Last night, I watched, “The Karate Kid” remake that stars Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith (Will Smith’s son). When it was first announced, that Will Smith planned on putting together a “Karate Kid” remake that was going to star his son in the leading role, it created a lot of internet controversy. Lot of complaints that the film should not be touched from the original that starred, Ralph Macchio and Pat Morrita. I was one of those people complaining about the remake, admittedly. I thought it was the worst idea ever. When the film came out in theater, the film was surprisingly getting good reviews by critics and movie fans. So I thought to myself, “Maybe the film is not as bad as people thought it was?” I figure I would wait for DVD on it. Now that it’s out on DVD, I picked it up last night at Best Buy and watched it right away last night.

To my surprise, I thought it was a really really good movie. I wasn’t bored and it was thoroughly entertaining. The story is pretty much the same as the original Karate Kid, where a young kid and a single mother moves to a new home, the son gets bullied by other school kids, he learns Karate to defend himself. Except the only difference is, the movie is taken place in China and the leading roles are starred by black people. I thought the Chinese style version of this movie is what made it interesting. Jaden is actually a decent actor, he’s not bad as others made it out to be.

What I was most impressed with the movie was Jackie Chan’s acting. This movie proves that Jackie Chan does have the talent with acting. In most Jackie Chan movies, he’s all about action scenes and doing his own stunts. This movie showed a different side of Jackie Chan, that he is a very talented actor. I think he agreed to do this movie, ’cause he thought it was an opportunity to express his acting talent. To let people know that he’s not just an action guy, he want people to know that he can act. While this movie is not Oscar worthy, I would think Jackie’s performance is Oscar worthy enough for Best Supporting Actor, in my opinion, so hope he’ll get a nomination for this. Jackie plays, Mr. Han, a replacement of the Mr. Miyagi character from the original.

I wish Ralph Macchio, agreed to do a cameo in this movie ’cause he would have been perfect for a small role somewhere in this film. It seems that Will Smith is taking a hiatus from acting himself. Will Smith has been busy launching careers for his children. Jaden Smith as an actor and Willow Smith as a singer. They must love having Will Smith as their father. “Karate Kid” remake was actually really good. I liked it a lot. Still not better than the original. I will always love the original more, of course.

Kev