We had another movie night with the children this week and this time watched The Karate Kid. I had high hopes for this movie. “Wax on, wax off” is a phrase that has worked its way into popular vernacular – I still hear it used in TV / movies from time to time.
I’m sorry to say that this movie didn’t hold up quite as well as Back to the Future though. Who knew that “wax on, wax off” was the most lasting element? The rest of the dialogue was cheesy, the direction was clumsy, and I think they made a big, big mistake going for an original soundtrack rather than using real 80s music hits. The best part of the whole movie was Pat Morita’s role as father figure and teacher. Without him, I’m sure this movie would have quietly slipped into obscurity by now.
The movie was one cliche after another, which wouldn’t have bothered me so much if they had been handled a little better. For example: at one point Daniel, the new (poor) kid in town, goes to meet the girl he likes at her country club. She’s late coming out so he goes in through the kitchen (why??) and looks for her in the dining room through the window in the swinging door to the kitchen (Really? So it’s a country club set up like a cafeteria??) Daniel sees her, predictably dancing with his arch-enemy and her ex-boyfriend. He jumps to conclusions and tries to make a hasty retreat and crashes into a waiter carrying a tray full of Italian food judging by the amount of red sauce that ended up on Daniel’s previously spotless white outfit. What happens next? Everyone in the dining room starts laughing at him in unison. Because that’s always what happens in the real world when there’s an event like that.
At the end, Daniel faces his antagonists in a karate tournament and is doing very well. So well that the evil karate teacher advises his students to use illegal kicks to injure Daniel and take him out of the running. The scales fall from the bad boys eyes and though they do what their teachers say to do, the bad boys are full of remorse for their actions and happy when Daniel triumphs in spite of their dirty tricks. Rather than just have the boys meet eyes and come to a silent understanding and truce, the #1 nasty bad boy hands Daniel the trophy with a big smile and says something to the effect of “way to go, you deserve to win”. A big turn-around for a guy who spent the previous two hours kicking the crap out of Daniel and just suffered a humiliating defeat and loss of his karate title, don’t you think?
Best part of the movie? When my seven year old son said that he’d never try to be the silent tough guy and lie about how/why he was getting beat up – he’d come tell his mommy 
Oh well. It didn’t hold up for me, but at least the children enjoyed it – they’ve already watched it again. And other than the music, it was still better than My Fair Lady.
Funny how our perceptions change, isn’t it? I watched Sound of Music with my granddaughters the other night. I’m happy to say that we all still enjoyed the movie!
by anny cook January 3rd, 2010 at 2:48 pm