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Now Playing: KARATE KID: LEGENDS (2025)
Nothing — not a slasher film nor a visit to the MCU — could turn me against Jackie Chan.
Three generations and still kicking...
KARATE KID: LEGENDS (2025) / Jonathan Entwistle / Writer: Rob Lieber based on characters created by Robert Mark Kamen / Cinematographer: Justin Brown (1.85:1) / Design: Maya Sigel / Editors: Dana E. Glauberman & Colby Parker Jr. / Composer: Dominic Lewis / Starring: Ben Wang, Jackie Chan, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen, Ralph Macchio, and Aramis Knight / Countries of Origin: USA & Canada / Distributor: Sony Pictures / Rated: PG-13 / Length: 94 mins.
Five words that strike fear into the hearts of film critics worldwide: “You mean you’ve never seen…?” In place of a sentence culminating in a damningly quizzical “anything directed by Tarkovsky?”(I was sick the week they opened) or “a ‘Scope pressing of Tashlin’s Say One For Me?” (damn, Fox Films!), the query usually ends with “LOTR or any of its sequels?” or “anything with Harry Potter or Jurassic in its title?” A friend — make that an ex-friend — spent years chiding my refusal to set foot in any theatre with Karate Kid on the marquee. It’s the Rocky formula applied to teenagers. Seeing how Stallone's flicks had long since lost their punch, what chance of entertainment was there in watching Ralph Macchio try his hand at Bruce Lee?
Video:
Trailer: KARATE KID LEGENDS
Last year, I happened across a library copy of KK I-III and figured it was worth the $1 it cost to — if nothing else — prove my friend wrong. Part I was at best a blandly inoffensive family film with the proverbial morals to spare, thanks to Noriyuki "Pat" Morita. Part II was more of a remake than it was a true sequel, and Part III bucked me after 20 minutes. There was a Part IV that I don’t recall even opening. And despite my affinity for Jackie Chan, I couldn’t subject myself to Jaden Smith’s Karate Nepo Baby. As for the KK small-screen variant, I know more about the inner-workings of the world's first computer-designed chassis in a 427 Cobra than I do Cobra Kai. The last time I saw any part of the franchise was in 1995, which is exactly where Karate Kid: Legends begins.
It’s the stuff '30s melodrama was made of. A single doctor, not looking to lose a second child to street fighting — mom’s psalm: “You practice violence, you get violence in return” — pulls up stakes and moves to another city. In the process, she makes her son promise to keep his nose clean. That means putting the kibosh on his dreams of following in his late brother’s kick-boxing footsteps.
As the new kid in school, our hero bemoans his status as class pariah, all the while sparking instant chemistry with the most happening chick on campus. Her father not only tosses the town’s finest pizza, he's a retired boxing champ. looking to return to the ring and amass enough prize money to settle a gambling debt with the mob. Guess who’s going to train him? And anyone thinking the kid was going to successfully skirt around mom’s (Ming-Na Wen) advice by training a fighter rather than fighting himself, failed to foresee the girl’s ex, who happens to be the citywide fighting champion and all-around jealous ass-kicker. Throw in a couple of star character returns from previous installments and top it all off with a vertiginous fight to the finish on top of the world, Ma!
Why would a series that has always looked to nostalgia as a major draw suddenly bow to current modes of visual storytelling by imbuing fight scenes with a rapid-fire, defibrillator seizure rhythm that can’t help but gum up the works whenever a tussle ensues, forcing the scriptwriter to declare martial arts law? Our teen leads (Ben Wang and Sadie Stanley) both rise to the occasion and dad’s (Joshua Jackson) transition from dough puncher to ring king is as good as it gets in these surroundings. As a die-hard believer in the power of Jackie Chan, and in light of all the superb hours we’ve spent together in a dark room, it is with no little regret that I say, when it comes to substitutes, he makes a soggy Miyagi. That said, nothing, not even a slasher film nor a visit to the MCU could turn me against him.
This is clearly not the first film to climax in a boxing ring. Rather than relying on the foregone outcome to build and sustain suspense, the filmmakers bank on a spectacular location for the bout. Set in New York City, but shot in Quebec, the packed-to-the-heavens climactic scrapple, staged high atop a glittering CG skyscraper, is a dizzying effects bonanza that one wishes had been slowed down just long enough for us to soak up the spectacle. **
Here's something you might be interested in.
