The Next Karate Kid (1994)

Genre: Action/Drama

Starring: Pat Morita, Hilary Swank, Chris Conrad, Michael Cavalieri, Michael Ironside

A second attempt to revive the legendary movie brand, a lose remake of the 1984 movie (read review here) sees some big changes than what the earlier movies showed. Julie Pierce (Swank) is a frustrated and angry high school student who lost her parents as a child and currently lives with her grandmother. Julie is unable to get along with her and when Mr. Miyagi (Morita) sees her behaviour whilst visiting their house, he offers to help improve Julie. Mr. Miyagi decides to teach her karate and teach her all she needs to know to become a better person and improve her life. A member of the school security fraternity, Ned (Cavalieri) takes a sadistic liking for Julie and is very annoyed when she sees her getting friendly with his co-member Eric McGowen (Conrad). He decides to get even with him just as Eric and Julie are beginning to like each other. Just like the previous movie, this one too is focused on teaching a young American child the way of karate to ultimately defeat the enemy at the very end and reclaim their honour. The movie hugely fails to live up to the expectations of the original movie with no drastic improvements to make it any better. It tries to be different but yet fundamentally retains the same character. Daniel from the original franchisee is simply replaced by Julie with almost everything else being the same. It seems hugely overdone and something new in this brand is seriously needed.

Thumbs up: Hilary Swank seems to be the only decent performance

Thumbs down: Slow, boring and too repetitive from the earlier movie

Rating: 5.5/10