Old age catches up with everyone, as any NFL fan watching Brett Favre these days can attest to. Rarely has that truth appeared more painful than in the latter-day efforts of Jackie Chan. His spirit remains willing, but the death-defying acrobatics that made him an international superstar have slowly slipped out of his grasp… regardless of how hard films like Robin-B-Hood try to convince us otherwise.  Hit the jump for my full review.

Does it count as news if everyone kind of already knows it?  Deadline reports [via using their common sense] that Sony Pictures is taking pitches for The Karate Kid 2 after The Karate Kid remake smashed box office expectations and made back its entire budget in one weekend.  While I would much rather see Jackie Chan Hates Karate Kids, it looks like we’ll have to settle for another round of Jaden Smith doing roundhouse kicks.  I didn’t see the remake, but I don’t think I’d like it because I was told that no one says “Sweep the leg, Johnny.”

Sony has released three clips from the remake of The Karate Kid starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan.  I saw the world premiere of The Karate Kid at ShoWest and while I didn’t love the film, I still think it’s going to be a huge movie for Sony and one of the bigger films of the summer.   If you’d like to watch the video blog I did with Peter from Slashfilm after seeing the film, click here.  Otherwise, hit the jump for the clips and the synopsis.  The Karate Kid gets released June 11th.

Sony has released a bunch of new high resolution images from some of their big summer movies.  Included in the bunch are Salt (starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andre Braugher), The Karate Kid (starring Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan and Taraji P. Henson) and Eat Pray Love – which stars Julia Roberts, James Franco, Richard Jenkins, Viola Davis, Billy Crudup and Javier Bardem.  Hit the jump for detailed synopses and tons of high resolution images.

Sony has released a new Karate Kid featurette that features Director Harald Zwart, Jaden Smith, and Jackie Chan talking about the story of the movie.  It’s the kind of featurette that’s great for people that don’t know the premise of The Karate Kid, but for anyone that’s seen the original movie or the trailer for the new film, you won’t learn anything you didn’t know.

I saw the world premiere of The Karate Kid at ShoWest.  While I didn’t love the film, I still think it’s going to be a huge movie for Sony as the generation it’s going for won’t have seen the original and the story will be new for them.  For more than that, read or watch my video review here.  Hit the jump for the featurette.  The Karate Kid gets released June 11th.

Just an hour ago I got out of the world premiere of The Karate Kid remake at Showest.  Starring Jaden Smith as the new kid that needs training and Jackie Chan as the Mr. Miyagi character,  the movie is Sony’s big release this June.  While I didn’t think the movie needed to be remade, I’ll admit to getting excited for the film based on the last trailer.  So did the film work?  Is it a waste of time? Hit the jump for an answer.

Sony has released 8 new images from The Karate Kid and you can check them out in high resolution after the jump.  Starring Jackie Chan as the Mr. Miyagi character and Jaden Smith (Will Smith’s son) as the kid who needs help, the film looks to make serious coin this summer as the test screenings have been through the roof.  The buzz I’m hearing is the film works on all levels.  While we all know the plot:

Kid moves to new city, tries to fit in, meets cute girl, gets beat up by dickish martial arts student, learns karate from wise, unassuming instructor, and goes on to be the best, forever, and no one’s ever gonna bring him down.

I think more of you are going to end up watching this than you’re letting on.  Hit the jump for the images.  And thanks to Matt for that synopsis.

