Awhile back I had picked up the Karate Kid box set for the sole reason of watching The Karate Kid. Heck, you can’t go wrong with picking up the second one also.
I had never seen The Next Karate Kid which did away with Daniel-san and introduced Hilary Swank as Julie-san.
Overall, I would put this film at par with Karate Kid Part III which wasn’t the best film in the series. I enjoyed the humourous elements of pitting Mr. Miyagi with a girl instead of a boy but other than that, it was your run of the mill ‘coming of age’ story. Heck, there wasn’t even a tournament of some sorts! Where’s the Cobra Khans? All they had is some lame-ass security force at a freakin’ high school (who had a bunch of high school students who were security detail? We sure didn’t have that in Kapuskasing!) run by some old-timer war vet with a chip on his shoulder. I always like it when you see these dudes run around and say “Finish him.” to the students after a brawl and the students are thinking “Wha???” and I’m also thinking “Wha??? Is this Mortal Kombat?”
I give this 2 karate kicks out of 5.