The Karate Kid II
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Movie Reviews of The Karate Kid II
Movie Review: Karate Kid Part Deux
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie could have been a really bad idea, but it's not bad at all. Not great, but worthy enough of the previous film. The story actually focuses more on Miyagi than Daniel. The beginning gives us a nice cameo from the evil John Kreese, but soon Daniel and Miyagi are in Okinawa because Miyagi's father is dying. Miyagi's old buddy, Sato, has been harboring a hatred for Miyagi for over 40 years coz Miyagi stole his chick and made him look like a schmuck in public. Most of the movie has Sato trying to force Miyagi into having a death match with him to regain his honor. In doing this, he does things that make him look even more and more dishonorable. He destroyes Miyagi's family dojo, destroyes his garden and threatens to even destroy the village! Daniel's not off the hook either. He gets harassed by a whole new group of bullies in Okinawa. The leader is Sato's nephew who's played by the guy from Better Off Dead that tries to get John Cusack to race and talks like Howard Cosell. Daniel also falls in love. Apparently Elizabeth Shue couldn't be lured back, so she was written out via falling in love with another guy. Daniel now says the word "karate" with an annoying accent, he slices through six slabs of ice, punches a guy in the crotch and rescues a girl during a storm. My only complaint, and I'm sure most agree with this, is in the final fight scene. That whole deal with the drums and Daniel swinging his arms back and forth. Isn't that a little lame? Like you wouldn't be able to dodge that. Of course in reality Daniel would certainly have lost that death match, but that wouldn't be a very good way to end the film. Plus, we wouldn't have had that cinematic masterpiece, Karate Kid 3 now, would we?Movie Review: Great movie for the genre
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a great installment in the series . Though people whoe are not into Martial arts flicks might not appreciate it. The cinematography for the time was beautiful, and the score was wonderfull. The acting was good enough for this type of movie. Some people wanted the classic american sequel were everything is just a contiuation of the first but the movie mimics real life. Girlfriends come and go and as Miyagi and daniel get closer they learn more about each other, what with Certain Asian cultures being a little withdrawn when it comes to showing emotion it is easily understandable why miyagi didnt mention his past life.
But if you go in expecting a ben hur then you obviously didnt do your research and of course you will be dissapointed. As a martial artist for over a decade i feel the movie did the best they could in two hours to show what would take years of understanding.
It is almost impossible to represent the martial arts on film without being boring or fake . I love jet li , jackie chan , yuen wo ping and others but even bruce lee stated that the fighting he did on screen was not what he would do in real life .
I think this movie hits the major aspects of martial arts training. Keeping your values under pressure, standing up for yourself and continual self improvement and if its a little cheesy ..... hey it was the eighties.
Movie Review: Cetera not a "traitor" to Chicago (by the way, great movie!)
Summary: 4 Stars
This is in response to the review posted by Leonard Snerdly:
The following is from "The Billboard Book Of Number One Hits" which gives an in depth look at each number one song from 1955 thru 2003. It's a great resource tool containing interviews with the songwriters and artists and much more. The story of "The Glory Of Love" is on page 643. Here's an excerpt from it:
"I didn't quit", Cetera told Dick Clark on "Countdown America". "I was given my walking papers by the group. In effect, they fired me. I tried to leave when we were in our down period, right around Chicago 15".
But the band's (Chicago) fortunes took an upswing in 1982, and there was touring to be done. "When it came time for me to do my solo album (Solitude/Solitaire) they wanted to tour some more and do the next album," Cetera told Clark. "They said, 'You have to go on the road and if you don't...we're going to have to get somebody else'. I couldn't believe that. I think it was a management decision to 'let's scare the the living be-jesus out of Peter Cetera because we all know he would never take the step'. And it was exactly the out I was looking for. Had the guys not made that move I probably would've still been in the group"
So for Mr. Snerdly to call Cetera a "traitor" is nonsense. End of story.
Movie Review: The Karate Kid Part II:The Return of Daniel LaRusso
Summary: 4 Stars
This was the best sequel in the series. This had a lot of Action and Drama. This takes place right where the first left off, Daniel(Ralph Macchio) won the tournament and he and Mr. Miyagi(Pat Morita) are about to go home until they see Kreese(Martin Kove) looking very furious at Johnny(William Zabka) for loosing the tournament. Mr. Miyagi stops Kreese and humiliates him as well. SIX MONTHS LATER, Daniel finds out that Ali(Elisabeth Shue, but she is only in the first) dumped him for someone else. He also learns that he gets to stay with Mr. Miyagi for the Summer! Mr. Miyagi then gets a note from Okinawa and finds out that his father is very sick. So Daniel and Mr. Miyagi travel to Okinawa and runs into Sato(Danny Kamekona), Miyagi's childhood enemy. Sato challenges Miyagi to a fight but Miyagi refuses. Daniel has also made a new enemy, Chozen(Yuji Okumoto) who is Sato's nephew. Miyagi also find his old girlfriend Yukie(Nobu McCarthy) and Daniel finds Yukie's niece Kumiko(Tamilyn Tomita). Sato threatens to tear Miyagi's old town down if he won't fight him and Daniel must also fight Chozen for honor, too. This was also another good Drama and I'll say it again, It had a lot of Action.Movie Review: When we last left Daniel...
Summary: 4 Stars
...he had just won the bad-... Karate tournament. We get a quick glimpse of Miyagi's fighting prowess as he keeps Master Kobra Kai from killing the kid that lost to Daniel. Great cameo's from all of the Kai's you knew and loved.Now, we learn that Daniel got dumped by Elisabeth Shue. (Big shock there.) So, obviously, he goes back to Miyagi's homeland to help his Jedi Master. Turns out the Miyagi has a Sith-Lord arch-enemy back there. The enemy also has a son that wants to kill Daniel. Staring to notice that Daniel makes people mad just by being around?
Daniel finds another love interest and here we go. We culminate with another fight to the finish. Death may be on the line here! Daniel immediately tries the deadly Crane technique but the bad guy saw the first Karate Kid about a hundred times so he's not fooled. Uh-oh...no signature move? Wait...we'll come up with this drum technique that gives Daniel the eye of the tiger or something. You guessed it - Daniel uses the punching drum technique that wins him the match and keeps the hope of another sequel alive!
A few steps down from the first installment, but entertaining nevertheless.