When my brother and I were kids, there were certain movies that we watched which my grandfather, who was apparently (and understandably) fairly skeptical about our tastes, actually came around to liking. One that I specifically remember, although I have no idea what the movie title was, featured Melissa Sue Anderson (who played Mary Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie) running with her arms open in one scene, only to run past the main character, who wants to be her love interest. It was a funny scene, at least for me back when I was that young. Maybe it would still be funny, although to know for sure, I would have to see the movie again.
The other movie that I specifically remember him taking us to and being impressed with was The Karate Kid. This is, of course, now a classic, well-loved movie, but nobody knew that at the time. It wound up being great, and living on as one of the most iconic movies of the eighties.
There were other Karate Kid movies, naturally, as they tried to capitalize on the tremendous success of the original. There was the second, and then the third. The second one was not bad, while the third was a bit over the top. But it did not diminish the original movie.
Then, more recently, there was a new Karate Kid movie starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. This one takes place in China, and it ha some strengths, although I personally feel that it lacks the harm of the original.
Well, new life has been breathed into the original. In an interesting idea, the two main rivals from the original movie are now featured in a new television series available on Youtube.
So, before you read on, let me warn you that the following review will consist of spoilers. So, if you want to watch the series, but have not done so yet, this is your chance to not read any further, so that there are no spoilers.
Okay, last warning. If you want to see the series premiere, and want everything to be fresh, this is your last chance not to read on, and have it spoiled for you.
So, before you read on, let me warn you that the following review will consist of spoilers. So, if you want to watch the series, but have not done so yet, this is your chance to not read any further, so that there are no spoilers.
********************* SPOILER ALERT!!!*********************
Okay, last warning. If you want to see the series premiere, and want everything to be fresh, this is your last chance not to read on, and have it spoiled for you.
Now, admittedly, when I saw the first previews, or commercials, for it, I was a bit skeptical. Daniel LaRusso (still played by Ralph Macchio) now owns a successful car dealership. Meanwhile, Johnny Lawrence (still played by William Zabka) apparently is a drunk. In the preview, we see him waking up with bottles all around him, clearly suffering from a hangover. And he sees LaRusso on a commercial promoting the great deals for cars at his place, using karate chops like he is slashing prices. Yes, it seemed a little strange, and this is where I kind of grew skeptical.
After all, they are grown men. I mean, let's be serious for a minute here. It's one thing to have all of these issues, and to deal with them through karate, when they are kids. But now both of them are grown men, probably both in their fifties. By now, they presumably have learned that literal karate fighting, win or lose, will not resolve anything. And other than give them some temporary satisfaction or relief, it will likely cause more problems than it could ever solve, since lawsuits are more prevalent these days than they were when the original movie was made. And they no longer have the excuse of being teenagers, of not knowing any better.
So, what would the writers do, exactly?
As it turns out, they did some creative things. You could kind of say that, like the martial arts, they used the enormous weight of the original movies (the first one in particular) against it.
How?
Well, we remember Daniel LaRusso having been some broke kid from New Jersey who moves to sunny California, but has a rough time of it in high school, largely because of Johnny Lawrence, the popular jock of the local high school, who torments Daniel relentlessly, and makes his life a living hell. His old girlfriend is the main love interest for Daniel, and thus, becomes the central source of friction and competition fueling their rivalry. Of course, we find out that Johnny also happens to be a karate champion. In other words, at least through most of the movie, Johnny has everything, has every advantage, and Daniel has virtually nothing going his way.
In the present day, we find that it is completely reversed. Now, Daniel LaRusso owns a successful chain of car dealerships, and who has the money and the beautiful family. He has every advantage that a person could possibly have. His business is flourishing to such an extent that Johnny is tormented by seeing his advertisements all over the place, including on television and on the radio, not to mention billboards.
Johnny, meanwhile, has fallen under hard times. He works for very wealthy people who treat him like garbage, and we see him lose his job, which he clearly cannot afford to do. He lives in a ratty apartment complex very reminiscent of the one that Daniel and his mom moved into during the original movie, and he drives an old, outdated Pontiac Firebird - another relic of a different era. Judging from his dismissive attitude towards certain people, we can tell that he does not like immigrants, and is probably a Trump supporter who feels that the world, or at least this country, has moved in a direction that he does not recognize and obviously does not like. On a more personal note, we see him tormented by his past. Up until the moment when he lost that final fight to LaRusso at the end of the original movie, everything seemed to be going in his direction. Now, we see, he is tormented by that time, having once seemed to have everything, and having allowed his life to become an apparent mess in the intervening years. He is mistaken for a homeless man a couple of times, and just seems to have everything going against him these days.
Despite his seeming racist views, there is a quality in Johnny that makes you feel some sympathy towards him. Things have turned sour in his life - at one point, someone actually compares Johnny's life to meat that has spoiled in his own refrigerator - and you want to see him start to get things turned around a bit. And by chance, a chance meeting with Daniel LaRusso, in the clearly uncomfortable confines of LaRusso's hugely successful business, finally sparks some determination on the part of Johnny.
