THE KARATE KID (1984) - john avildsen - 7.1/10 THE KARATE KID (2010) - harald zwart - 4.5/10

That The Karate Kid (1984) is even a halfway successful film owes almost nothing to the craft (or lack thereof) employed in creating it. In fact, the movie succeeds very much in spite of itself. The terrible (and terribly dated) music undercuts the action and emotion of the film at every turn, directly commenting on the onscreen action in the most ludicrous and annoying manner possible (with the worst example being, of course, the montage at the All Valley Karate Championship scored with ‘You’re the Best Around’). Then there’s the horrible sounding ADR that persists from the opening shot through to almost the very last one that makes the whole thing seem incredibly cheap. And the constant use of single takes for the duration of a scene (usually a hallmark of a good film and a strong director) somehow manages to make many scenes that should be resonant feel flat (the confrontation between Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita, the best thing in the movie) and the Cobra Kais’ sensei, for example, or the long scene of Miyagi and Daniel (Ralph Macchio) celebrating Daniel’s birthday).

DIE HARD – john mctiernan – 7.5 / 10

Why doesn’t anyone in this film believe anyone else?  All interactions start out antagonistic and every once in a while resolve themselves to being civil (but only sometimes).  When we first see Sgt. Al Powell he’s buying Twinkies for his pregnant wife but the store clerk doesn’t believe him.  When John McClane calls dispatch for help, they think he’s a crank caller.  When Powell suggests McClane might be trying to help, his boss says he’s probably just a bartender.  Even smarmy asshole reporter Thornberg is met with disbelief when he tells his boss there’s a terrorist attack underway.

SEX AND THE CITY 2 – michael patrick king – 1.1 / 10

At this point, after six seasons on HBO, countless reruns on TBS and a feature film, you know what you’re getting with Sex and the City 2. And it’s tempting to just say this sort of thing isn’t for me and ignore it (or, more accurately, pretend it doesn’t exist). But by making claims of feminism and female empowerment, Sex and the City demands a closer examination. If these films (and the TV series) are as important as the people involved in making them seem to believe they are, we’re in a lot of trouble. Because the truth is that Sex and the City’s view of women is as vapid and patronizing as anything you’ll see in a Michael Bay movie.