The Karate Kid Review

I watched THE KARATE KID. I've never watched any of the previous renditions of it, so I had no idea what to expect. When the movie first started, I had no idea what direction the movie was going to take. It wasn't until the scene where Mr. Han approaches Master Li about how it is wrong to teach students Kung Fu to hurt others. And of course Master Li goes, "You can't just walk in here and tell me what to do and expect me to let you just walk out of here without a fight." I rolled my eyes at the overly used scene. Master Li continues, "Either you fight or the kid fights." It doesn't make sense to have Mr. Han, a retired-Kung-Fu-Master-now-maintenance man, fight Master Li's students and it surely doesn't make any sense for Xiao Dre, who can barely stand on his own two feet, to be battling highly trained students.

So Mr. Han goes, "The kid will fight at the tournament," as he signals the poster plastered on a wall of the studio.

And another cheesy threat follows by Master Li, "And if the kid doesn't show up. I will be sure to give both you and the kid a lot of pain." PUAHAHAHA. That's hilarious. WTF?!

So then the movie gains a sense of direction and everything starts to make sense. Mr. Han starts training this kid, who doesn't even know how to hang up his jacket, how to focus, be still, and all this boring crap on "life". I find it far-fetched when Mr. Han says, "Kung Fu is in everything around us. It's in everything we do. It's in how we live our lives." LIKE. SERIOUSLY?! And then he goes to show how the MOTION of taking OFF and putting ON a jacket can be used as a Kung Fu move. WTF?!?! It's cheesy but it fits the movie... I guess Jackie Chan can pull off an incredibly scene.

Jaden Smith is not a bad actor at all for his age. The casting seemed pretty decent. I like the Chinese bully. I don't like his character but I thought the actor, who plays it, does a really good job at making me hate him. Xiao Dre's love interest... didn't really work for me. Why pick a girl taller than him? WHY?! And besides, I thought they could've picked a more pretty and cute girl in China. She wasn't bad but something about her doesn't shout, "Hey. I'm playing a violin. I'm so pretty that I can catch you attention right away. Come over and hit on me." LOL.

There were some pretty impressive scenes of Xiao Dre training. In the middle of the movie, there's a scene where Mr. Han is all depressed about his dead wife and kid. They died in a car accident years ago and I'm guessing it changed him forever. Xiao Dre comforts him and teaches him how to "get up and move on". Lame. Very lame. Jackie Chan did an amazing job with the scene, Jaden Smith proved to be mature enough to handle a scene like that... but the way it was written into the script is so ridiculous. Why does Mr. Han need to have a downfall? To show that he's human? Or is it to give Xiao Dre and opportunity to help him and so it demonstrates a symbiotic teacher-student relationship? I don't buy it. Too far-fetched. Too random. Too cliche.

The ending is very cliche as well. Of course, Xiao Dre wins the competition and the Chinese bully has so much respect for him that he was take the award away from the judge and personally hand it over toe Xiao Dre as if to say, "You won fair and square. I have so much respect for you. I will never bully you again." And then all of Master Li's students go and bow to Mr. Han. WTF?! If I were Master Li, I'd go and hack all their heads off for disrespecting me and for not giving me "face" in front of so many people. But I guess... they wanted this to be a family movie so good HAS TO triumph over evil and save the day.

There's this really good scene near the end, where Xiao Dre gets injured and Mr. Han takes him backstage and tells him that he should just be proud for making it to the finals and he should just forfeit now before he gets even more injured. Xiao Dre INSISTS that he needs to go back out there and finish the battle. And Mr. Han asks, "Give me a good reason why you have to go back out there. Why must you go back out?" And Xiao Dre goes, "Because I'm still scared. After today, when I leave here, I don't want to be scared anymore." He's referring to being bullied by kids. And by winning this competition, he would no longer be afraid of them since he's proven to them and himself that he's capable of standing up for himself. Another really cheesy scene but very smoothly executed by Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. Those two, surprisingly, have amazing chemistry. But then again, I think Jackie Chan has the ability to create chemistry between any kid he has to act with. I'm not sure how he does it... but it works. I think he makes a good dorky fatherly figure. I think he doesn't seem like the type who can pull off a fatherly character but actually can...

Overall, I would watch the movie again. Cheesy but... it makes you feel good at the end of the movie... like any Jackie Chan movie. I don't know why I love Jackie Chan movies so much, probably because of all his Chinglish humor that's incorporated into the script.

The Last Song Review

I watched this a few days ago but I'm giving myself a short break from studying right now so I might as well say something about it.

Did it live up to its hype? Hm... not really.

I'm not a huge fan of Miley, but I don't hate her either. This is her first breakthrough from Hannah Montana but I didn't see much of a difference really. I mean, it really just felt like watching Hannah Montana with some really hot dude beside her. LOL.

Liam is crazy hot, that's for sure. And no biased here, for a new actor, he carries out the scenes really well. I think him and the guy who plays Miley's dad in the movie pretty much carry the entire movie. Miley just sort of ruined it. Nicholas should've written the script for someone much more mature.

