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REVIEW: THE KARATE KID (PG)

7/10

The Karate Kid (PG)

30th July 2010

By Alan Frank

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IN 1984, the original karate kid Ralph Macchio won through with a little help from his friend.

This time, Will Smith’s overly cute son Jaden follows in little Ralph’s footsteps in a remake reprising the basic story, only bigger and a whole lot l-o-n-g-e-r.

Twelve-year-old Smith is understandably miffed when his single mother Taraji P Henson’s job uproots them from Detroit to downtown Beijing, where Smith finds SpongeBob Squarepants has been dubbed into Cantonese.

Worse still, the class thug picks on him at his new school and he is bullied mercilessly.

That is, until Smith makes friends with maintenance man Jackie Chan, who teaches him kung fu.

His lessons lead to a bruising tournament confrontation with his enemy.

Attractive locations decorate the seen it-all-before story (Chan and Smith train on the Great Wall of China) and Chan
gives the best performance, while Smith’s charisma carries him through.