20 Most Hated Film Remakes & Reboots In Movie History
9. The Karate Kid (2010)
Yet another remake of a beloved classic sh*ts the bed. This time, it’s the turn of John G. Avildsen’s 1984 teenage underdog franchise The Karate Kid, the movie that popularised the martial art in high schools across America.
So much of this movie became an indelible part of our lives. "Wax on, wax off" became a cult catchphrase. Kids practiced the crane kick on each other in playgrounds across the Western world. The name ‘Mr. Miyagi’ became synonymous in popular culture with any guru or sensei figure, ‘cobra kai’ became slang for any bunch of bullying douches, and "Daniel-san" a cheap and easy way of patronising your friends.
The movie spawned two sequels featuring the same two characters, blue collar karate prodigy Danny Larusso and his eccentric mentor Mr. Miyagi. The third sequel in 1994 featured Mr. Miyagi training a debuting Hilary Swank as a female Karate Kid… and then, the usual law of diminishing returns applying, the franchise swept up behind the counter and closed shop.
That is, until someone on the Fresh Prince’s ruthless team of PR and marketing ninjas, tasked with finding a hip child star vehicle for Will Smith’s eleven year old son Jaden, nominated The Karate Kid. In a significant casting coup, the Smiths managed to get Jackie Chan to step in and take on the mentor role.
Aside from the lacklustre direction and lukewarm script, young Jaden simply wasn’t old enough for the role. This is a story in which a little boy falls in love with a little girl and another little jealously attempts to keep them apart by beating the unholy crap out of his rival using actual adult martial arts. High school angst is one thing - but these kids are pre-teens, and the film treats them like adolescents. It’s horribly inappropriate.
The other fundamental problem? The martial art in question is kung fu, not karate. The movie is set, inexplicably, in Beijing, and karate is a Japanese discipline. Apparently, the film was only called The Karate Kid in the Western world - in China, the title was Kung Fu Dream, and in Japan and Korea, simply Best Kid.
The film’s a remake in name only: that’s how little respect was displayed for the source material here.