The Karate Kid (2010)

Work causes a single mother to move to China with her young son; in his new home, the boy embraces kung fu, taught to him by a master.

Director:

Harald Zwart

Writers:

Christopher Murphey (screenplay), Robert Mark Kamen (story)

Stars:

Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith, Taraji P. Henson

5 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jaden Smith	...	Dre Parker
Jackie Chan	...	Mr. Han
Taraji P. Henson	...	Sherry Parker
Wenwen Han	...	Meiying
Rongguang Yu	...	Master Li
Zhensu Wu	...	Meiying's Dad
Zhiheng Wang	...	Meiying's Mom
Zhenwei Wang	...	Cheng
Jared Minns	...	Dre's Detroit Friend
Shijia Lü	...	Liang
Yi Zhao	...	Zhuang
Bo Zhang	...	Song
Luke Carberry	...	Harry
Cameron Hillman	...	Mark
Ghye Samuel Brown	...	Oz

Storyline

12-year-old Dre Parker has moved to China, and finds himself like a fish out of water. He befriends a fellow classmate, Mei Ying, only to make a rival, Cheng, who starts to bully and attack Dre. Soon, Mr Han, the maintenance man of Dre's apartment, fends off Cheng and his friends when they are attacking Dre and signs Dre up to fight in the Kung Fu tournament in return for the bullies laying off of Dre. Dre realizes Mr. Han is much more than a maintenance man, when he's revealed as a master of Kung Fu and Dre soon learns that Kung Fu is about self defense and peace, instead of violence and bloodshed.

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Plot Keywords:

kung fu | bully | china | 2010s | detroit | 

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Taglines:

A Challenge He Never Imagined. A Teacher He Never Expected.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Family | Romance | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for bullying, martial arts action violence and some mild language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA China

Language:

English Mandarin

Release Date:

11 June 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled Karate Kid Remake

Filming Locations:

Beijing, China

Box Office

Budget:

$40,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$55,665,805, 13 June 2010, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$176,591,618, 19 September 2010

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$359,126,022, 23 September 2010

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Overbrook Entertainment, Sony Pictures Releasing

Technical Specs

Runtime:

140 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Filming began around July 2009 and ended on October 16, 2009.

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Goofs

On the way from Beijing Airport (North East Beijing) to the Parker's new house they drive past the CCTV building (South East Beijing) and then the Birds Nest (North Bijing). No one would drive this route.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Sherry Parker: Dre, you ready?

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Crazy Credits

The opening and closing credits for the movie are shown in both English and Chinese.

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Alternate Versions

Chinese version was re-edited to make Dre seem like the bad guy, and makes it seem like he started all the fights.

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Connections

Referenced in 2 Broke Girls: And the Icing on the Cake (2014)

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Soundtracks

Steppin' Up
Written by K.T. Wilder (as kt wilder)

User Reviews

If Disney made Karate Kid.

Clumsy exposition that is trying to be subtle, but ends up being super direct, in that intellectually insulting way. From the beginning to the end, this movie really talks down to its audience, even if the demographic aimed at is children. I found myself laughing at serious scenes which were not only bizarre but ridiculously overreaching. I really hate it when stories explain directly what is painfully obvious, or try to insert it, in unrealistic and absurd ways.

Jacket on and Jacket off is no wax on wax off. At least in the original film, Daniel thought he was being put to work, here it's just outright bizarre. Jaden's character seems to be oblivious of the obvious, and unquestioning of the ridiculous.

Ralph Macchio's performance was far more believable. Jaden Smith goes way to far way too quick, from wimp to kung fu champion. The exaggeration and elaborate fight scenes really removed me from a sense of realism, that its predecessor had.

I found the mother character to be at odds with this move. I would have preferred if her role was downplayed. She was ultimately lacking chemistry with Jaden and not an interesting character, mostly annoying.

Just a quick comparison with Pat Morita and Jacky Chan. Chan is flash with Chinese superstition. Pat was subtle with universal wisdom and was far more endearing.

There is just far too much mundane filler, it really slows the movie down and in conclusion when this movie wasn't extremely bizarre, I found it to be more flash than substance.