As the first episode winds down, we see Johnny cleaning himself up, giving a speech to his first prospective student - a Hispanic whom Johnny initially wrongly and dismissively assumes is an immigrant - about how young people today are part of a "pussy generation." He wants to instill the same toughness that was instilled in him, and decides that the world needs his old Dojo, Corbra Kai. We see him opening up the new Cobra Kai dojo, complete with the harsh original philosophy "Strike first. Strike hard. No Mercy" painted fresh on the walls of the new Cobra Kai.
The tension builds. We see Johnny determined to open the new dojo, to bring life back to Cobra Kai, and we know that Daniel LaRusso is obviously not going to like it. For a first episode, I have to say that this was pretty good. Johnny is believable, and you see both his strengths and flaws. Most importantly, he feels like a real person in the modern world, and you cannot help but sympathize on some level with him, even if you do not agree with everything he says or does. It is a job well done on the first episode.
And so, we get a bit caught up on Johnny in particular. We learn a bit about how his life has not been going the way that he would have wanted it to. If his life seemed like a free ride as a teenager in the eighties, with everything in front of him, we now see that somewhere, things went wrong. He is not happy with his life, with where it has gone. Daniel LaRusso we only glimpse a little bit of, although the second episode will feature him more prominently.
Until then!
After all, they are grown men. I mean, let's be serious for a minute here. It's one thing to have all of these issues, and to deal with them through karate, when they are kids. But now both of them are grown men, probably both in their fifties. By now, they presumably have learned that literal karate fighting, win or lose, will not resolve anything. And other than give them some temporary satisfaction or relief, it will likely cause more problems than it could ever solve, since lawsuits are more prevalent these days than they were when the original movie was made. And they no longer have the excuse of being teenagers, of not knowing any better.
So, what would the writers do, exactly?
As it turns out, they did some creative things. You could kind of say that, like the martial arts, they used the enormous weight of the original movies (the first one in particular) against it.
How?
Well, we remember Daniel LaRusso having been some broke kid from New Jersey who moves to sunny California, but has a rough time of it in high school, largely because of Johnny Lawrence, the popular jock of the local high school, who torments Daniel relentlessly, and makes his life a living hell. His old girlfriend is the main love interest for Daniel, and thus, becomes the central source of friction and competition fueling their rivalry. Of course, we find out that Johnny also happens to be a karate champion. In other words, at least through most of the movie, Johnny has everything, has every advantage, and Daniel has virtually nothing going his way.
In the present day, we find that it is completely reversed. Now, Daniel LaRusso owns a successful chain of car dealerships, and who has the money and the beautiful family. He has every advantage that a person could possibly have. His business is flourishing to such an extent that Johnny is tormented by seeing his advertisements all over the place, including on television and on the radio, not to mention billboards.
Johnny, meanwhile, has fallen under hard times. He works for very wealthy people who treat him like garbage, and we see him lose his job, which he clearly cannot afford to do. He lives in a ratty apartment complex very reminiscent of the one that Daniel and his mom moved into during the original movie, and he drives an old, outdated Pontiac Firebird - another relic of a different era. Judging from his dismissive attitude towards certain people, we can tell that he does not like immigrants, and is probably a Trump supporter who feels that the world, or at least this country, has moved in a direction that he does not recognize and obviously does not like. On a more personal note, we see him tormented by his past. Up until the moment when he lost that final fight to LaRusso at the end of the original movie, everything seemed to be going in his direction. Now, we see, he is tormented by that time, having once seemed to have everything, and having allowed his life to become an apparent mess in the intervening years. He is mistaken for a homeless man a couple of times, and just seems to have everything going against him these days.
Despite his seeming racist views, there is a quality in Johnny that makes you feel some sympathy towards him. Things have turned sour in his life - at one point, someone actually compares Johnny's life to meat that has spoiled in his own refrigerator - and you want to see him start to get things turned around a bit. And by chance, a chance meeting with Daniel LaRusso, in the clearly uncomfortable confines of LaRusso's hugely successful business, finally sparks some determination on the part of Johnny.
As the first episode winds down, we see Johnny cleaning himself up, giving a speech to his first prospective student - a Hispanic whom Johnny initially wrongly and dismissively assumes is an immigrant - about how young people today are part of a "pussy generation." He wants to instill the same toughness that was instilled in him, and decides that the world needs his old Dojo, Corbra Kai. We see him opening up the new Cobra Kai dojo, complete with the harsh original philosophy "Strike first. Strike hard. No Mercy" painted fresh on the walls of the new Cobra Kai.
The tension builds. We see Johnny determined to open the new dojo, to bring life back to Cobra Kai, and we know that Daniel LaRusso is obviously not going to like it. For a first episode, I have to say that this was pretty good. Johnny is believable, and you see both his strengths and flaws. Most importantly, he feels like a real person in the modern world, and you cannot help but sympathize on some level with him, even if you do not agree with everything he says or does. It is a job well done on the first episode.
And so, we get a bit caught up on Johnny in particular. We learn a bit about how his life has not been going the way that he would have wanted it to. If his life seemed like a free ride as a teenager in the eighties, with everything in front of him, we now see that somewhere, things went wrong. He is not happy with his life, with where it has gone. Daniel LaRusso we only glimpse a little bit of, although the second episode will feature him more prominently.
Until then!
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