Film review: Karate Kid has a black belt in nostalgia
Forty-one years is a long time to try and keep a franchise fresh on the big and small screens, but the Karate Kid has done a pretty good job of it.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Straits Times
At The Movies: Karate Kid: Legends is charming in its corniness, The Ritual is beyond salvation
At The Movies: Karate Kid: Legends is charming in its corniness, The Ritual is beyond salvation Karate Kid: Legends (PG) 94 minutes, now showing ★★★☆☆ The story: After a family tragedy, martial arts prodigy Li Fong (Ben Wang) leaves Beijing with his doctor mum (Ming-Na Wen) for a fresh start in New York City. She makes him promise no more fights, but he is a new kid in town facing bullies. Plus, he has a beloved four-decade lore to honour. Karate Kid: Legends is the sixth film in The Karate Kid franchise dating from the 1984 Hollywood sleeper hit. It is the classic rite of passage of an outsider teen meeting a girl, Mia (Sadie Stanley), and attracting unwanted attention from her psychotic karate champion ex-boyfriend Conor (Aramis Knight). Mia's dad (Joshua Jackson) owns the neighbourhood pizzeria. He was a prizefighter, and there is a cute bit of role-reversal, where Li coaches him for a comeback match to pay off his debt. Li is otherwise the acolyte. Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan first played Shifu Han in 2010's The Karate Kid and returns as Li's revered mentor from China, while Ralph Macchio, the original Karate Kid, is now sensei Daniel LaRusso with a Netflix spin-off series Cobra Kai (2018 to 2025). The two masters journey in to teach Li a hybrid of Han's gongfu and LaRusso's karate, which is the teen's only chance of defeating Conor in the inevitable climactic tournament. Feature debut director Jonathan Entwistle brings together every past iteration for a remake-revival-crossover that is charming in its corniness, despite a formulaic story. Beyond the nostalgia, it introduces an Asian hero. And 25-year-old Wang (American Born Chinese, 2023) is an appealing newcomer, who reclaims the martial arts tradition with his humorous and acrobatic moves. Hot take: Part fan service, part generational update, there is much to like in this legacyquel. The Ritual (NC16) Al Pacino (right) in The Ritual. PHOTO: SHAW ORGANISATION 98 minutes, opens on June 12 ★★☆☆☆ The story: Two priests must overcome their differences and work together to free an innocent soul from the devil's grip. Emma Schmidt is the most widely publicised case of exorcism in 20th-century American history and one of the few officially sanctioned by the Catholic Church. An award-winning director of The Killing Of Kenneth Chamberlain (2019), another true account, David Midell researched the personal dairies, psychiatric evaluations and 1935 pamphlet Begone Satan! for The Ritual. Still, his dramatisation is like nothing so much as a parody of The Exorcist (1973). Al Pacino at his hammiest plays the Capuchin friar Theophilus Riesinger, a glinty-eyed emissary of 'the Lord's Army' who arrives at a secluded convent in 1928 Earling, Iowa, to do furious battle with the devil. He has previous experience as an exorcist. Father Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens) is the young parish priest reluctantly overseeing the detailed documentation of the 23-day ritual, the straight guy to Riesinger's crusty mystic. He advocates medical intervention even when Emma (Abigail Cowen) begins levitating, ejecting excrement and speaking in supernatural tongues, generally exhibiting every symptom from the religious horror playbook by week's end. Riesinger chides Steiger for his lack of faith. Their debate on science, spirituality and the human condition is without a single original thought or frisson, and the self-seriousness has only the unfortunate effect of making the glum proceedings all the campier. 'I have a sister with a torn scalp and another with a crushed hand,' Steiger reports of Emma's escalating violence. If the line does not elicit laughs, the sight of said nuns, huddled in petrified terror, surely will. Hot take: This hackneyed demonic possession thriller is beyond salvation. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Gizmodo
2 days ago
- Gizmodo
Amanda Seyfried Is Already Recruiting People for the ‘Jennifer's Body' Sequel
An international TV spot gives us a glimmer of new Superman footage. Riri Williams makes a tough choice in a new clip from Ironheart. Plus, Ralph Macchio teases the future of the 'Karate Kid' universe. Spoilers now! Jennifer's Body 2 During a recent interview with Variety, Amanda Seyfried confirmed to co-star Adam Brody there are plans in place for a new Jennifer's Body. Seyfried: We're making another [Jennifer's Body]. Are you going to do it? Brody: I heard. I wasn't contacted. I died [in the first one]. Seyfried: So did Megan Fox, and I'm not doing it without her. Karate Kid Speaking with Newport Beach TV Fest (via Screen Rant), Ralph Macchio stated 'the Miyagiverse is infinite' and Cobra Kai showrunners Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg] are 'working on some conceptual ideas' for new projects. Oh yeah, I'm gonna tell you right now. Only that there's dialogue that's going on. Until you have the green light, and you're making it, it's probably not the right thing to tease. But there are those areas – I know the guys [Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg] are working on some conceptual ideas – and two things that we know: The Miyagiverse is infinite and Cobra Kai Never Dies. So we'll see, and then outside of that, there are other places to – I can't drop the news fully, but we're working on it. We're working on it. