The Karate Kid

To get the quibbles out of the way early, really this should be called the Kung-Fu kid as karate doesn't feature at all with the action relocated to China. The change in setting aside, the only other real change is the reduction in age of the kid and his bullying opponents from older teens to tweenagers, which makes some of the violence they treat each other to in the final tournament rather more uncomfortable.

In tone, there's also a shift - this feels a rather more serious affair than the cheese-tastic 80s original. It also displays a thooughly American attitude to geography. Its set in China, so we must have the Great Wall in there somewhere (in the same way the Eiffel Tower must appear in anything in France), even though the film is actually set in Beijing.

Notwithstanding all these criticisms, the new Karate Kid is a solidly good and entertaining film throughout its rather long running length. It gives a reasonable portrayal of both culture shock and bullying (although the later feels slightly old fashioned - what no bullying by text and facebook, these teens really are behind the times), both of which are helped by a winning performance from Jaden "son of Will" Smith, who looks destined to follow in dad's footsteps. Jackie Chan is also surprisingly good in the Mr Miyagi role - stripped of all but one action sequence, he actually has to act and finds some real emotion in what may be his best performance in an English language film.

Overall - 6.5/10 It may not be as much fun as you'd expect, but might be a better film for that.