Chinarchy

The [New] Karate Kid (A.K.A. Karate Black Kid) Trailer 2

by McCoy | 02/25/10 | 4 comments

First I want to give credit where credit is due. I stole the name of Karate Black Kid from Vince on Filmdrunk. You can check out his review of the trailer here http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2010/02/karate-black-kid-has-a-new-trailer.

The original plan was to include all sorts of aspects of Chinese culture into this blog like entertainment so here is the first one. I realize that the new Karate Kid movie is made by Americans for American audiences but it does take place in China, and there are scenes in schools, so I think that it’s apropos to talk about it here.

In case you haven’t seen the newest trailer for the movie here it is:

The [New] Karate Kid Trailer 2

So the new movie stars Jackie Chan, and Will Smith’s son, Jaden (which I never understood why his name is so similar to his mother, Jada’s). Jackie Chan plays Han, the Miyagi, mentor type role, which in this preview seems a bit off. We see Han rescuing Dre Parker (Smith) from a bunch of bullies who are half of Jackie’s size.

In the original Karate Kid movies Morita was small and packed a punch against some high school kids, but here the kids are probably junior high schoolers, and are fighting Jackie Chan. Yes that’s right, Kung Fu master, Jackie Chan. This isn’t high school kids fighting Arnold from Happy Days, this is middle schoolers fighting Jackie Chan. This would be like if I defended one of my kindergarten students from a bunch of other kindergarten students by beating them up.

This trailer held a special interest for me because Dre and his mother fly to China on China Air, (just like Anderson and I) and go to Beijing (just like Anderson and I), which was basically the inspiration for even doing this post. Also there are scenes which appear to take place in the school yard which looks more like the town from Kung Fu Hustle, than any school I’ve been to so far but  whatever.

Other things going on here include Jaden running on the Great Wall…um okay… And him doing splits and ridiculous things with bamboo sticks that look really cheesy. This movie may be pushing things a bit too far but what crappy movie doesn’t these days?

I do have to give credit though to the little homage in the in trailer. At the very end when Jackie is trying to catch the fly you can hear them playing “You’re the Best” by Joe Esposito, which was made famous during a montage scene from the original Karate Kid movie.

All in all the movie looks pretty terrible, but because of the topics in the movie, China, schools, Kung Fu, and because Jackie Chan is in it, I personally will probably see it. However if the trailer is any indication of how the movie will be, it will probably be terrible.