Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 42
Fresh: 38 | Rotten: 4
Utterly predictable and wholly of its time, but warm, sincere, and difficult to resist, due in large part to Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio's relaxed chemistry.
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 1
Utterly predictable and wholly of its time, but warm, sincere, and difficult to resist, due in large part to Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio's relaxed chemistry.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 289,755
Newly arrived in California from New Jersey, teenager Daniel (Ralph Macchio) almost immediately runs afoul of karate-trained high school bullies. He is rescued by Japanese janitor Miyagi (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita), who agrees to teach Daniel how to harness karate for good instead of brutality. The film culminates in a championship karate bout, pitting Daniel against his sworn enemy Johnny (William Zabka) -- the cruel and thuggish boyfriend of Ali (Elisabeth Shue), with whom Daniel has fallen in
Jan 1, 1984 Wide
Apr 14, 1998
Columbia Pictures
All Critics (42) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (41) | Rotten (4) | DVD (14)
This film's art consists entirely of hiding the cynicism of its calculations under an agreeably modest and disarming manner.
Morita is simply terrific, bringing the appropriate authority and wisdom to the part.
Top CriticAn exciting, sweet-tempered, heart-warming story with one of the most interesting friendships in a long time.
The Karate Kid exhibits warmth and friendly, predictable humor, its greatest assets.
It's primitive, predatory stuff.
Upbeat, sentimental and predictable tale, but the acting of Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita (who was Oscar-nominated) is good and their friendship charming.
Stripped of its nostalgic value over a quarter-century after its original release, The Karate Kid looks and feels as innocuous and thoughtlessly conceived as the dozens of films its influenced.
Predictable yet satisfying...
Avildsen crafted an inspired movie with the perfect mix of 80's bravado and 70's artistic integrity.
Irresistible wish fulfillment.
The Karate Kid brought something fresh to the table and proved exceptionally skilled at reaching its adolescent audience. [Blu-ray]
Perhaps a touch on the corny side and undeniably broad, Kid is a ridiculously rewarding drama that puts pure sincerity to marvelous use, inflating a mild underdog story into an inspiring tale of education and developing friendship.
'80s classic is still fun for families with older tweens.
This is the kind of movie where you find yourself cheering even though you know you're being hoodwinked.
A surprise summer hit in the States, this is another film-making-by-numbers exercise in teenage wish-fulfilment.
Morita's work in The Karate Kid is iconographic.
While this may be as soppy and predictable as they come, it still reminds you why you used to enjoy '80s teen flicks so much in the first place.
Formulaic, manipulative, hokey — and thoroughly rousing… the film's sincerity and poignance have a way of steamrolling over gaps in plausibility and logic.
A teenage Rocky for the 1980s.
It's a very predictable film. But it doesn't matter. Because the Karate Kid is one of the most heartwarming films ever made. With one the best screen couple's I have ever seen in the history of cinema. Its an irresistable underdog story of coming of age, love and redemption.
November 13, 2011
Super Reviewer
From the director of ROCKY, among other films, THE KARATE KID is one of the most memorable sports films of the 80s that I've seen. Sometimes, we have to ask ourselves if the reason this spawned so many sequels is because just this original was a one-of-a-kind martial arts flick that never comes around.
July 14, 2011Super Reviewer
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