The Karate kid review

Perhaps they didn't have room on the poster to fit in, "Brought to you by the Hollywood Nepotism     

 Institute and the China National Tourist Office", but it would have been a more accurate description of  this remake of the 1980s teen touchstone. The decision to transpose the tale to modern-day Beijing smacks of marketing strategics (this isn't the land of karate but kung-fu), and it's a very shiny happy China we get here, full of people doing tai-chi and not having their human rights abused. But the relocation does at least inject an element of cultural engagement into the proceedings. It's also difficult to root for Jaden "son of Will" Smith as a 12-year-old underdog when you know in real life he's one of the most privileged kids on the planet. But, ironically, such prejudice does put Smith Jr in the position of underdog, and he does just enough as an actor (and an athlete) to score a technical victory. You know where things are going from the moment this cocky, cornrowed American sets foot in Beijing and gets beaten up by the playground bully. Enter jackie chan dialling it down as Smith's janitor-cum-guru. "The best fight is the one you avoid," Chan tells his new disciple, before putting grasshopper up for the Big Tournament without even asking him. Cue unorthodox training montages, surrogate father-son bonding and the violent dispatching of evil teens. You could argue that this is all predictable kids' stuff, but it works hard to earn its emotional payoff, and, let's face it, the story is no more ridiculous than Rocky.