The new kid on the block

The world we live in, and do everything else in, seems to have an obsession with originals. Collectors covet guns that have been crafted to carry out King Herod’s massacres and go mad searching for cars that have been made to take his grandmother shopping.

As if this obsession is not enough, there is another group of people that searches for, believe it not, skulls. They give themselves fancy names like anthropologists and whatchamacallit. All this ‘skulldiggery’ only to prove that our great great grandparents and their aunts were all a bunch of monkeys. As if we need more proof.  A casual glance at the number of men scratching their nuts in public places ought to give anybody more than enough proof without needing to actually dig for it.

The old guns blow up in your face if you try to use them, the old cars drink enough fuel to cause global warming in Pluto and the old skulls prove that if we were alive back then, dentists could have made a killing with the recommendation of braces.

The verdict then seems to be fairly simple. The new models are better.

No, no, no. Do not say it aloud.

As soon as you do, you will have a short balding man in glasses and hair sticking out ofh is nose will appear from around your table and say it is not true and talk about movies and how the movies of the past are so much better than the movies of today and go on and on till you bleed to death from your ears.

This brings us to the new kid on the block – The Karate Kid.

The old kid of ’84 with the tight script and an oscar nominated performance by Pat Morita and a fresh story line is definitely the sort of an original that could well be impossible to beat.

The new kid starts of with this drawback that the old kid is impossible to beat. Saddled with this drawback, it performs like a training athlete on weights. The only thing that can happen is getting stronger.

The direction is crisp. The movie engages you with the first scene. After that, it doesnt build up. It comes built and then piles it on. You know what happens next at every scene, but you will be subconsciously sliding to the edge of the scene to see how it will happen.

The casting is perfect. Jaden Smith’s performance could well be the performance of the year, or so you think, only till the time Jackie Chan comes walking in to make life difficult for you. He kicks ass. And this time, without even using his kung-fu. The anguish in his eyes, the defeat in his walk, the hope in his words. This is Jackie Chan at his sensitive best. If there is ever going to be a worth successor to Mr.Miyagi of ’84, it is Mr.Han of 2010.

The old one was a masterpiece. The new one will tell you why impossible is silly.

Does it beat the original?

The opinions are going to be divided, but only just.

What is my take?

This is another original that deserves to be watched. Twice.