The Karate Kid didn’t need to be remade!
The advertising on this is already up my nose. It’s everywhere.
I’m tired of Jaden Smith already. I’m impressed he can do a split, but he’s not a Jedi and Jackie Chan is not Yoda.
gah. Hollywood is devoid of fresh ideas.
Damn. I came in here specifically to say that with that name, Jaden is perfectly positioned to become a Jedi.
I’ve never even laid eyes on the kid except for the posters from his 2 movies, but I already think his parents are the two most clueless, feckless, self-centered idiots on the planet.
You get your kid a skateboard for his 10th birthday, not financing to remake his favorite film starring himself.
So yeah, I’m sick of Jaden but I’m also sick of his mom and dad.
Didn’t his parents say (with straight faces) that he had to audition for the role against dozens of other child actors??? :dubious:
Its too bad, he would have made a perfect Riley in a Boondocks movie.
Not that I care about Jaden, Jada or Will, but if people can use their money and influence to get their kids into the best kindergartens/schools/camps/colleges/internships/jobs/entrepreneurial opportunities, why can’t someone do something similar for their kid in the film industry if they are able to?
No one making you go see the film (seeing the ads all over aside), just like no one is making your invest your money with Biff’s venture capital firm or frequent Brooke’s lunch-lady boarding spa and resort.
I could believe it. I mean, with a totally straight face they okayed the script changes that moved the The Karate Kid… to the land of Kung Fu! But then they kept the name because they wanted the easy marketing power it gave them, even if it makes their movie look retarded.
I bet I know some other remakes they could get involved in; I bet there’s roles for the whole family in some of them!
Just think:
Sixteen Candles but it’ll be about a 13 year old boy, not a 16 year old girl, and it’ll mostly involve wacky hijinks related to a soapbox derby, but it’s totally a remake.
Why not buy them a baseball team and let them run it?
It’s okay, that’s a rhetorical question there; I’m gonna answer it.
Manufacturing opportunities for your kid is fine, but there’s no sense of scale here at all. The Smiths essentially went to other people, got TONS of money pledged for this film partially based on the argument that Jaden is someone that people will want to see on screen. He isn’t. He’s the son of a guy that people want to see on screen, and the son of a woman who people sometimes see on screen, tho not many people seem to want to much.
His parents have cranked up the Hollywood machine to manufacture approval for their son, now. This 10 year old with rich, well-connected parents has a huge industry no cranking out the word that he’s cool, he’s a great little actor, look how cute he is, etc. You don’t see where this amount of effort, solely directed at making a 10 year old boy famous, could ultimately result in an insufferable adult human?
No, no one is making me see the film. But they are making it and putting it in our world, so I’m free to comment on it as I wish.
Biff and Brooke can be insufferable too, but not guaranteeably (is that a word?) so.
And if going to do what I describe in Hollywood, you do it the way Hollywood does for everybody and everything they’re trying to market. People will decide if they want to (continue) see(ing) him or not. I was not commenting on your right to comment, just taking a position that’s different from yours using the general “you.”
Well I’m sure they’ll just be crying all the way to the bank.
Assuming that the kid can actually act semi-decently, they’re going to make several million and given their kid a start in making many several millions more in years ahead.
I have no idea who Biff and Brooke are; I’ll take your word for it that they can be insufferable.
Sorry, I wasn’t meaning that to come back right at you as a retort. It’s not like I’m sitting at my desk all red-faced tryin’ to get all up in yo shee-it. 
Just laying out some of my feeling and reasoning, such as it is.
Most Will Smith movies = shit. I gave up long ago watching any of his horrible garbage (which sucks, because he has screen charisma). Funny how I have the sense that the new Karate Kid will suck because Will Smith has any involvement. Oh well.
And yes, I am sick to death of all the ads for the movie.
By the way, how do you think Sofia Coppola got started, with her first role playing “Child on a Steamship” at age 6, and many others, most given to her by or because of her father? Though not on the same scale or in the exact framework as JS/TKK, her father put her in roles after that over other actors who auditioned, and because of his name and influence, she was given opportunities to act and direct, where she many times stank by the way. She eventually went on to become successful and, as far as I can tell, has turned out alright – actually, more than alright.
I’m not saying it’s something I would do for my kid, even if I had the money, etc., but considering what people do for their kids in other walks of life using every resource at their disposal, I can’t condemn Will and Jada. At least not until Jaden ends up a derelict, $5.00-a-throw-prostitute on West Sepulveda for hits of crack, or at least his career falters and he’s repeatedly photographed drunk, getting out cars wearing loose jorts while clearly not wearing a jock strap; then we’ll talk about getting him into therapy.
Bo, it’s all good.
Dude, just look at the sense of scale you call up in the Sofia Coppola story, versus this new film. Did Mr. Coppola spend $35 million dollars to remake a beloved Shirley Temple movie starring his daughter? No? Then I don’t think the two situations bear comparison well.
BTW, that thing about him being on crack and shit? THAT would be a movie worth watching. Unfortunately, it’ll be made and aired by Lifetime, and it’ll star a young Emmanuelle Lewis, Jr.
You’re right, it could. But it doesn’t have to- Drew Barrymore began acting earlier than this, and she’s ended up a pretty stable person, even after the spectacular flameout in her teens. Ron Howard was a regular on an extremely popular TV show when he was four years younger than Jaden is now, and he’s one of the most stable people in Hollywood. This early acting experience may ruin Jaden’s life, but that’s far from certain. It probably depends more on parenting than anything, and I’ve never seen anything that suggests that his parents are failing.
Actually, I can’t even name the other movie that he’s been in. The Karate Kid remake and what else?
I haven’t seen the movie, and since we canceled our cable I don’t see movie trailers anymore (we get our media through Hulu and Netflix and such and for some reason I only get the most obnoxious movie trailers that way, and we don’t go the theater often. So I can’t judge by trailers.) But according to all the reviews I’ve read, the little guy’s charming and fun. So what’s so bad?
Yes, Hollywood is out of ideas and returns to the well way, WAY too often. But if it never did, we wouldn’t have the Judy Garland Wizard of Oz. This one, judging by what I’ve read, seems pretty inoffensive.
He played Will Smith’s character’s son in The Pursuit of Happyness.
He played opposite his dad in The Pursuit of Happyness. It’s hard to rate his acting ability from that when all he had to do was say lines in front of his dad (also, that was four years ago).
People who can’t act are pretty damn noticeable on camera. The movie The Professional/Leon is nigh ruined in the last scene when a group of kids on a stairway are given a line that they all say together and they’re all just so awkward and saying the line so artificially that it kicks you right out of the movie and makes you think, “Well damn…this was all fiction. Why should I care about these folks?”
My slight ire is more about his parents, whom I find annoying. But he doesn’t seem to be a horrible actor. I saw him in The Pursuit of Happyness (why is it spelled that way, dammit?) and he did fine. I get that he was playing his dad’s son, but it’s possible to mess that up.
Personally, Jackie Chan as a Chinese Mr. Miyagi is most interesting to me. But give the Smiths credit, if this film is moderately successful, there’s a buttload of sequels that can come of this and set Jaden up quite well for the future.
My biggest beef with the kid is that he looks like he’s taking a shit when he sings/raps (saw a song he did with that Bieber kid) and that his name is Jaden. Seriously, people?