The Karate Kid

So it's not karate, and the catch-the-fly-in-the-chopsticks scene just doesn't work when it's played for laughs, but pretty much everything else about this Karate Kid remake is actually good. Whether you were around in 1984 or not, there can't be many people without at least a passing knowledge of the Ralph Macchio/Pat Morita original: A young boy finds himself living in a new town with his widowed mother.
At first, things seem OK, but a friendship with a girl leads to a confrontation with the school bully, who is also the most feared student at the local martial arts' academy.
Our hero is in a world of hurt, and looking to stay there for the duration, but perhaps that enigmatic old maintenance man who lives downstairs in the apartment block might know a few things about life in general, and ass-whooping in particular, that could come in handy by the third act ...
The Karate Kid 2010 edition does follow the formula very closely. Only difference is, this time around, the new town isn't Los Angeles, it's Beijing, and young Dre Parker isn't just facing a new neighborhood, he's way out of his depth in a whole new continent.
Which is where The Karate Kid really shines. The basic plot of this film is a sturdy and well-tested vehicle that can hold any amount of detail and characterization, and still be relied on to roll inexorably towards its foregone conclusion.
Jaden Smith spends the first couple of scenes being an insufferably cute and precocious little tyke, but that's kind of the point. By the time the film is 20 minutes old you'll be feeling real empathy for the character, and perhaps genuine admiration for what an accomplished and intelligent actor Will and Jada Smith's son is becoming.
Next to Smith, Jackie Chan is a dream piece of casting as the mentor/instructor who must ready Smith for the tournament. Chan has always had real acting chops underpinning all the violent nonsense he's built his career on, and he turns in some lovely work here.
Meanwhile, behind and all around the action, Beijing and China are given the sort of showcase of which tourist agencies dream.
Cynics will point out that no-one in this film is arrested for dissent, tries to log on to Google, or even smokes a cigarette, but you will still come away with a powerful sense of having seen a vision – not always flattering – of modern-day China that is new to a Western movie.
I went into The Karate Kid not expecting much more than another 80s remake. But the film does better than that. It is exceptionally well crafted, more than competently written and acted, and at times quite spectacular. The violence is often much more realistic and brutal than the PG rating would imply, and the two-hour-plus running time will be too much for under-10s, but for teens and older, there's a lot here to like.