s. It was not a Russian production at all, as the original novel was banned in the Soviet Union as well...

Since the book was banned in the Soviet Union, the movie was filmed largely in Spain over ten months,[3] with the entire Moscow set being built from scratch outside of Madrid. Most of the scenes covering Zhivago and Lara's service in World War I were filmed in Soria, as was the Varykino estate. Due to uncooperative weather in Spain, some of the winter sequences were filmed in Finland, mostly landscape scenes, and Yuri's escape from the Partisans. Winter scenes of the family travelling to Yuriatin by rail were filmed in Canada.
The "ice-palace" at Varykino was filmed in Soria as well, a house filled with frozen beeswax. The charge of the Partisans across the frozen lake was filmed in Spain, too; a cast iron sheet was placed over a dried river-bed, and fake snow (mostly marble dust) was added on top. Some of the winter scenes, were filmed in summer with warm temperatures, sometimes of up to 30 °C (86 °F).

And most movies ABOUT Russia are set in the 20th-century, not prior. And most of them are made by production companies that are not Russian. I bet

I mean, I guess you could consider one movie in particular to be about Russia's "rich" (ha) cultural heritage: The movie about Ghenghis Khan starring John Wayne in the title role. But then, it was an American movie. Oh, and it was made back in the 50s.....

Compare the number of big-budget Russian films released in the US to big-budget Chinese films, and I can say it is most likely there are many more Chinese films released here than Russian.