The Karate Kid (2010)

I almost always like a Will Smith joint, and this is no exception. He and wife Jada Pinkett Smith co-produced the movie and, on their own, the star, their son Jaden Smith, who will be 12 on July 8. It's really Kung Fu this time, though the clueless mom does call it karate at least once. Jaden (co-starred with Will in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)) plays Dre, a 12 year old only child, who has been ripped by his widowed mother (Taraji P. Henson - Oscar nominated for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, she was also wonderful in Talk to Me (2007), Boston Legal, and Hustle & Flow, which Jack and I saw in July 2005 the night Mary Ellen fixed us up) from his home and friends in Detroit to move to Beijing, where he immediately becomes the target of a big, martial-arts-trained bully. The bullying was distressing to me, perhaps because I have not had sons, and seeing a child get his "ass kicked," as Dre says frequently, makes me unhappy. But that's what it's about, and other than that, I thought it was great (I don't think Jack had the same issues as I, since he was a rough-and-tumble-boy). We both, however, agreed that the bully's Kung Fu teacher was a sadistic bastard (I used a different word in the theatre). There were plenty of references to the 1984 original. Jackie Chan (I don't think I've seen any of his 106 movies, starting when he was younger than Jaden), standing in for Pat Morita, reprises the catching a fly with chopsticks gag (only different, you'll laugh); there's some standing on one leg action; and a variation of wax-on-wax-off. The girl (Wen Wen Han), the bully (Zhenwei Wang), and his cohorts are all way bigger than little Dre; reasonable, since he was 11 and at least the first two were 13 when the movie was shot.

The locations and vistas are fabulous, though I wondered if they were sanitized for our American eyes. The whole thing is an interesting combination of sentiment and action; and there is plenty of the latter: good chases, and of course the martial arts, as well as several scenes of uniformed folks all moving in concert, doing Tai Chi, among others. The Smith family all moved to China to make the movie, according to Jada on a talk show. She said Jaden worked hard. During the end credits there are many still photos of the family as well as production shots.

As to be expected, there is good music, compiled here on the reelsoundtrack blog. You'll see there a link to Jaden rapping with Justin Bieber for one of the end credits songs. My favorite was the Red Hot Chili Peppers' cover of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground. It's not linked on the other blog, so you can listen to it here. This is good. Check it out.