Now Playing: KARATE KID: LEGENDS (2025)
Nothing — not a slasher film nor a visit to the MCU — could turn me against Jackie Chan.
Now Playing: KARATE KID: LEGENDS (2025)
Nothing — not a slasher film nor a visit to the MCU — could turn me against Jackie Chan.
Three generations and still kicking...
KARATE KID: LEGENDS (2025) / Jonathan Entwistle / Writer: Rob Lieber based on characters created by Robert Mark Kamen / Cinematographer: Justin Brown (1.85:1) / Design: Maya Sigel / Editors: Dana E. Glauberman & Colby Parker Jr. / Composer: Dominic Lewis / Starring: Ben Wang, Jackie Chan, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen, Ralph Macchio, and Aramis Knight / Countries of Origin: USA & Canada / Distributor: Sony Pictures / Rated: PG-13 / Length: 94 mins.
Five words that strike fear into the hearts of film critics worldwide: “You mean you’ve never seen…?” In place of a sentence culminating in a damningly quizzical “anything directed by Tarkovsky?”(I was sick the week they opened) or “a ‘Scope pressing of Tashlin’s Say One For Me?” (damn, Fox Films!), the query usually ends with “LOTR or any of its sequels?” or “anything with Harry Potter or Jurassic in its title?” A friend — make that an ex-friend — spent years chiding my refusal to set foot in any theatre with Karate Kid on the marquee. It’s the Rocky formula applied to teenagers. Seeing how Stallone's flicks had long since lost their punch, what chance of entertainment was there in watching Ralph Macchio try his hand at Bruce Lee?
Video:
Trailer: KARATE KID LEGENDS
Last year, I happened across a library copy of KK I-III and figured it was worth the $1 it cost to — if nothing else — prove my friend wrong. Part I was at best a blandly inoffensive family film with the proverbial morals to spare, thanks to Noriyuki "Pat" Morita. Part II was more of a remake than it was a true sequel, and Part III bucked me after 20 minutes. There was a Part IV that I don’t recall even opening. And despite my affinity for Jackie Chan, I couldn’t subject myself to Jaden Smith’s Karate Nepo Baby. As for the KK small-screen variant, I know more about the inner-workings of the world's first computer-designed chassis in a 427 Cobra than I do Cobra Kai. The last time I saw any part of the franchise was in 1995, which is exactly where Karate Kid: Legends begins.
It’s the stuff '30s melodrama was made of. A single doctor, not looking to lose a second child to street fighting — mom’s psalm: “You practice violence, you get violence in return” — pulls up stakes and moves to another city. In the process, she makes her son promise to keep his nose clean. That means putting the kibosh on his dreams of following in his late brother’s kick-boxing footsteps.
As the new kid in school, our hero bemoans his status as class pariah, all the while sparking instant chemistry with the most happening chick on campus. Her father not only tosses the town’s finest pizza, he's a retired boxing champ. looking to return to the ring and amass enough prize money to settle a gambling debt with the mob. Guess who’s going to train him? And anyone thinking the kid was going to successfully skirt around mom’s (Ming-Na Wen) advice by training a fighter rather than fighting himself, failed to foresee the girl’s ex, who happens to be the citywide fighting champion and all-around jealous ass-kicker. Throw in a couple of star character returns from previous installments and top it all off with a vertiginous fight to the finish on top of the world, Ma!
Why would a series that has always looked to nostalgia as a major draw suddenly bow to current modes of visual storytelling by imbuing fight scenes with a rapid-fire, defibrillator seizure rhythm that can’t help but gum up the works whenever a tussle ensues, forcing the scriptwriter to declare martial arts law? Our teen leads (Ben Wang and Sadie Stanley) both rise to the occasion and dad’s (Joshua Jackson) transition from dough puncher to ring king is as good as it gets in these surroundings. As a die-hard believer in the power of Jackie Chan, and in light of all the superb hours we’ve spent together in a dark room, it is with no little regret that I say, when it comes to substitutes, he makes a soggy Miyagi. That said, nothing, not even a slasher film nor a visit to the MCU could turn me against him.
This is clearly not the first film to climax in a boxing ring. Rather than relying on the foregone outcome to build and sustain suspense, the filmmakers bank on a spectacular location for the bout. Set in New York City, but shot in Quebec, the packed-to-the-heavens climactic scrapple, staged high atop a glittering CG skyscraper, is a dizzying effects bonanza that one wishes had been slowed down just long enough for us to soak up the spectacle. **