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence A recent news report from Fox 5 San Diego included behind-the-scenes footage from the new Killer Tomatoes movie as filming wrapped in Chula Vista, California. Click through to have a look. Superman Cat Grant gossips with Lois Lane in the latest international Superman TV spot. The Occupant A woman stranded in the remote wilds of Northern Georgia (Ella Balinska) is aided by a disembodied Rob Delaney who may-or-may-not actually exist in the trailer for The Occupant. Eye for an Eye Elsewhere, Whitney Peak (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) discovers an entity named Mr. Sandman ate her grandmother's eyeballs in the trailer for Eye for an Eye, co-starring S. Epatha Merkerson. Miraculous Stellar Force According to Variety, Disney has officially acquired the rights to Miraculous Stellar Force, a new anime series based on Miraculous – Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir. Said to be 'set at an international school in the Japanese capital,' the series follows '12 students who discover they are guardians of the Stellar Matrix, a fractured ancient cosmic weapon. Under the leadership of Miki, Mayotte and Yu Lu, these heroes must overcome personal differences and chaotic friendships to face formidable galactic villains such as the revenge-driven Modeler and the ominous force known as The Supreme.' Ironheart Finally, Riri Williams sells her soul (metaphorically…so far) to do something 'iconic' in a new clip from Ironheart.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
‘Lilo & Stitch' Positively Bubbly With $611M Global, ‘Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning' Easily Runs To $354M WW
Updated: With a pair of phenomenal holds, Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning continued to dominate global turnstiles this weekend. To wit: Disney's Lilo & Stitch added $113.1M from 52 offshore markets, lifting the international box office cume to $330.7M. The overseas drop was just 28%. The worldwide total through today is $610.8M. More from Deadline 'Lilo & Stitch' Kicks Up $63M Second Weekend, 'Mission Impossible 8' $27M+, 'Karate Kid: Legends' At $21M - Box Office Update 'Lilo & Stitch': All The Box Office Records Broken Peter Bart: Barry Diller's New Memoir Might Be The True Final Reckoning Paramount/Skydance's Mission: Impossible 8's sophomore offshore session was good for $76.1M, a great 33% dip from opening. The international total on the Tom Cruise-starrer is now $231.2M, and global is $353.8M. Before we dig into details on the above, note that Sony's Karate Kid: Legends, which kicked off international rollout in early May ahead of its wide global release this weekend, kicked up another $12M from 43 offshore markets this session. That takes the international cume to $26M through Sunday. Alongside domestic, the global gross to date is $47M. Major markets to come on this one are: Australia (June 5), Italy (June 5), China (June 7), Spain (August 8), France (August 13) and Japan (August 29). Now, turning back to Lilo & Mission… Disney's live-action take on the 2002 animated adventure has already become the No. 2 studio release of the year internationally, and is the No. 1 non-local title across Europe (except for Denmark and Finland), and in all markets across Latin America as well as Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Philippines and Thailand. Notable holds this frame include France (0%), Germany (-12%), UK (-28%), Australia (-29%), Brazil (-34%), Spain (-36%), Mexico (-40%), Korea (-44%) and Italy (-46%). Some markets saw increases, including Netherlands (+21%), Belgium (+13%), Saudi Arabia (+8%), Poland (+7%), Singapore (+3%) and Ukraine (+1%). New this session was Hong Kong ($1.1M), where the little blue alien opened at No. 1 and 4% ahead of The Minecraft Movie. Among other benchmarks, L&S is notably the 2nd highest grossing Disney live-action title of all-time across the Latin American region (behind only The Lion King); the 2nd highest grossing Disney live-action title ever in Mexico, 3rd highest in Colombia and 4th highest in Brazil. Further, it is the highest grossing film of 2025 in Italy (non-local), Brazil, Mexico and Thailand. The Top 5 to date are: Mexico ($45.9M), UK ($34.5M), France ($23.1M), Brazil ($21.6M) and Germany ($18.1M). Japan opens next weekend. As for Mission 8, audiences continued to accept. Notable strong holds were seen in Netherlands (-4%), Germany (-10%), France (-21%), Indonesia (-21%) and Japan (-23%). Also notably, China debuted this frame. This is a market that typically gravitates towards the franchise, but has been wonky of late with Hollywood fare. So, great news that The Final Reckoning became the highest-grossing imported film on a single day this year, and the fastest imported film to reach the RMB 100M mark in 2025. The gross there is a strong $25.2M while social scores are the highest of the franchise. The Top 5 markets to date are: China ($25.2M), UK ($22.3M), Japan ($18.5M), Korea ($17M) and France ($14.2M). Elsewhere, New Line/Warner Bros' Final Destination Bloodlines landed with another $14.4M from 75 offshore markets, a strong 37% drop from last weekend. The international running total is $117.6M through Sunday with worldwide at $229.3M. The Top 5 are: UK ($12.5M), Mexico ($11.2M), India ($7.6M), Philippines ($6.9M) and France ($6.7M). The film has also become the biggest horror movie of all time in Pakistan, and the 4th best ever there for a WB title. MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE (UNI): $4.2M intl weekend (41 markets); $6.2M intl cume/$6.8M global (WB): $3.1M intl weekend (73 markets); $524.1M intl cume/$947.1M global (DIS): $2.8M intl weekend (52 markets); $187.7M intl cume/$369.6M global (WB): $1.8M intl weekend (59 markets); $83M intl cume/$350.1M global (SNY): $1M intl weekend (8 markets)*Denotes new Best of Deadline Everything We Know About 'Stranger Things' Season 5 So Far 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery
