Karate Kid: Legends (2025)

After 40 years of assorted race and genders, we finally get our first Asian karate kid in the sixth installment of the interconnected franchise which unites Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) from Parts I, II and III (and Cobra Kai) with Shifu Han (Jackie Chan) from the 2010 reboot. There's a bit of retconning going on to explain that Miyagi and Han have a bit of shared family history, and knew each other from back in the day. His memory is kept alive through Miyagi-Do karate.

The setup is familiar by now. In an opposite twist on the previous film, we now have a boy immigrating from China to the USA and following the tried-and-true formula of bullies, girlfriends and a championship tournament that will somehow make everything right. It's literally a remix of all the films, and as such, lacks in any tension because we already know how it will all go down. Sadly, it feels slick and modern and moves way too quickly, since there are never any hurdles too difficult to overcome in a Hollywood movie. At least it was fun to see Jackie Chan still performing his own stunts at 71, and realizing Ralph Macchio isn't too far behind him at 63. The time...where has it gone?

2½ combos out of 5

SHUTTER [2008]

Japanese director Masayuki Ochiai gives a stab at remaking the Thai garden variety ghost story film Shutter for American audiences.
Josh Jackson & Rachael Taylor play young newlyweds who move to Japan to further his career as a fashion photographer and weird things start happening when the ghostly image of Ju-On's Megumi Okina appears in all his work.
Ochiai has never been particularly good at telling a great story but he certainly knows how to set up creepy atmosphere and that's where this film excels compared to the original.  What the film does right it does a great deal better than it's source material and what it gets wrong is worse than wearing grandma's soiled undies.  What your tolerance is for tired retreads of scary Asian ghost girl remakes will depend on how you feel about this lost in the mix film.

2 haunted honeymoons out of 5

CURSED [2005]

Director Wes Craven reteams with writer Kevin Williamson for the werewolf thriller Cursed in hopes of recreating the success of their Scream franchise.
They pretty much fall directly on their faces with this mess of a stinker.
Sadly it feels like they might have had something but it got lost in a sea of obvious reshoots and rewrites that hurt the flow & tone of the film.   I genuinely liked the characters and the actors did a fine job at portraying them but the storyline was such an unfocused mess it became boring and uninspired.  Not once was I thrilled or chilled and that is something to be expected from this team.

1½ wolfy middle fingers out of 5