Review of Karate Kid

I know, I know.

I already saw Toy Story 3 and here I am writing another blog about Karate Kid.

What can I say?

It's been a Kim family movie-thon.

We took the entire Kim clan to go watch the Karate Kid today.

First of all, I think we found our favorite movie theater. We saw the movie at the AMC Southcenter (http://www.amcentertainment.com/Southcenter/). The theater is clean, the stadium seating is excellent for even little ones with adults sitting in front of them, and the digital screens are crystal clear.

The thing about movies like the Karate Kid is you know exactly what's going to happen - he's going to get beat up, and then he's going to win. And with remakes like this, it makes the plot even more redundant because we've all seen the original.

And that's just the thing. Even with all that, this version of the Karate Kid was able to pull it off. And the two main reasons why this movie was able to do so is because of the acting prowess of Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith.

Acting and Jackie Chan typically are not said in the same sentence. Jackie Chan is an action guy. People don't pay money to see Jackie Chan act. They go to see Jackie Chan kick butt. But in this movie, there is much more Jackie Chan the actor than Jackie Chan kicking butt. And he does a very good job at the acting part. He's a very believable mentor to the young Dre. As crazy as it sounds, I liked Jackie Chan as much as I liked the original Mr. Miyagi played by the late Pat Morita.

Another surprise was the acting by Jaden Smith (the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith). He was good in "The Pursuit of Happiness" but he was very good in the Karate Kid. This movie required of Jaden Smith to not only act but to do most of the action shots and he pulls it off handsomely.

You can see the same comedic timing and acting skills of his dad shining through in the young Jaden. And to top it all off, the fighting sequences in the movie weren't too shabby either.

There is one caution - it's the same fighting scenes I enjoyed, but is too much for little ones. Although my little man loved the fighting scenes, had I known about the scenes in advance, I would not let my youngest one (5 years-old) see the movie until he's a bit older.

All in all, the movie exceeded my expectations and kept five out of the six (with the exception of the little man - he was pretty bored as the characters and the plot was being set up for the first 90-100 minutes of the movie, and the entire movie is 140 minutes) entertained.

This summer is looking like it's going to be a great movie going season.