In case you missed it, yes, there’s another Karate Kid movie dropping this Friday. It’s called “Karate Kid: Legends”, and it brings back both Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio, alongside newcomer Ben Wang.
The review embargo just lifted — and, well, the critics aren’t exactly doing crane kicks of joy. The film is sitting at 50% on Rotten Tomatoes and 53 on Metacritic. Hardly surprising. This is the seventh entry in the franchise, and let’s be honest — the formula’s been on fumes for a while now.
The story? Wang plays Li, a kung fu prodigy who moves to New York City, battles inner demons, tries to fit in at school, and eventually ends up in — you guessed it — a karate tournament. Naturally, Mr. Han (Chan) and Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) are dragged back in to help, all building to the expected “ultimate martial arts showdown.” You’ve seen this movie before. Probably six times.
Box office projections have ‘Legends’ opening to around $25M, putting it behind both Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” remake and ‘Mission: Impossible 8.’ On the bright side, the production budget was a modest $45M — a far cry from Jackie Chan’s heyday, when he was pulling in nearly $20M to star in the latest ‘Rush Hour’ movie.