Karate Kid

Director: Harald Zwart
Main Characters: Jaden Smith (as Dre Parker), Taraji P. Henson (as Sherry Parker, Dre's Mom), Jackie Chan (as Mr. Han, His Kung-Fu instructor), Wenwen Han (as Mei Ying, a girl Dre likes), Zhenwei Wang (as Cheng, Mei Ying's brother).

In the beginning of this movie Dre and his single mother Sherry have to move to China because of work purposes. They move into a little apartment and the mom seems a little eerie. They have air plain lag. Dre starts school the day after they get there and Sherry starts work. Dre goes to a private school and he has to wear a uniform. So the day that the get to china they un-pack and check things out. Dre goes outside and tries to make friends, he sees some people playing basketball and he joins them. Dre thinks everyone speaks their foreign language so on the whole plain ride he was practicing and tries speaking it with the kids but notify him that they do speak English as well. While he is outside playing he sees this Chinese girl Sitting on a bench in front of the basketball courts reading a book. Dre immediately falls for his classmate Mei Ying - and the feeling is mutual - but cultural differences make such a friendship impossible. For instance that same day when he tries to talk to her and they are enjoying each other Mei Ying's Brother Cheng comes out of the blue yelling at her for talking and not studying. When Cheng through the papers Mei Ying has in her hands on the floor and Dre picks them up and tells the brother to calm down, Cheng is over raged and at first yells at Dre warning him to back off and threatening him or else.  Unfortunately  Dre stays there, Cheng is upset and decides to fight Dre. Lucky for Dre his feelings make an enemy of the class bully, Cheng. In the land of Kung-Fu, Dre knows only a little karate, and Cheng puts Dre on the floor with ease. With no friends in a strange land, Dre has nowhere to turn. This movie reminds me somewhat of Never Back Down with a similar story line. So by the end of the day Dre is all beaten and bruised up, he puts on his mothers make-up to try and hide it and wears a hat to help shade the mis-colored skin. The next day when Sherry takes Dre to school the person at the private school gate greets people had a conversation with the mother and Dre. At the end of the conversation she says that he cannot wear any hats, it is prohibited. So the mom snatches it off his head saying sorry and then sees the marks on her poor little son. She asks what happened and he says he fell. The mom says no you didn't fall it looks like someone put there fist in your eye and the greeter says fighting is also prohibited and the mom says you heard him he said he fell. That was a funny moment. Sherry pulls her son of to the side for a second and asks what happened and he tells her not to worry about it. He enters the school in fear and has more confrontational meetings with Cheng, because once again he is talking to Mei Ying. Dre meets the maintenance man Mr. Han, he is secretly a master of Kung-Fu. Mr. Han decides helping Dre after seeing him practice in his room when he comes over to fix something with the water and after seeing him get brutally destroyed by Cheng in the courtyard and saving his ass in a little alley way with closed doors there were five kids against little Dre, very unfair, Mr. Han Jumps in and beats them all up. Dre Takes his offer and his happy he found a teacher because the biggest studio that teaches children Kong-Fu is where Cheng goes and the Master there is very evil. As Mr. Han teaches Dre that Kung-Fu is not about punches and parries, but maturity and calm, Dre realizes that facing down the bullies will the fight of his life. How and where is this going to happen? Well Mr. Han went to the studio where Cheng goes and talked to the master Cheng ends up saying that Mr. Han is the one who beat them all up and Mr. Han tries and explains why but the conversation ended up with leave Dre alone until the big battle fight competition and that is when they can do what ever and we will see who will win or loose. Dre is happy about the first part and afraid of the next part. Dre says "Great now they can beat me up and embarrass  me public". Mr. Han says yes pretty much. They train every day all day. Teaching him patience and discipline, giving him strength and tons of flexibility, also knowledge about Kung-Fu and how to act on some moves or how to move. Its getting closer and closer to the end and Dre has grown very good, even putting Mr. Han in his place. You will have to watch the end on who wins and the respect gained and the evil man  is Cheng'sJaden Smith. Just so moving i watched this movie so many times and it is good for all ages and all occasions i watched it for the first time on a date with my fiance.

I rate this movie a wonderful 10 ass beatings out of 10 ass beatings