4.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Mr. Miyagi is back and he takes a new pupil under his wing, a troubled teenage girl.
Starring: Pat Morita, Hilary Swank, Michael Ironside, Constance Towers, Chris Conrad (II)Action | 100% |
Family | 91% |
Sport | 68% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
None
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Director Christopher Cain's (The Principal) The Next Karate Kid is a flat, uninspired effort at softly rebooting a fan favorite franchise that peaked with the classic first which was followed by a pair of decent but decidedly disposable sequels. For Next, Cain and Writer Mark Lee return the fan-favorite Mr. Miyagi as the central figure in the film but replace the perpetually emotional (and somewhat obnoxious) Daniel with Hillary Swank's Julie, another character who is dealing with personal crises that cause her to lash out at life for much of the movie. There's not much difference between Daniel and Julie, which is perhaps why Miyagi, in the movie, takes her under his wing, recognizing not just her untapped potential but also realizing that she has been previously trained in the art of karate, a secret she keeps to herself for the movie's first act.
With few exceptions, this 1080p Blu-ray release of The Next Karate Kid looks terrific. The picture is healthy, impressively filmic, and very texturally stable. Details inside the school are amazingly clear and intricately refined, each one sharp and stable. Facial features are exquisitely revealed, with fine definition of pores, hair, freckles, and other character-revealing traits. Clothes and environments are likewise pristine, whether worn details around school, the refined lines around the house where Julie and Miyagi live, or the rural sights around a monastery. Clarity extends throughout the frame and throughout the film. Colors are very well saturated, boasting good depth and very impressive stability and accuracy across the palette, which includes flesh tones, black Alpha Elite T-shirts, blue school lockers, green vegetation, and colorful children's toys. The colors are robust and regularly so. Black levels appear stable and deep. Edge enhancement is visible on various rooftop scenes, which beyond a few extremely light compression artifacts represent really the only blemishes in the entire transfer.
The film begins with rousing patriotic music engaging every speaker available to it via the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack, the only track available on this release. The music ceases and immediately gives way to very natural, wide, and immersive reverberation when a man addresses a gathering of military veterans and widows via microphone and loudspeaker. Energetic pop music beats spill out of the speakers in chapter three when Julie arrives to school in Los Angeles, and several times her music, which is a bother to Mr. Miyagi, engages with an energetic, spacious, and nicely detailed presentation. There is good detailing and stage saturation -- with nearly a faux overhead sensation -- to a blaring alarm in chapter seven, and several additional fight and crash effects present with good placement, depth, and detail. Light environmental ambience filters in from time to time to better sonically establish and define a scene. Dialogue is clear and well prioritized from its natural front-center position.
The Karate Kid: Part III contains no extras beyond trailers (1080p) for The Karate Kid (2:18), The Karate Kid: Part II (1:28), and The Karate Kid III (1:28). These are the same trailers included on the "Choice Collection" release for The Karate Kid: Part III. No "Top Menu" is included. The trailers must be accessed in-film via the "Pop Up" menu screen. No DVD or digital copies are included. Note that the supplements for this release earn a "0" because there's nothing directly related to this film; Part III earned a 0.5 because that film's trailer was included on that disc.
The Next Karate Kid was ultimately not the next evolution in the franchise. It was a one-off that went nowhere, that didn't spawn a couple of sequels like the original. The franchise would remain dormant until the first film was reimagined in 2010 and was recently revitalized on YouTube with a new series returning a couple of old favorites. The Next Karate Kid will ultimately be remembered for jumpstarting Swank's career and as Morita's final appearance in his career-defining role. Sony's "Choice Collection" Blu-ray release of The Next Karate Kid delivers first-rate video and audio. No extras beyond a few trailers for the other films in the series are included. Worth a look.
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