The Karate Kid (2010) 7/10

Starring : Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan, Taraji P Henson
Director : Harald Zwart
Running Time : 128 mins

Single mother Sherry Parker (Henson) is forced to move to China for work with her twelve year old son Dre (Smith). There Dre falls for one of his classmates, but when he is faced with a challenge from a male classmate for her affections, he finds himself easily beaten down. His only option is to try to learn self defence, so he enlists the help of maintenance man Mr Han (Chan), who is secretly a master of Kung Fu.

This wasn’t so much a remake as a reimagining of the original Karate Kid. Here the martial art is Kung Fu rather than Karate, and the protagonist is a lot younger. The plot was simple – a young boy fights for the love of a girl – but perhaps it’s not the best example to be portraying to children. Fighting doesn’t necessarily solve all problems, and Dre could have easily gotten killed.

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