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).
Showing posts with label harald zwart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label harald zwart. Show all posts
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