A second trailer for the remake of The Karate Kid has been released.  If you saw the first trailer, you know the remake follows the same beats as the first film, except it takes place in China.  Also, Jackie Chan plays the Mr. Miyagi character.  Saying that, the new trailer is slick and very well put together.  I’m confident kids who haven’t seen the original are going to eat this film up.  Sony must be confident in the movie as they’re releasing it on June 11 – the heart of the summer.  Hit the jump to check it out:

With Hollywood up and running after the New Year’s break, all the studios have released tons of new movie clips from their upcoming movies.  In the coming hours I’ll be posting a ton of them, and to start things off, after the jump you can check out 4 clips from Jackie Chan’s The Spy Next Door.  According to the synopsis:

Bob Ho (Jackie Chan) is an undercover CIA superspy who decides to give up his career in espionage to settle down with his next-door neighbor and girlfriend, Gillian. But Bob has one more mission to complete before Gillian agrees to marry him: winning over her three opinionated kids. When Gillian suddenly has to leave town, Bob volunteers to babysit the children so he can earn their approval. But when one of the kids mistakenly downloads a top-secret formula from his computer, Bob’s archenemy, a Russian terrorist, moves in for the attack, forcing Bob to juggle the roles of spy and prospective stepfather in the most challenging mission of his career.

While this is clearly aimed at families, perhaps some of you Jackie Chan fans might want to see the footage:

There’s no use in being exasperated or bemoaning Hollywood’s lack of creativity so I’ll just say that today Columbia Pictures released the first trailer for the remake of The Karate Kid starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith.  You already know the plot: Kid moves to new city, tries to fit in, meets cute girl, gets beat up by dickish martial arts student, learns karate from wise, unassuming instructor, and goes on to be the best, forever, and no one’s ever gonna bring him down.  I’ve included the trailer for the remake and the original after the jump so you can enjoy the comparison.  Sadly, neither trailer features the immortal line, “Sweep the leg.”

The Karate Kid hits theaters on June 11, 2010.

Sony Pictures just released four pictures from their upcoming remake of The Karate Kid.  Maybe it’s because Jackie Chan–who plays “Mr. Han”, the remake’s Mr. Miyagi–has such a big smile that you can’t see if inside he’s dying and he’s desperately just trying to go out in a blaze of glory where one of his famous stunts finally kills him.  It’s as if he’s trying to fulfill some destiny where his obituary reads, “Mr. Chan, who had done the ladder stunt countless times before…”  Of course, the flip side to all of this is his death would occur working on a remake of The Karate Kid or his other painful looking family film next year, The Spy Next Door.  Of course, no one wants to say, “He died doing what he loved: making disposable family fare.”

Check out the pictures after the jump and discover that you can teach karate on the Great Wall of China and you’ll have all the privacy you need.  The Karate Kid, which stars Jaden Smith as the title character, is slated to hit theaters on June 11, 2010.

I feel ashamed that I just watched the trailer for “The Spy Next Door”.  My shame is compounded by the fact that the trailer shows the whole movie so I basically watched “The Spy Next Door” in its entirety.  I want to scrub myself clean with a Brillo pad.  This doesn’t even look like it could be a real movie.  It looks like a parody of a movie trailer.  If you’re a parent and you have to take your kid to see this, pray that you pass out from the pain before you start bleeding from the eyes and ears.  But for those who want to start building up a tolerance, you watch the trailer after the jump.

For the film fanatic, there was an evolution. In the late 80′s and early 90′s, Hong Kong cinema came to a prominence because of the great works of filmmakers like John Woo and actors like Jackie Chan. This was the second boom of the industry after Bruce Lee invigorated youths in the 70′s, but died all too young.  And from that there was also a loyal following for the Shaw Brothers from some, and an interest in Chan – among others – but you had to live near a Chinatown or have a kick ass video store to find this stuff. Not everyone was so lucky. The crossover appeal was there, but mostly for film nerds willing to watch some shitty ass copies of great films. As time progressed Asain cinema of all stripes made a huge dent in nerd culture, with Japan and Korea following, as filmmakers like Takashi Miike, Takeshi Kitano, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and Chan Wook-Park became well known. My reviews of Legend of Drunken Master, Iron Monkey, Hero and Zatoichi after the jump.

The first set photos are up for “Kung Fu Kid”, and I don’t see an Italian teenager from Recita anywhere in them.  I guess young Jaden Smith will suffice.  Click the jump to see if Jaden can master the crane, or if Jackie Chan will teach him how to do chores that do not apply to self-defense.