Little Quickies: 'The Karate Kid,' 'Sherlock Holmes,' 'Predators'

In case you guys are wondering, no, I don't watch movies every hour of my life. Other than 'Predators,' I watched these movies a long time ago and have reviewed just now.

So some of these movie reviews that I post don't necessarily mean that I just watched them a few hours ago. Just a heads up.

This is the first of my 'Little Quickies' reviews. I don't have time to review every single movie I watch and I don't have the patience to give each of them its own page, but I would still like to mention some of them. Thus, The Little Quickies have been born.

So, my first official Little Quickie is...

'The Karate Kid' starring our favorite Chinese man who doesn't own a Chinese restaurant, Jackie Chan, (actually, out of sheer curiousity, I just looked it up and learned that he actually DID have one, oops) and Jaden Smith, actor Will Smith's son.
The 2010 remake is the same basic story as the 1984 original of the same name. Major obvious differences are the fact that the protaganist moves to China instead of L.A. and that he is actually being taught kung fu, not karate. Kung fu is Chinese, while Karate is Japanese. There is a difference. In fact, in Japan, this remake is known as 'Best Kid' and in China it is called 'The Kung Fu Kid.'

I've seen the original and liked it and when I heard about the remake, I thought "How dumb." When I watched the remake, it kicked me in the face and made me eat my words. I really enjoyed it immensely.

4/5

Rent worthy? Yes, RENT IT.

DVD/Blu-ray worthy? I'm gonna add this to my collection and lovingly place it next to the original 'Karate Kid.'

Next contender is...2009/2010's 'Sherlock Holmes.'

I watched this in theaters with an old friend when it first came out and had to watch it again because my sister would not stop bothering me about how I didn't see it with her.

Great film that will obviously have a sequel. 'Iron Man's Robert Downey Jr. is perfect as Sherlock Holmes and I'm happy to see that he has been very successful lately after a life revolving around drugs. Jude Law made a very convincing Watson ("Relax, I'm a doctor.") and everyone else did a great job too.

It has been out on Blu-ray/DVD for a while now, so just check it out for yourselves if you haven't yet.

4/5

Rent worthy? If haven't seen it, get it from Netflix or Blockbuster.

DVD/Blu-ray worthy? I already have it. I love Robert Downey Jr.

The most recent film out of these three is 'Predators.'
To be quick to the point, a bunch of rag-tag humans, each with a malicious past, find themselves in a mysterious jungle that smells of death. They later learn that they are being hunted by alien beings, just for sport.

'Predators' stars Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo, and a bunch of other people.

The action scenes are pretty cool to watch and ever since the original 'Predator' in 1987, I've always liked the design of the Predator alien, with its dreadlocks and all. So yeah, 20 something years later, those aliens still look awesome and badass as ever.

I thought seeing Adrien Brody as an action star was kind of weird, especially since M. Night Shyamalan's 'The Village,' where he plays the mentally handicapped Noah Percy. When I look at him, he doesn't seem like an action-star kind of actor, like Jason Statham. But he was decent, so after a while, I got used to Brody.

We see the humans walking around in the jungle trying to escape and trying to figure out how to get rid of the dreaded Predators.

Too bad 'To Catch a Predator's Chris Hansen wasn't part of their team, but then the movie would be too short.

It's good to watch in the theater with a bunch of friends. It's not the best film, but it's fun to watch. Not all movies are meant to be taken seriously. It's just good, alien/human-killing fun. I did like the tie-in's to the first 'Predator' though.

2.5/5 for story

3.5/5 for it still being fun

Rent worthy? Sure, why not?

DVD/Blu-ray? I won't buy it. It's one of those movies that if I see on TV on a slow day, I'll watch it again, but I don't want it. I like Arnold Schwartznegger's 'Predator' better.

Keep on watchin'

The Little Critic