Karate Kid: Legends Is Both Charming And Stupid (And Other Movie Reviews)

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Usually the week after Memorial Day can be a light one for new movie releases. I expected that could be the case this year with massive hits Lilo & Stitch and Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning dropping a week ago. Instead, Karate Kid: Generations debuted along with A24's horror title Bring Her Back. I review both of those here as well as movie from last week: The Last Rodeo.

Karate Kid: Legends is a charming yet stupid and predictable movie. How much tolerance you have for this will depend on how much you like the basic storyline of Karate Kid. I love it so I may like this movie quite a bit more than I should.

The best thing about this is the acting. Ben Wang carries this movie playing a teenager who just moved and (tell me if you've heard this before) must compete in a karate tournament against bad guys from a villainous dojo. Despite the lack of originality in this plot, you root for him. Joshua Jackson (Pacey!) plays the owner of a pizza parlor and as silly as that sounds, he’s very likable.

The movie’s marketing is trying to pull a fast one on us. Ralph Macchio is not in this movie until the third act. You get way more Joshua Jackson than Jackie Chan. It also takes place in NYC, a city of 8 million people, yet the same people keep running into each other. Like I said, this is dumb.

But I do recommend this. The original is one of my 50 favorite movies. I love this world and the basic story. You can look past a lot of stupidity if you care about the people involved.

Karate Kid: Legends: B-

I don’t know how I feel about Bring Her Back. This is a well-crafted horror movie that will stick with me for quite awhile. Sally Hawkins gives an Oscar-worthy performance in a genre that is far too ignored by the Academy. 

I wasn’t scared as much as I was disturbed. This is the most unsettling movie I’ve seen in years. There are a number of elements of violence with children that I had a very hard time with. I don’t think I’m squeamish at all and had to turn my head from the screen a few times.

It also has some really twisted psychological torture. It was not an easy movie to get through and at some point, it did stop becoming something I wanted to keep watching.

So how do you review a movie like this? It’s great at what it’s doing but I was troubled by what that was. I think I have to recommend this movie because it’s so well crafted but it’s with caution

Bring Her Back: B-

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Can a movie as badly directed and sloppily edited as The Last Rodeo survive on just the chemistry of Neal McDonough and Mykelti Williamson?

No…but it’s closer than you may think.

This is an Angel Studios movie so it’s cheaply made and bizarrely shoehorns religion into the plot. But it’s also a movie with a big heart and because of the performances, it’s better than most that come out of that studio. McDonough and Williamson (Bubba from Forrest Gump) have such a natural camaraderie. Both are good actors who should be working a lot more and in better projects.

This is a movie that isn’t a high enough quality to be released in theaters. While I can’t recommend someone buying a ticket to this, if it came on streaming or basic cable one day and you need something to cheer you up, you could do a lot worse.

The Last Rodeo: C

2025 

1)Sinners 

2)Presence 

3)Black Bag 

4)The Ballad Of Wallis Island

5)Warfare 

6)Friendship 

7)Mission Impossible 8 

8)Novocaine 

9)Final Destination 6 

10)The Amateur 

11)Drop 

12)Death Of A Unicorn 

13)The Accountant 2 

14)The Damned 

15)One Of Them Days 

16)Lilo & Stitch 

17)Paddington 3 

18)Thunderbolts 

19)Clown In A Cornfield 

20)BRING HER BACK

21)Hell Of A Summer 

22)KARATE KID: LEGENDS

23)Fight Or Flight 

24)Valiant One 

25)Rule Breakers 

26)Heart Eyes 

27)Mickey 17 

28)The Surfer 

29)Last Breath 

30)Flight Risk 

31)Minecraft 

32)Den Of Thieves 2 

33)Dogman 

34)Companion 

35)A Working Man 

36)THE LAST RODEO

37)Shadow Force 

38)The Alto Knights 

39)The Penguin Lessons 

40)The Chosen Part 2 

41)Looney Tunes 

42)Opus 

43)Becoming Led Zeppelin 

44)Captain America: BNW 

45)Until Dawn 

46)The Chosen Part 1 

47)Riff Raff 

48)Inheritance 

49)The Chosen Part 3 

50)The Wedding Banquet 

51)The Legend Of Ochi 

52)Night Of The Zoopocalypse 

53)Sneaks 

54)Ash 

55)The King Of Kings 

56)The Friend 

57)Snow White 

58)The Unbreakable Boy 

59)Brave The Dark 

60)Wolf Man 

61)Hurry Up Tomorrow 

62)The Monkey 

63)Love Hurts

64)The Last Supper 

65)Woman In The Yard 

66)Juliet & Romeo 

67)In The Lost Lands