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Karate Kid: Legends movie review

Highly Suspect Reviews: Karate Kid: Legends

KARATE KID: LEGENDS MOVIE REVIEW

In the latest chapter of ‘no once-successful IP will ever die’ Karate Kid: Legends marks the sixth film in the franchise. Moving the action at first to Beijing, the film centers on Li Fong (Ben Wang) a teenager training with his great-uncle and shifu of a successful school, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) who was the teacher in the 2010 Karate Kid requel. When Li’s mother tells him they are moving to NYC for her new job and for him to stop with all the fighting and training, he’s not thrilled. Fortunately, he has a meet cute with Mia (Sadie Stanley) who works at her father Victor’s (Joshua Jackson) pizza place down the street from their new apartment in the city. Unfortunately, the local ‘evil dojo’ is run by a guy who is also a criminal loanshark who Victor owes money to, and their comically evil prize student is Mia’s ex-boyfriend who doesn’t like Li hanging around. And, of course, there’s a big city fighting tournament coming up that said ex-boyfriend wins every year. So, of course, Li’s master has to come to the city to help out Li and this time he recruits the best student of his old friend Mr. Miyagi, Daniel (Ralph Macchio) to help train Li for the competition. You can see where this is all going. To be fair, you could when you just read the name ‘karate kid’ in the title. Chris, Wright, Ben and Nathan take another shot at the title of ‘most exhausted by an endless franchise’ and discuss the movie.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE/TRAILER

DIRECTED BY: Jonathan Entwistle

STARRING: Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen, Aramis Knight, Wyatt Oleff, Shaunette Renée Wilson, William Zabka

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 

Christopher Lawrence Cox (Founder, Da Boss, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Deliberations of Doom)

Born in the wilds of northern Virginia, Chris managed to put all of his survival skills to use and barely escaped with his life to Austin Texas in 1992 where ever since he’s dabbled in everything from plumber’s assistant to sandwich maker, from band to bar and theater management. An opportunity to see theatrical release films for free by becoming a critic on a local public access show called “The Reel Deal” turned into a full-time job when Chris and his friends decided to take it to the internet. They built the site Spill.com, adding multiple podcasts and animated features, to no small amount of success. During this time, a fortuitous friendship sprung up between Chris and young Brian Salisbury, who was also a local film critic, and they merged their forces of will, and their laundry list of ideas for shows, to eventually build this community of critics. While Brian eventually followed his heart to a new family, Chris continues on with a cast of colorful folks from all over the country (and a few others).

 

Wright Sulek (The Other Boss, Trash in the Can, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad)

Wright hails from the northern suburbs of Dallas, Texas. His passion for filmmaking brought him to Austin to study and make movies. Since then he’s had his hand in acting, writing, and directing his own short films with numerous like-minded film geeks he’s met along his journey. His newest interest has brought him into the podcasting world. He co-hosted a few different movie related podcasts such as ‘And Now This’ and ‘The Match Cut’. He currently co-hosts with longtime friend, Eric Samaniego, where they talk shop about the grimiest, trashiest, lost gems of movies on their show, ‘Trash in the Can’. Wright also guests and hosts reviews on Screener Squad and Highly Suspect Reviews as well as co-hosts Digital Noise with Chris Cox. As of 2024, Wright has now been inducted into the Austin Film Critics Association as well as co-owns the One of Us network with Chris Cox.

 

Nathan Flynn (Screener Squad, Highly Suspect Reviews)

Nathan Flynn is the resident goofball of One of Us. Net, often found overly caffeinated, slightly stoned, and ready to unleash the hottest takes imaginable. As the resident Letterboxd Lunatic, his movie opinions are as bold as his love for Top Gun: Maverick — a film he considers less of a movie and more of a religion. When he’s not passionately defending his latest cinematic obsession, Nathan manages a comedy club in downtown Austin, where he’s somehow avoided being heckled… so far. Around here, he’s usually the punching bag, but hey, someone’s gotta do it.

 

Ben Glasthal (Highly Suspect Review, Screener Squad, Breakfast Pub, Unstabletop Gamers, Video and Audio Editor)

Born in Boston, then ending up in Dallas, Texas in the early 2000s, Ben has always had a passion for film. He started in film school not long after where he launched MovieReelizations.com where he still writes reviews to this day. He’s since moved to Austin where he has been also hopping on podcasts and both editing and shooting videos for One of Us. A fan of films from almost all genres, and many that predate him more than makes sense, he is anything if not eclectic in what he’s watching at any point. For the rest of his free time, he can be found biking, drinking craft beer, being an amateur photographer, and playing video games by himself or on Twitch. He’s best found on Instagram or Twitter as @MovieReelBen.

 

 

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