Is karate kid worth watching?

[renz20003]

Im in my late 30’s never bothered to watch it. Cobra Kai looks interesting figured I should watch the source material first if it’s not terrible.

 

[IronWing]

No

 

[Ichinisan]

It's a product of its time but I liked the first one.

 

[IronWing]

It’s like an ABC After School Special that never ends.

 

[kt]

Watch it!






Then tell us what's like.

 

[dasherHampton]

It's a pretty standard "kid get's bullied and learns to fight back" story.

I think Pat Morita makes it worth watching. He's great in it, with at least one especially powerful scene.

Of course, in this era gone haywire, people have criticized his portrayal as a "offensive" stereotype. It's beyond belief.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Sure, why not? Try to remember the decade it was made in, and you'll prolly like it more

 

[JEDIYoda]

go for it

 

[brianmanahan]

yes

and i kid you not, i was just practicing my crane kick stance a few days ago

 

[shortylickens]

no

 

[JEDIYoda]

I was practicing my Triple double axle kick to the head.....

 

[MrSquished]

I haven't watched Karate Kid since I was a kid. But Cobra Kai season 1 was a nice trip down memory lane and was a blast. Karate Kid is nostalgic, so not sure if it's worth watching now though, it probably won't have the same effect. But if you are going to watch Cobra Kai you have to watch some Karate Kid movies first.

I haven't started season 2 of Cobra Kai yet, heard it's not nearly as good as 1.

 

[ultimatebob]

If you want to watch Cobra Kai, it would probably help for some character background. It's not a great movie, but it's decent for a cheesy 80's flick.

 

[DigDog]

No

dude, expand.

At the time, it was a great film.

The entire film constitutes of three acts, which unless you live under a rock, you would probably already know, by now.

Ralph Macchio is a snotty annoying kid who gets the crap beaten out of him.

1.He decides to LEARN KUNG FU (Karate actually, we were too white in the 80s to know what kung fu was).
2.He goes to Mr Miyagi. Miyagi teaches him not just kung fu, but LIFE.
3.Having learned LIFE, Ralph proceeds to beat the crap out of those who have beaten the crap out of him previously,
thus
completing
the
neverending
cycle
of
violence
and
human
suffering.

Parts 1 and 2 are worth watching. Part 3 you can shut off the tv.

 

[BoomerD]

Meh...very formulaic movie. It was fine for children back in the 80's...and MAYBE today...but definitely not for adults.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Nah, just watch this and you're covered

 

[Scarpozzi]

I'm not trying to be critical of the movie because it was a legit 80s movie and had fight scenes. Ralph Macchio is a bad actor. Cobra Kai, he isn't much better.

There's just something about his Jersey accent and the way he carries himself. Having said that, I really like him when he's not in character. 😛 I only saw a few episodes of Cobra Kai. I just lost interest, but it seemed to be a decent throwback series.

 

[zinfamous]

No.

Cobra Kai is awesome for what it is...because it knows what it is...and that is that Karate Kid was kinda shit, but amazing at the time...but also still shit then.

It's a generational thing.

Basically, if you haven't grown up with Karate Kid and "appreciated" all that those movies are at the appropriate age, then Cobra Kai will just be plain shit (justifiably), and not the delightful, brilliant shlock that it is for those that get it.



....all that being said, for the shit that Karate Kid gets these days, go back at that time and think about what it did for people like Pat Morita, Japanese and other asian actors, Japanese culture at the time. It was actually HUGE. It's grossly unfair to bitch about it as "cultural appropriation!" or embarrassing or any crap like that, because it turned on an entire generation of US kids to that. Karate Kid may have been shit for it, but a lot of kids now started to learn about it on their own...now they are the ones that hate Karate Kid for being shitty, but they never would have gotten to that point without it.

That, and it also did a lot of good for casting real Asian actors in Asian roles.

 

[zinfamous]

I haven't started season 2 of Cobra Kai yet, heard it's not nearly as good as 1.

lies!

one thing I like about this series, which really continues on from the original KK movies, is that these towns are totally held in thrall by roving gangs of high school karate dojos. they wreck every public place they go to, just because they are there and full of angst.

....just try to put yourself in that world in real life, and then it becomes awesome, lol.

 

[Sonikku]

I enjoyed the second one when they went to Japan.

Fight me.

 

[DigDog]

...continues on from the original KK movies...

wait, the what what now?

 

[sdifox]

wait, the what what now?

Well, Cobra Kai starts 34 years after the tourney in the first Karate Kid and is about Johnny reopening Cobra Kai dojo, reigniting feud with Daniel.

Karate Kids movies 1 and 2 were fine.

 

[purbeast0]

I finished Cobra Kai season 1 last night and enjoyed it. It's super cheesy and has so many laughable moments not because it's trying to be funny, but because it's so bad it's funny but bad in the good kind of bad way, like how bad b-movies can be awesome. It's hard to explain and if you haven't seen the original movie, you probably will think it's just bad.

I agree with others about the movie though that if you watch it now for the first time it probably won't be good at all. Acting is awful in it but acting in a lot of 80's movies was terrible, especially ones focused on teens with a bunch of kid actors. The story is once you've seen a million times by now.

In Cobra Kai there is this one seen that basically summarizes up Karate Kid part 1 from the opposite view point of the bad guy and it was hilarious to watch because it makes him look like the good guy and him just being completely misunderstood. And it makes complete sense lol.

 

[NuclearNed]

When I was in 8th grade it was the best movie ever. Now its mostly meh. Cobra Kai is cheesy fun though.

 

[snoopy7548]

Do it. Or else you might find yourself on your deathbed thinking what could have been. Live life with no regrets.