Happy remake

We went to the city and started the day right with:


Karate Kid

My choice, not his, but he was happy to see it. I'm not a martial arts movie fan, but I enjoyed the Karate Kid movie from way back so thought this would be okay. It was more than okay, it was excellent. Jaden Smith can act. He has subtlety, humour and humility. He acts with his eyebrows. If he avoids the Lindsay Lohan school of how to be famous and wreck your life, he surely has a great cinematic future. He can dance, is a Kung Fu master, and I expect he can sing as well. He is also a very good looking young man. A renaissance man like his father. His character Dre moves to China, has a hard time fitting in, likes a girl, gets beaten up by Chinese Kung Fu experts (his classmates), and is rescued by the maintenance man Mr Han (played by Jackie Chan). That rescue is a good scene. Mr Han teaches Dre Kung Fu so he can enter a competition and win some respect. At the same time Mr Han is restoring a car - that is explained later in a moving scene. The training is worth watching. Jaden Smith really did train that hard and built up his little body with muscles no twelve year old should have.

The training visits to the Dragon Well and the Great Wall are beautiful. Such scenery and serenity. A boost for the Chinese tourism industry no doubt. Truly magnificent. It's a happy ending story, as far as brutal martial arts competitions can be happy. Dre's mother is sitting in the audience cheering him on. I would have been down there in the ring berating the other child who was beating my baby up. Yes, I caused my children a degree of embarrassment at times. Smith and Chan triumphantly rule this movie. Chan needs more of those thinking-man character roles. Others of note are the violin-playing girlfriend, the main bully Cheng and the evil Kung Fu school instructor. He could be a Bond villain. The camera work is often choppy in an appropriate action-movie way, beware of that if you get migraines. The music is good, adding emphasis to the action. It's a long movie but holds the attention all the way through. A sequel would be most acceptable. So: it is a well-acted, well-written, attractive movie with messages. Uplifting and entertaining.



Slightly getting used to the heat now.