Quick Movie Review

Last night my kids and I went to see "The Karate Kid."  My 3 older sons are fans of Jackie Chan.  I quite liked to see him in a less silly role than in the "Rush Hour" movies or "Shanghai Noon/Knights"  movies.  However, I really didn't appreciate the "love interest" part of the movie.  No, not an interest for Jackie Chan, but for twelve year old Jaden Smith's character.  Really?  We have got to sexualize 12 year olds now?   Even my almost 16 year old groaned at seeing Jaden and his 'girl friend' kiss.  I really don't understand why our society is so obsessed with sex.  Does anyone really wonder why we have pregnant 14 year olds?  So, this is a warning for any and all mothers that are a little sensitive to this issue.  Don't take your kids.  My boys and I had a long talk about it on the way home from the theatre.

The rest of the movie was very good.  The boy had to learn about respect for his mother, for his teacher, for a foreign culture.  All that was good.  I like the lesson of karate kid that you need to push through and conquer fear if you are going to live with any kind of self-respect.  The final tournament see was almost exactly the same as the original movie.  One caveat--I do think Jaden Smith is a better actor than Ralph Machio (sp?), however, at least Ralph was a teenager in the first movie and it was the summer before he went to college in the second movie.  The new movie had some good action sequences, but it was a little long for my five year old.