The Karate Kid (2010)

Two Geeks and a GIT Classic Movie Reviews

The second film in our pairing was originally conceived as a re-make of the 1984 version, but was reconned into a sequel to make way for "Karate Kid: Legends" which would combine the two stories. The 2010 version of "The Karate Kid," directed by Harald Zwart, finds Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) and his mother Sherry (Taraji P. Henson) moving from Detroit, Michigan to Beijing, China for Sherry's work. There, Dre meets the building handyman, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) when he goes to request a repair for their new apartment. He then heads to a nearby park, where he meets Meiying (Wenwen Han) and sparks fly! Unfortuntely for Dre, the leader of a group of young Kung Fu students, Cheng (Zhenwei Wang), takes exception to Meiying showing affection toward a foreigner and ends up beating up Dre. Again, similar to the original story, Dre finds a way to get back at the bullies and is attacked by five of them and hurt, but Mr. Han arrives and saves him. They travel together the next day to try to make peace, but the Master of the bully's dojo, Sensei Li (Rongguang Yu), demands that either Dre or Mr. Han fight to settle the matter of honor. Mr. Han instead offers to have Dre settle the issue at the upcoming Kung Fu tournament, and Sensei Li agrees. The film follows the storyline from the first movie, but with enough differences (Kung Fu vs. Karate for example) to keep it entertaining and to have you cheering Dre along his journey! Plus, the gents reveal which two Cohen Brothers films will be the first reviewed on the podcast!