‘Karate Kid: Legends’ is Mildly Diverting

May 29, 2025

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Legen- (wait for it?) -dary? (CREDIT: Jonathan Wenk/Columbia Pictures)

Starring: Ben Wang, Jackie Chan, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen, Ralph Macchio, Joshua Jackson, Aramis Knight, Wyatt Oleff

Director: Jonathan Entwistle

Running Time: 94 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Violence, Officially Sanctioned or Otherwise

Release Date: May 30, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Li Fong (Ben Wang) is a perfectly pleasant teenage boy living in Beijing with his doctor mother (Ming-Na Wen) who must make his way to the Big Apple when she lands a job in NYC. But his head and his heart remain behind in China, particularly the kung fu school of the legendary Mr. Han (Jackie Chan). Alas, Mom has forbidden fighting for this new beginning, but little do they know that Li is just the latest protagonist in a generations-spanning martial arts saga. In the meantime, he also becomes close with a girl named Mia (Sadie Stanley) and her dad (Joshua Jackson) from the local pizza place, which only draws him further into the world of combat sports.

What Made an Impression?: The New Kid in Town: The first Karate Kid movie arrived in theaters more than 40 years ago. But I haven’t seen any of them, nor have I watched the Cobra Kai spinoff series, though I have absorbed the key details by dint of cultural ubiquity. Which is all to say: Karate Kid: Legends is perfectly easy to follow for newbies. Its main focus is on the characters introduced in this chapter after all, and any connections with the returning favorites are thoroughly explained to ward off any potential confusion. Was it already established in the 2010 Karate Kid remake that Mr. Han knew Mr. Miyagi? I don’t know, but also, it doesn’t matter that I didn’t know. Does it make sense that Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) is recruited all the way from L.A. to help train Li? No, but I guess that just happens when you’re putting together a supergroup.
The Other Story: A good chunk of Legends‘ plot is devoted to a story lane that isn’t even hinted at in the trailers. I wouldn’t call it a spoiler to reveal it, but I won’t say much more, since it can be fun when a movie shamelessly breaks the promises it made with its audience in the promo material. But at least let me tease what I’m hinting about by wondering aloud: who knew that Joshua Jackson would have a bigger role than Ralph Macchio in a Karate Kid movie in 2025 (or any year)? And who could have ever guessed that would be a good thing?
Give Me a Slice: When Li first visits Mia and her dad’s pizza shop, he cluelessly asks them if they have any stuffed crust pies. He immediately gets chewed out for his very un-Manhattan request and then gets stuck with “Deep Dish” for a nickname. And that’s what passes for a joke in this movie. Although the script doesn’t really commit to this razzing, since he’s addressed by that epithet just a handful of times. I wish it had happened more often.

Karate Kid: Legends is Recommended If You Like: Dawson’s Creek more than Karate Kid

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Kickpunches

Movie Review: For Better and Worse, ‘IT: Chapter Two’ Goes Full Stephen King

September 5, 2019

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CREDIT: Brooke Palmer/Warner Bros.

Starring: James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Jay Ryan, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, James Ransone, Andy Bean, Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Martell, Sophia Lillis, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff

Director: Andy Muschietti

Running Time: 169 Minutes

Rating: R for Bloody Clown Chomps, A Few Stabbings, Nervous Vomiting, and Creepy Nudity

Release Date: September 6, 2019

IT: Chapter Two is solidly built upon a foundation of a melancholy truth about human existence. When we’re young, we may vow to keep what’s important to us as children just as important when we became adults. But somehow, some way, we all forget some of the things we once held dear, while also remaining stuck in some of the patterns we thought we would eventually grow out of. The Losers Club of Derry, Maine represent the epitome of this mercurial attachment to the past. And so it is that 27 years after their first series of misadventures, they must return to once again defeat the supernatural evil entity that terrorizes their hometown.

This melancholy setup is an apt formula for psychological agony mixing with real in-your-face terror, but the trouble with Chapter Two is that so many of the scares are so scattered from the overarching purpose. Winged insect-bird hybrids popping out of fortune cookies and an old naked lady who turns into a floppy-breasted gargoyle are plenty creepy in and of themselves, but these moments just keep piling onto one another as a series of random horror set pieces, and the effect is eventually exhausting. Even some of the moments that actually feature Pennywise (like a gay couple being beaten up by a mob only to then fall victim to the clown or a cute little girl bonding with Pennywise over facial deformity) are effective mini-movies unto themselves, but they could have easily been cut without losing the main thread involving the Losers. Their story of coming to grips with what won’t leave them alone is effective when the full-to-bursting script actually focuses on them. Ultimately, IT: Chapter Two is decidedly overambitious and overdramatic, but it is a fascinating mess, embracing Stephen King at his weirdest and most extra.

IT: Chapter Two is Recommended If You Like: The most unfiltered Stephen King adaptations

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Hidden Memories

This Is a Movie Review: IT (2017)

November 24, 2017

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CREDIT: Warner Bros.

I am surprised that I haven’t come across more (or any) takes of IT that talk about how big a deal abuse is. Because as far as I can tell, that is what the whole thing is all about. Like, I’m pretty sure Pennywise is a metaphor for an entire town poisoned by a legacy of abuse. And that is what makes this movie scary. Every member of the Losers Club has a home life that ranges from sad to actively dangerous, and then when they go out into town, they are beset by shockingly violent bullies, who themselves are the victims of brutish parenting. It makes sense that Bill steps up as the leader, as the worst his dad does is refuse to confront his family’s loss head-on. The relative stability in that unit is allowed to be rocked by the death of younger brother Georgie because abuse has a long tail.

IT often presents its abuses and the responses to it with some combination of baroque and grotesque. Bev’s sexual advances from her father are met with their bathroom being filled with buckets of blood. Eddie’s mother, who fuels his hypochondria, is not just obese, she is so abnormally shaped that it looks like she has a bunch of balloons under her dress. The evil in IT is both morally and aesthetically ugly. In the town of Derry, it only makes sense that a force of pure evil would take the form of a smiling, dancing clown.

I give IT (2017) 400 Floats of 500 Too’s.