Rating of
2.5/4
Not legendary per se but not lousy
Indyfreak - wrote on 09/27/25
Simple but serviceable entry into the Karate Kid franchise. At a lean 94 minutes, the movie wastes no team really. It speeds through various storylines until they all get wrapped up with a martial arts tournament. It's cool to see Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio together but they are not the focus of the movie. Instead we got angsty teenager Li (Wang) who has to deal with bullies, young love, and...loan sharks...? Most of the cast is not bad. The bully is an easy-to-hate villain; the love interest is charming; and even his nerdy sidekick is tolerable. Even Joshua Jackson has a nice supporting role. But if I have to be honest, the lead actor Ben Wang is not that interesting. He's not unsympathetic but compared to everyone else, he does not really stand out.
