Tag: The Karate Kid

Movie Round-Up: June 11th, 2010

Reviews

The Karate Kid:

I’m not a big fan of remakes.  That said, I don’t mind when someone takes an old story and changes it up a bit, because, you know, that’s sort of what all stories are since the dawn of time.  Everything can be boiled down to “it’s a love story” or something similar, the important part is where the story goes, the details.  The trailers look decent enough, and having recently watched the original I can say I’m glad someone is remaking this to get the themes of the film out there to a new audience, because honestly no kid today would enjoy watching the original.  The hair alone!  Oh, the humanity!  I’ll probably see this on DVD because there is only one movie I will see this weekend and it is…

The A-Team:

I’ve probably watched the trailer to this film a few dozen times.  I’ve seen all the old shows, in fact I’ve watched all five seasons through Netflix Instant in the last year.  I hum the theme song whenever I make a plan because “I love it when a plan comes together.”  I was excited for Iron Man 2, but this is the film I’ve been dying to see.  As long as the trailer is indicative of the whole, it looks like they’ve captured the spirit of the show extremely well.  The action, the comedy, everything.  So, yeah, I’ll be seeing this one this weekend.

Less Remake, More Reinvention

Random Thoughts

I recently learned that there is a remake of The Karate Kid coming down the pipe.  However, he does Kung-Fu instead of Karate, it happens in another country, and lots of other changes.  In essence, this isn’t a remake but a name theft.  They’ve take the name “The Karate Kid” and are slapping it on a movie with a few similar themes.  On the other hand, the theaters in recent years have been littered with remakes.  Taking an old movie and essentially re-shooting it with maybe a few minor changes, or a couple of big drastic ones that either ruin the movie or ultimately have no impact.

Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of remaking an old film they were to take an old film and tell the story from another angle?  Take The Karate Kid for example.  Rather than retread the same ground, why not tell The Johnny Lawrence Story instead – the story of a bully who learns that violence isn’t answer through the ongoing conflict with a scrawny kid named Daniel LaRusso.  Or rather than doing yet another remake of Hamlet, make Gertrude instead – the original story from the point of view of the mother watching her son go mad.  There are so many stories that this can be done to.  Pick another character and turn the tale inside-out and view the whole thing in a new light.

A man can dream…