The Next Karate Kid (1994)

Since this movie has such a low Letterboxd and IMDb rating, I avoided watching it for a while... but guess what? It honestly isn't that bad for a Karate Kid movie. I would still rank the original movie a smidge higher, because it has the original movie mystique going for it; that said, I have to admit I'd rather see Mr. Miyagi working with Julie (Hilary Swank) than Daniel (Ralph Macchio). She's just a better actor.

Getting Mr. Miyagi to Boston is a bit of a plot stretch. He somehow convinces Julie's grandmother to fly out to California for a house swap. I mean, maybe she was at her wits end with Julie, but it's funny, because we once she leaves for Mr. Miyagi's place out West, we never see or hear from her again.

Michael Ironside (as Dugan) is a perfect replacement for Kreese (Michael Kove). He's the leader of some sort of student patrol group at the school. (Listen to his first speech. He could easily be the prototype for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegeseth... he's that insane.) His boys take power to heart and think they're badasses roaming the hallways. One of them picks on Julie, trying to bully his way into her pants, I guess. Another, Eric (Chris Conrad), doesn't turn out to be a bad guy. He quits the group, and he and Julie end up going to the dance together.

Of course Dugan's group won't leave Eric and Julie alone. They blow-up Eric's car at the dock and then beat the shit out of him before Mr. Miyagi and Julie show up. Julie gets her revenge against the asshole that wanted to have his way with her, but Mr. Miyagi still has to take out Dugan. Once he does, all of Dugan's kids quit him, much like Kreese's quit him after Daniel won the tournament in the original movie.

Seriously, this might not be as good as a movie as something like The Shawshank Redemption, but I have no earthly idea why its rating is so low. LIke I said, other than the original (which honestly isn't that great except for the idea), this is probably the best Karate Kid movie in the series.

But whether it's great or average, it's definitely not a bottom-of-the-barrel one-star film.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

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