A movie that works so fabulously and on so many levels, that Screen Queen isn’t sure where to begin….One of my suspected top five summer hits, Karate Kid delivers from the get-go for obvious reasons: Because in 1984 we were nearly grown kids and saw the original with Ralph Machhio and Pat Morita (“Wax on, wax off”). That story was invented by Robert Mark Kamen (he’s been around a long time. Now he writes Taken over two decades later, while still tackling this.) But those now parents of that original film (and I’m one of them) want to share the same experience with our own child, partly because it’s a feel good/ kid/teen film that will attract the entire family, but mainly because there’s a lot of expressed values and purpose packed into its non-cliché, albeit modern-day plot.
Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) is a Detroit child of a single mother from Detroit who has to relocate to China since his mom (Taraji P. Henson) got transferred to the Beijing auto plant. This means leaving behind his roots and his home, his basketball court and especially his lifeline-yard-stick-measured achievements on his bedroom wall of fame. (You know… the one that tells him how tall he was last year and even the day his daddy died.) When Dre moves to China, there’s a great cultural conflict which provides a before-their-eyes lesson for kids in the audience who can perhaps connect to the heartache of having to relocate for a parent’s job. But not to CHINA! Here the houses are old, the people are old, and little Dre only speaks English where nobody else does. Enter the quintessential bullies on his first day of school – a gang of kickboxing Chinese kids who focus on one black ghetto kid, Dre, and you have a typical bully anywhere story minus the typical characters.
From this moment, an instant star is born in Jaden Smith (son to “A list” actor, Will Smith.) As a breakout underdog, he’s soft, he’s pretty to look at, and he’s charming. And the chemistry he’ll share with his trainer, maintenance man, Jackie Chan is through the roof. The right amount of Smith sarcasm (just like dad) meets strict discipline and physical movement (imagine Chan in any of his action movies.) If in Home Alone, Macaulay Culken won us over with his over-the-top Jim Careyish antics to later grow up to be a problem child star, Smith is a gentle creature, kind, funny, well-timed and with a casual simplicity (who like his father) projects that he hasn’t an agenda of any sort other than to challenge the wonders of life. Jaden Smith is believable. The world moves around his innocence much as it did for Dev Patel in Slumdog Millionaire. In an odd way this feels like Slumdog for kids. Thrilling, believable, with an unusual journey that will entertain the audience the entire time it takes to get there. Wherever there is. In the end, there will be an Kung Fu open tournament in which our Jaden Smith will have to compete with the other black belt masters (under their message of no weakness, no pain and no mercy) which will teach our children when right from wrong make a difference in our competitive world, and at what point is it okay to stop and succumb. Apparently the message of Kung Fu isn’t to make war, but to make peace. That said, of all the multi-messages the movie delivers the most important one and that is you don’t have to have a father to have a dream. For little Jaden Smith’s character Dre Parker, he has a mentor in Jackie Chan. And that speaks volumes. Move over Hollywood, a four foot kickass star is born. Four tiaras