I really like the theme of the story though, even though it is really cliche. I think the boy, who plays Miley's younger brother in the movie, did a better job than she did. LOL. She was just so mehhh... she was supposed to be REBELLIOUS and going through this "typical difficult teenage time" but to me she just appeared to be bitchy and "too-cool-for-you". In other words, she was just herself. She didn't portray Ronnie.

The movie is better than Dear John though, that I agree completely. Every time I see a trailer for a Nicholas Spark's movie, I always have such high hopes for it but in the end it always disappoints. My favourite Nicholas Sparks movie has to be a A Walk to Remember. That's about it. The Notebook was good up to the ending, where I was kind of like, "Uhhh... so these two old people die together... in a bed... holding hands?" LOL, sorry I have a problem with old people romance. Nice plot though, the ending just needs some major revisions. Dear John was good at the beginning too but the ending was too rushed. The whole movie was about them meeting and falling in love and then the guy has to go off to some war, and the girl goes to marry some other guy because she can't stand being alone. And he comes back to visit her to see her "happily" married off and he gets all sad and he asks her why. Then later the guy that she marries, dies, and so now she's single again and she thinks that she can get back with John, the main guy. But HE DOESN'T WANT TO! And he goes off to war again. And she writes a letter to him saying that they will meet again. And ALL OF A SUDDEN, OUT OF NOWHERE, she's at a coffee shop and she looks outside the window and sees the guy. LIKE. WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM?! And she goes out to hug him. THE END. And I was like, "Why not just flash another scene of them in a bed together, dead?" Because you know, that would really contribute to the theme of random romance.

And The Last Song, something similar happens too. Randomly, Liam shows up after Miley breaks up with him a gazillion years ago, and they get back together again. And people praise Nicholas for his "realistic portrayal of love". Uh, as far as I'm concern, people do not randomly disappear from war to show up at coffee shops with a bike. And people do not die together in bed at old age homes in sync, nor do people go to the beach and tell each other they're birds.

Some scenes in The Last Song do merit some kind of applause because it is very well executed, but most of it is just Miley running around on screen with a scowl on her face with a hot guy beside her.

I would not watch it again. Not for the plot anyways, I would watch it just to see Liam prance around on screen. He's so hot. Did I mention that already? He reminds me of someone. I think he reminds me of this boy in my grade 2 class named Zach. I don't remember his last name, all I remember was that he had this huge crush on Nicole. LOL. Of course, she wouldn't remember a thing.

Do you know what I hate? WHEN PEOPLE DON'T REMEMBER IMPORTANT MEMORIES!!! And so when I tell her or anyone about this, people think I'm making it up. Honestly! Like in elementary school, there was this one game we played on the playground where everyone would try to stand on this tiny platform and one person would be at the side with their eyes closed. And because everyone is trying to stand on the platform, there's a lot of grunting and moaning sounds, LOL!!!!! And the person standing at the side is supposed to have "vivid imaginations". LOL!!!!! I SWEAR I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In fact, it was NICOLE and DANNY who friggin' invented this damn game and Nicole doesn't remember it. So this totally makes me look like a damn pervert. BUT I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP!!!!! We made up a lot of games in elementary school but Nicole doesn't remember like HALF of them even though she was the one who invented everything. The only one she remembers is BRAINSUCKERS. OMFG I LOVE THAT GAME!!! I would totally play it again if I wasn't so out of shape. But yeah she only remembers that one probably because we played that one quite a bit. SIGH* I will NEVER forget that game.

POINT IS!!!!! I don't just make up memories or just put random people into my memories! These stupid stories are true and because no one remembers them, there's no "proof" that it actually happened.

Okay, I don't know how the movie review got so side-tracked, but the main point is that The Last Song is not worth your money, do not go watch it unless you're a Hannah Montana fan. Enough said.

I can't believe Miley is going out with Liam. Seriously?! I'm so surprised at all the older guys after her. She seems like such a kid to me. Liam is my age so I'm just thinking, if I were a boy right now, would I go out with her? No. But I think that's just because I have such a huge problem with dating guys my brothers age or younger. That just feels so wrong. I don't know about dating guys less than two years younger than me though... I still haven't figured out my rule to that yet. The older I get, the more younger guys I meet, LOL, so I kind of feel that I should keep my options open. I MEAN LOOK AT JUSTIN BIEBER!!!!! Seriously, I do not see why all this hate for Justin, he's so cute and he can sing~ If I were 15 or 16, how old is he? LOL. I would totally be head over heels for him. And I'd probably go to all his concerts and get all his CDs and buy all his t-shirts and stalk him all over his tours. BUT because, he's too young for me, I must refrain from doing all that. Besides, I have school. lol. Which is... the only reason I need.

I feel like school is taking over my life. I envy people who can have a life outside of school. JEN. I ENVY YOU!!! Even though, I must say you get so stressed over non-school stuff that I might have to reconsider the latter statement. But you are very lucky. VERY VERY VERY LUCKY.