All this could be quite charming if it weren't so simple-minded and manipulative.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 1, 2022

An irrelevant foot note in the "Karate Kid" series that can be overlooked if only for being so vanilla.

| Aug 7, 2014

A few pre-prom dance lessons are the only significant departure from the tried and tested chop-socky formula, although Michael Ironside is good value as Swank's sinister gym teacher.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 14, 2013

Amid its familiar banalities and formula twists, The Next Karate Kid comes up with one new idea for dealing with difficult American teen-agers: ship 'em off to a Buddhist monastery for two weeks!

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 14, 2013

This desperate attempt to keep the franchise alive and kicking resorts to a backhanded kind of political correctness: introducing a surly teenage girl karate expert who goes around talking about "kicking butt."

| Jun 14, 2013

The Next Karate Kid is harmless as children's entertainment, but for 104 very long minutes, there isn't a recognizable human being in sight.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 14, 2013

The overt message of any Karate Kid movie: Don't fight unless you absolutely have to. The implicit message: You'll always have to. Let the smitings begin!

| May 22, 2013

While the message that a girl can defend herself against the boys threatening her is a good one, it's lost in a movie where the bullies look like Mussolini's bodyguards and where Julie waits for her boyfriend and Miyagi to come to her defense.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 22, 2013

Swank and Morita make a personable pair, enough so that we don't miss Macchio. The monks exude a benevolent presence in a film less trivial than it could have been.

| May 22, 2013

Only the reasonably-appealing performances of Morita and newcomer Swank keep it all from becoming even more of a loser.

| Original Score: 1/4 | May 22, 2013

Not that girls will go see this or boys will care.

| Original Score: C- | Sep 7, 2011

Itt's eager to please, but this sequel offers an unsuccessful mix of warm relationships, stark brutality, and hit 1990s rock songs.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 15, 2010

...a weak sequel that boasts few compelling attributes aside from Pat Morita's expectedly stirring turn as Mr. Miyagi.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 25, 2010

The franchise is still kicking -- but not very high.

| Mar 26, 2009

Almost a guilty pleasure. But not quite.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 12, 2008

Overlong and utterly predictable, The Next Karate Kid offers little excitement, even in its culminating fight sequence.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 12, 2008

Desperately trying to infuse new blood into the 1980s franchise, the fourth installment is a hodgepodge that fashions recycled ideas and characters; the rebllious girl is played Hilary Swank, who would go to Oscar glory.

| Original Score: D | Sep 12, 2006

Swank, here demonstrating that for as wooden and exasperating as her performance is in this picture, it's the only performance she's ever contributed to any film.

| Original Score: 0.5/4 | Nov 27, 2005

Formula still grabs, even with Swank as "Kid"

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 13, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 16, 2005