The Karate Kid (2010)

Okay. I watched this movie out of morbid curiosity, but I have to admit that it won me over. Generally, I don't like remakes, but if a remake can actually fix some things that the original got wrong, then I can see the value in doing it. And this remake does fix a few of the issues I had with the original.

That said, I'm not a huge fan of Jaden Smith. It's not that I think he's a horrible actor; I just don't enjoy watching him in the lead role. He's the 12-year-old Karate Kid, Dre. And, of course, they are using Kung Fu in this movie, so it's silly that this movie isn't called The Kung Fu Kid. Regardless, he's four years younger than Daniel (Ralph Machhio) was supposed to be in the original. I think a slightly older Karate Kid works better.

I do like Jackie Chan in the role of the Pat Morita role. As. Mr. Han, Chan is able to do a lot more than Morita could. Morita had a stunt double to do the karate bits. Obviously, Chan doesn't need a stunt double. We actually get to see Mr. Han and Dre involved in "real training," whereas Daniel never actually does any real karate training. I think we know that Daniel teaches Mr. Miyagi something, but in this movie, Mr. Han tells Dre specifically that he learned something from their training. I like that the trainer "thanks" the student.

Another issue never resolved in the original: What happens to the Cobra Kai students after the tournament is over? We see the respect given to Daniel at the end, but there's no clarity about what happens when they go back to continue their training. In this movie, we see each member of the "bad guy team" bow and give their respect to Mr. Han. I think that moment is important and maybe one of the best improvements made in the remake.

I also questioned the ending freeze frame in the original. The movie has a few choices on which character or characters is elects to freeze on in the end shot. The original focused on one person, and I wondered if this was the right choice. The remake focuses on two individuals, and it feels a lot more natural to me.

Like the original, I felt like the movie starts off slowly. I don't really enjoy the first 30 minutes or so, but it picks up after that. It is also able to keep the mom character somewhat in the picture. At least she doesn't just disappear. And the film makes pretty good use of the China setting. Whether or not it's believable that a Detroit single mom and her son would move to China, once they get to China, you don't worry about that. You also don't worry about whether Mr. Han would actually bother to train Dre on the Great Wall. It looks pretty.

So, yeah. The original is still the iconic film, but this film is probably just as good, and maybe even better in some ways.

Rating: 4/5 stars

"Digging for the Truth" Experiment #4 -- The Federalist Radio Hour

I first heard of Sean Davis last week. He created an online magazine called The Federalist in 2011, and he currently has about 500,000 followers on X. It was about last week that he posted something amazing. He suggested if the Supreme Court doesn't rule the way they should, not only should Trump just ignore the ruling, if they keep obstructing the administration, he should just dissolve the Court altogether. And I thought, wow. This guy is saying outrageous stuff like that, and there's an audience for it. So, I decided I'd listen to an episode of The Federalist podcast: April 17, 2025 -- Deportation, Due Process, and Deference to the American People (40 minutes) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deportation-due-process-and-deference-to-the/id983782306?i=1000703904873 In the 40-minute conversation, the host and guest discussed why due process wasn't required for illegal immigrants. The case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was mentioned for a brief second, but...

In Utero

In 1994, I wore my In Utero shirt to college. I’d walk down the hall, and people would look at the shirt. I still remember a professor looking at it, not apparently hip to the scene. She asked, “Bret, is there something you’re trying to tell us?” I had no idea what I was trying to say. Kurt Cobain had just shot his head off with a shotgun. Before that life-changing event, I hadn’t been the biggest fan of Nirvana, but I did recognize the immediate impact “Smells Like Teen Spirit” had on music, or at least on MTV. Nirvana had seemingly killed and buried Hair Metal, and they had done it single-handedly. What exactly was this “Alternative” sound? It was weird, because soon it felt like everything was “alternative,” and that didn’t make any sense. Once everything is the same, how can it be anything but standard, normal? Nirvana was okay, but at least at the time I was wearing the merch, I was much more into Offspring and Green Day and Tool. And that’s about as far as I went into...

I Must Betray You -- Ruta Sepetys

I appreciate the pacing. The author's epilogue includes her mission statement -- historical fiction as a way to keep history alive. Romanis is an obscure place, but she hopes people reading the book will take an interest in its history. She also makes the point that there are no clean endings. So, the evil dictator and his wife were killed, but the problems they created didn't magically go away, the country still had to find its way and move forward, and it was a process.

The Writer's Poke

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