10 Criminally Underrated Films Turning 10 Years Old In 2020

7. Karate Kid

Jennifer Lawrence Winter's Bone
Columbia Pictures

Proving that remakes don't have to be soulless rehashes, The Karate Kid does a couple of smart things: in the first punch, it takes the action out of scuzzy old Raceda and moves it over to China and in another swipe it throws out karate and instead focuses on the fighting forms cooler older brother: kung fu. In a final kick to the impress-me-plexes, the story is based on the original plot for the first movie, the one that never made it to film.

It also helps that the pair up of Jayden Smith and Jackie Chan as apprentice and master is bubbling with chemistry and the fight scenes - slowly getting silkier as Smith's Dre Parker overcomes bullies and tries to win the centrepiece tourney - are gritty enough to appeal to adults as well as kids. A superior fighter - can we have a sequel please?

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Contributor

Shaun is a former contributor for a number of Future Publishing titles and more recently worked as a staffer at Imagine Publishing. He can now be found banking in the daytime and writing a variety of articles for What Culture, namely around his favourite topics of film, retro gaming, music, TV and, when he's feeling clever, literature.