the karate kid

[3LB]

I'll play devil's advocate for a moment. I loved the original movie and continue to feel it was one of the best films of the 80s as well as one of the best coming-of-age movies ever

I might agree w/ that, if it was a stand-alone movie, and I hadn't seen the crappy sequel

1) Jaden Smith - he's got some mean wushu skills, something Ralph Macchio never did. He's a billion times cuter than Ralph ever was. He's at least as good an actor as Ralph. He's a bit more age appropriate an actor to pick for the role than 23-year-old Ralph playing a 16-year-old. There's no reason why Jaden can't pull the role off.

the whole point of the first one was that Machio's character was an awkward kid learning martial arts in an unconventional way - cuter? I could care less - better actor? who ain't? - Machio looked 14 in that movie :L

2) Jackie Chan - he actually is a martial arts master so it'd be hard for him to not fit into the role exceedingly well. He's got the same light-hearted, fun demeanour as Pat Morita.

but Morita as a martial artist was an unknown comodity and the movie was a comeback of sorts for him; again part of the original flick's charm. Chan as a martial arts expert is what, the thousanth time we seen him in that role? Di'nt Chan just play this same role in another "must teach the gung fu to young western stranger" movie with Jet Li (Forbidden Kingdom)? Chan's Number One Son-meets-Buster Keaton act ceased being entertaining to me long ago.

3) China - for a fish-out-of-water story, an American in China certainly sets the scene a lot more profoundly and offers a lot more opportunities on the theme than a kid from Newark moving to Reseda. China is also a great deal more cinematographic than the San Fernando Valley. It looks like it will actually be a very pretty film to look at.

again with aesthetics? yes, the locale change is more the extreme and more compelling, like the Kung Fu TV series, so I'll give ya that, but on the other hand, its been done before.

4) You know that the martial arts choreography is going to be superior in the remake.

which is one of the reasons why these movies fall flat for me, because I can't suspend disbelief enough to accept the matrix-like acrobatics that permiate modern martial art films. Presenting middle-schoolers doing it won't make it better

This whole "Karate Kid" vs. "Kung Fu Kid" thing is stupid.

not so much that they won't change the title for distribution outside of the US

Pretend that it's titled "The Blue Balloon" and evaluate something that matters like the movie.

no

I fully expect that the remake will be a big disappointment. I'm just saying, a lot of the pieces are actually of a high quality regardless of how the whole turns out. There could be a surprise or two regarding its quality.

disappointment? you talkin boxoffice or personally?