Karate Kid: Legends (2025)

Really? We're at a stage now in the Karate Kid universe where Ralph Macchio is able to show a thing or two to Jackie Chan? If you can accept that then you might be able to have some fun with Karate Kid: Legends. I'll admit that the whole thing was a struggle for me.

Ben Wang plays Li Fong, a young man who movies to New York with his mother (Dr. Fong, played by Ming-Na Wen). Li has made a promise to his mother that means he cannot fight, but the rest of New York isn't aware of that. Things start to look up when Li meets Mia (Sadie Stanley) and her father, Victor (Joshua Jackson). He even starts training Victor for an upcoming boxing match, but gets on the wrong side of Mia's ex-boyfriend, Conor (Aramis Knight). Things soon go from bad to worse. If only there was some upcoming fighting competition that could let Li prove his skills, especially after some time spent being trained by Mr. Han (Chan) and Daniel LaRusso (Macchio).

What you have here is a mixtape with some visual accompanying the music. I really don't mean that as a compliment. Writer Rob Lieber doesn't have too many features under his belt, while director Jonathan Entwistle is making his cinematic directorial debut here, and it's clear that they have been asked to put together something absolutely formulaic that can be overstuffed with annoyingly uncatchy soundtrack choices. Seriously, this soundtrack, and how songs are used, is one of the worst I have experienced in some time. Not necessarily because of the song choices, but because of the inability to let most scenes play out in a less obnoxious manner.

I have seen people praise young Ben Wang for his performance in the lead role. Sorry, I disagree with the majority on this one. Wang has the physical prowess, and he's certainly not awful, but he didn't ever fully win me over. Jackson and Stanley are much better, with the latter a particularly good choice for a main supporting/co-lead role. Knight is a decent baddie, and Tim Rozon does well as the determined adult helping youngsters to make bad choices in service of a "strong" reputation, and both Chan and Macchio bring some fun by bringing along their legacies (all legacies being equal, but some legacies being more equal than others). Wen is wasted, sadly, but does what is asked of her.

There's nothing inherently wrong with films that work with a proven formula, and Karate Kid: Legends has some good moments. It just doesn't get the mix quite right. Having Li train Victor is a fun twist on things, compared to previous entries in the series, but the third act montage moments serve as a reminder of just what viewers tune in for. It feels like the kind of entertaining stretching of body and spirit that feels essential to the "root for the underdog" martial arts movie designed to be satisfying family entertainment. 

I would still recommend this to those after something light and easygoing, but it's not a patch on the originals. It's a bit more brash, a bit louder, and makes use of some videogame aesthetics in the final fight. None of those things actually make it a better film. They just make it feel as if it is constantly straining to connect with kids who can still find joy in the simple pleasures of a film that made everyone smile with the words "wax on, wax off". 

6/10

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Netflix And Chill: The Sleepover (2020)

Kevin (Maxwell Simkins) is having a bad day. He's been recorded on phone doing a funky dance in the bathroom at school, a video that's about to go viral. His sister, Clancy (Sadie Stanley), is also having a bad day. Their mother (Margot, played by Malin Åkerman) doesn't let them own phones, doesn't approve of social media, and isn't letting Clancy go to a great party with her friend, Mim (Cree Cicchino). Kevin is having a friend, Lewis (Lucas Jaye), sleep over, but things soon get crazy when their parents are whisked away by criminals to get involved with a robbery. It turns out that mum had a secret life before becoming a mum, a life that even her husband, Ron (Ken Marino), was unaware of. Margo is forced to work with her ex-boyfriend, Leo (Joe Manganiello), while the kids work together to save their parents.

A first feature script from Sarah Rothschild (well, a first to be made into a film anyway), The Sleepover is a lightweight bit of fun that is lifted above the level of average by a great cast. Director Trish Sie handles everything competently enough, moving from one unbelievable moment to the next with the right mix of laughs and zippy pacing to stop viewers from overthinking things and dismissing the entire film. It's not aiming to be a gritty drama, it's aiming to provide laughs for everyone.

Although the adults do good work here, with Ken Marino a highlight, as usual (especially in any scenes that have him being jealous of Manganiello), it's the kids who are the real stars here. Stanley is the main character when it comes to a personal journey, discovering the reality of her mother's life and why she has made their life a certain way, and she does good work in her role. Simkins is consistently hilarious, whether he's engaging in childishly fantastic lies or swaggering past adults with an air of confidence that he really shouldn't possess. Cicchino is enjoyably sassy and attempting to stay cool at all times, while Jaye is the polar opposite, having spent his life coddled by a mother who has warned him of the dangers of almost every situation he might ever find himself in. Åkerman convinces as the housewife/mother with a dangerous past, armed with a skillset that comes to the fore in the second half of the movie, and she's a great actress to set at the centre of things, always able to bring a mix of toughness and sensitivity that has served her well in the few roles that use her in the best way.

There are no surprises here, even the one main twist is eye-rollingly obvious, and no punchlines that can't be predicted by set-ups dotted throughout most of the first half of the movie, but that's not a major problem when you're after something simple, light, and entertaining. Which this is. The worst moment may be a fight scene soundtracked by the song "I Want Candy" (faltering because it attempts to make some characters look cool in fighting mode while letting Marino continue to pratfall alongside them), but it's a small mis-step. The biggest problem the film has is that it is one in a long line of similar comedy-action-thrillers that we've seen over the last decade, a sub-genre that seems to be the perfect choice when streaming services look for extra content.

7/10

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