Out of all the silly remakes that Hollywood has greenlit over the past few years, few seem to have received as much of a reaction as Will Smith’s forthcoming update to The Karate Kid. The movie, which is being directed by Harald Zwart (The Pink Panther 2, Agent Cody Banks), will star Will Smith’s son Jaden in the lead role of Daniel-san, with Jackie Chan portraying wise old Mr. Miyagi. Oh, except for one thing… they won’t be named Daniel and Mr. Miyagi.

According to Moviehole, the main character in this version is named Dre, and he is described as a “skateboarding video-game buff”. Sounds like the ideal portrait of today’s youth. Jackie Chan’s character will be called Mr. Han, and he is the maintenance man in the apartment that Dre and his mother have just moved into. Despite these changes, however, it appears that the name of the movie, which was rumoured to have become “The Kung Fu Kid”, will remain simply The Karate Kid.

What do I think of all this? I couldn’t care less. I can’t quite get a grasp on what people want from this movie (other than for it not to exist at all). When they change the name to The Kung Fu Kid, people say “That’s the stupidest name ever”, and when they change it back, people say, “But he doesn’t learn karate in the movie, he learns kung fu!” Personally I think it would be pointless to do a remake if you’re not going to cash in on the name recognition of the original, but that’s just me. In the end, all that really matters is whether or not it is a good film on its own terms. With regards to that, an inside source offers the following:

“There are a lot of funny lines – mainly delivered by Jackie Chan. It is actually a good script though, very good in fact. It’s different enough to be considered its own beast too.”

What do you think? Does this remake really grind your gears, or are you keeping an open mind about it? Is the movie destined to suck just because the main character is named Dre?

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