MOVIE: KARATE KID

The wax-on, wax-off scene has been replaced with jacket-on, jacket-off; the cutesy Minority Posterboy switched from Italian to black; Mr Miyagi for Mr Han; the LA backlots for Beijing alleyways, and in fact even the karate has been chopped for kung fu … but the guts and glory plotline remains as strong, the master-apprentice friendship as sweet. I took my little brother to see this movie and he gave it a measured 7.1 out of 10 – I think perhaps this is one for older folk for whom the nostalgia is stirred (lil bro hadn’t seen the original) and the heartstrings twanged by the irresistibly cute Jaden Smith. Master Jackie Chan is also at his absolute peak as a gruff, bewhiskered widow who shows China, and the cinemagoers, what real kung fu is. Game on, Kung Fu Kid. (AB)