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In many ways, The Karate Kid is the perfect remake: faithful to the source material in large part yet offering enough nuanced differences to allow it to stand on its own. The problem with the film is that that story, hackneyed when it first made i...

When The Karate Kid was first released during the summer of 1984, it came into theaters unheralded. Despite the minimal fanfare and irrespective of its lack of a big-name movie star, it became the sleeper hit of the season and one of the year’s ...

We have entered the world of post-modern superheroes, where the concept of someone with special powers doing battle against the forces of evil seems quaint, almost boring. Batman is The Dark Knight. Superman is on hiatus because the most interest...

The summer blockbuster season of 2013 is over, so what do we get as we move into the dog days of August? Yet another superhero movie. If there was ever any question about their ubiquitous multiplex presence, this answers it. A sequel to the breath-...

Movies have always used the "from the makers of..." line. You know, "a new film from the makers of Lawrence of Arabia" or "a new film from the makers of Glory". Kingpin employs this time-honored tradition, except, in this case, it proudly cla...

2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service achieved a surprising level of success not because it offered anything groundbreaking but because its anarchic energy and deadpan wit made familiar story elements seem fresh. For the sequel, The Golden Circ...

Every time audiences are presented with a reasonably well-made serial killer movie, they line up for it. Why? Human beings are irresistibly fascinated by the lurid, the horrifying, and the depraved, and what could be more attention-grabbing than ...

Kodachrome is proof of the concept that solid direction and superlative acting can transform even a mediocre script into something worth watching. At its heart, Kodachrome is a middling road picture – a film whose every plot point is predict...

Kung Fu Panda adopts a different, less zany tone than one might expect from a movie with that title, especially considering that Jack Black has been brought on board to provide the lead voice. While it would be unfair to say that the movie doesn't...