The Karate Kid

Jackie Chan (left) and Jaden Smith star in The Karate Kid

By Josh Bell

Wednesday, June 9, 2010 | 5:35 p.m.

One of the most enjoyable things about watching Jackie Chan’s fight sequences in movies is seeing how playful he can be. Chan has talked often about how silent-film comedian Buster Keaton is a strong influence on his style, and the way that he incorporates physical comedy into his martial arts immediately sets him apart from other action stars. Long before Chan was debasing himself in stupid comedies like The Spy Next Door, he was making audiences laugh with creative combat in otherwise straightforward martial-arts movies.

The Details

The Karate Kid

Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan, Taraji P. Henson.

Directed by Harald Zwart.

Rated PG. Opens Friday.

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IMDB: The Karate Kid

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Chan gets exactly one chance to show off that side of himself in the dreary new remake of ’80s cheese classic The Karate Kid, and not surprisingly it’s the best scene in the movie. Chan’s Mr. Han, the taciturn maintenance man at a Beijing apartment complex, comes to the aid of American tween Dre (Smith), who’s just moved to China with his mom (Henson) and is being menaced by a group of young toughs. Mr. Han takes down the gang of hooligans with maximum creativity, using their own moves (and even their school uniforms) against them, disabling them all without causing much real harm.

That scene aside, the new Karate Kid is a grim, plodding, overlong (nearly two and a half hours) affair, following the basic outline of the 1984 original (including repeating some dialogue verbatim) without updating it in any meaningful way. Determined to get back at those school bullies, Dre studies martial arts (actually kung fu, not karate, despite the title) with Mr. Han, culminating in a tournament showdown. He also engages in a neutered romance with a Chinese schoolmate, and learns valuable life lessons.

For all its hokiness and predictability, the original Karate Kid had a certain working-class authenticity (perhaps thanks to Rocky director John G. Avildsen), but this version does less with the differences between Beijing and Detroit than the first did with California and New Jersey. Although director Harald Zwart offers up lovely images of Chinese cultural landmarks, their only real function is as a tourism come-on. Smith is wooden and unpleasant as Dre, and Chan mopes through the entire movie, except for that one lovely scene. Can’t we let the guy have some fun?