There’s a sweetness and innocence to the story that avoids entering saccharine territory by incorporating darker themes into the mix...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 16, 2025

The success of the 1984 original lies in its many winning factors, one of which includes the mentor-protege dynamics between Pat Morita’s Mr Miyagi and Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 21, 2024

A film that keeps the blood pumping and brings the audience to its feet.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 18, 2024

From the depths of the height of 1980s pop culture comes The Karate Kid, a motion picture that, despite being stamped by its decade of origin, still works on a basic dramatic level today.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 18, 2023

The characters are unforgettable, the dialogue is clever, and although some of the sequences are predictable, the film never loses heart.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Sep 6, 2020

. . .The adventures of this vengeful boy only inspires indifference. . .[Full Review in Spanish]

| Aug 30, 2017

Macchio rises above the trite script to deliver a sympathetic and believable performance. Morita is equally good value and look out, too, for Elisabeth Shue in an early role.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 30, 2013

Upbeat, sentimental and predictable tale, but the acting of Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita (who was Oscar-nominated) is good and their friendship charming.

| Original Score: B | Apr 5, 2011

Predictable yet satisfying...

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 25, 2010

Avildsen crafted an inspired movie with the perfect mix of 80's bravado and 70's artistic integrity.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 12, 2010

Irresistible wish fulfillment.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 8, 2010

The Karate Kid brought something fresh to the table and proved exceptionally skilled at reaching its adolescent audience. [Blu-ray]

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 27, 2010

Perhaps a touch on the corny side and undeniably broad, Kid is a ridiculously rewarding drama that puts pure sincerity to marvelous use, inflating a mild underdog story into an inspiring tale of education and developing friendship.

| Original Score: A- | May 5, 2010

Not many movies can make multi-generational friendships seem authentic, but Macchio and the late Morita managed to achieve a closeness that was believably touching.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 9, 2010

This film's art consists entirely of hiding the cynicism of its calculations under an agreeably modest and disarming manner.

| Aug 1, 2008

This is the kind of movie where you find yourself cheering even though you know you're being hoodwinked.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 21, 2007

Morita is simply terrific, bringing the appropriate authority and wisdom to the part.

| Mar 21, 2007

A surprise summer hit in the States, this is another film-making-by-numbers exercise in teenage wish-fulfilment.

| Jun 24, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 9, 2006

Morita's work in The Karate Kid is iconographic.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 27, 2005