The Karate Kid (A)

This, folks, is how you remake a movie.
The Karate Kid strikes the perfect balance between originality and faithfulness to the original despite not having any karate in the entire thing (Chinese martial arts is apparently kung fu). The good quality is mostly due to the genius debut screenplay by Christopher Murphey (the first film was written Robert Mark Kamen)—which lovingly recreates 1984 Karate Kid while adding in its own twists, jokes, and charm—but also benefits from Howard Zwart (Agent Cody Banks, The Pink Panther 2)’s skillful direction, the great acting, and, of course, awesome martial arts.
The updated story is of a boy (twelve years old in this version), Dre Parker, and his mother, Sherry, who are forced to relocate to China (the idea for this location, coming from producers Will and Jada Smith, was truly genius). Unfortunately Dre starts being bullied and needs to enlist help—which he finds in the grumpy maintenance man Mr. Han who turns out to be excellent at kung fu and (reluctantly) willing to train him. The movie has all the great things in the old film—the day to day chores that build both fighting and character strengths, the one legged balancing trick that works even when you are injured—but it is put into a new context so it doesn’t quite seem like a retread either. Still it’s faithful to the details, from Han’s drunken confession’s to Dre’s foolish prank on his enemies. The morals remain intact, along with some new ones to reinforce the message of strength through respect and nobility.
The acting is great all around (in supporting roles one should note Zhenwei Wang as the bully and Wen Wen Han as Dre’s crush); in the main roles it is impossible to decide who is the best—Jaden Pinkett Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness) plays Dre with the exact same (at the beginning rebellious) charm that made his father such a star; Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjahmin Button, Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By My Self) plays the mother as funny, caring, and smart all at once; and Jackie Chan (not gonna insult you by pretending you haven’t heard of his movies) plays Han with one of his career’s best performances, balancing bitterness and compassion all at once.
Anyone who is asking themselves what a remake should have must see this. No, actually anyone asking themselves whether or not they should see a movie must see this.