The Karate Kid Movie Review - Starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita

By David Terr

"The Karate Kid" is a very entertaining and inspirational film, starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita. Both of them do a great acting job in this film. The karate scenes are also terrific.

Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) is a teenager from New Jersey whose mother gets a job in Los Angeles and decides to move there, much against Daniel's wishes. Daniel meets a very pretty blonde named Ali at a beach party. The two hit it off quite well. However, Ali has some tough friends who go after Daniel and give him a black eye.

The beginning of the school year turns out to be a disaster. Daniel is enrolled in the same school as Ali and his adversaries. He tries to join a karate club, which his adversaries turn out to be enrolled at. After leaving class, they knock him off his bike into a ditch.

In his new apartment complex, Daniel meets a very nice old Japanese man named Miyagi, who fixes his bike for him. Later in the school year, after Daniel is tormented more by his adversaries, he asks Miyagi to teach him karate, so he can fight back. Miyagi agrees to train him for two months with the provision that he fight them by entering a karate tournament with them. He also tells his adversaries to lay off Daniel until after the tournament, to which they agree.

Daniel's training begins in a very unorthodox way. Miyagi tells Daniel to wax his used cars and paint his fence and house in the way he tells him to, in circles, up, down, and sideways. Daniel becomes very irritated after a couple days of what appears to be slave labor, but Miyagi then shows Daniel that he'd been really teaching him various karate defense moves. Later Miyagi teaches him offense as well as balance.

Finally the big day of the tournament arrives. Daniel battles his adversaries one by one, beating most of them. One of them cheats however, kicking Daniel in the knee and seriously injuring him, becoming disqualified as a result. Miyagi manages to fix his knee with his special technique, allowing him to finish the tournament. Daniel manages to beat his final opponent and win the tournament, much to the delight of Miyagi and his girlfriend Ali.

The Karate Kid - Dave's Top Movies

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