For more than 40 years, the Karate Kid franchise has entertained fans with a four-film series, a remake-spinoff, and a TV show continuation. Now, the two best-reviewed movies of the bunch are crossing over for Karate Kid: Legends, with original star Ralph Macchio and the 2010 version’s Jackie Chan uniting to train the next martial arts hero, played by Ben Wang. The initial reception for the new installment is mixed, but most agree that it lives up to its past while making a star to watch out of Wang. Also, everyone seems to love Chan and Macchio together.
Here’s what critics are saying about Karate Kid: Legends:
How does it compare to the other installments?
Legends can hold its head as one of the best installments so far, better than Karate Kid (2010), but nothing on Karate Kid (1984). — Jack Shepherd, Total Film
As far as Karate Kid movies go, this one can’t match the surprisingly elegant characterization of the first movie, but at 94 crisply paced minutes, it’s less distended than the shockingly overlong 2010 remake, and feels less obligatory than the old Macchio sequels. — Jesse Hassenger, Paste Magazine
Karate Kid: Legends is a sensational sequel, building on the classic underdog framework of the original 1984 Karate Kid movie, while working in fresh fun, familiar faces, and a dazzling new talent. — Kristy Puchko, Mashable
This is a fun, breezy adventure that nests right into the world of Karate Kid and largely delivers on the action, laughs, and heart fans love about the IP. — Ben Wasserman, CBR
While the team-up may be fun for fans of previous Karate Kid movies and Cobra Kai, it also misses the emotional core of these coming-of-age stories. — Matt Goldberg, The Wrap
[It] adds nothing original to the formula. It’s a formula that works, to be sure, making for a pleasant enough time filler. But that’s about it. — Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
Neither as fun as the early seasons of Cobra Kai nor as effective as the 2010 reboot, Karate Kid: Legends relies heavily on franchise favourites while bringing nothing new to the party. — Tara Brady, Irish Times
Between the first couple of seasons of Cobra Kai and now Legends, The Karate Kid is the rare franchise that can boast one of the very best legacyquels as well as one of the worst. — Matt Singer, Screen Crush
The movie grows out of that show’s ebullient spirit. — Owen Gleiberman, Variety
Much like Cobra Kai, Legends has a bit more to say beyond revisiting some Crane Kicking hits. — Ben Wasserman, CBR
For anyone who’s seen Cobra Kai, [this has] a familiar format, echoing how LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence tried to teach their students both Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang. — Jack Shepherd, Total Film
Karate Kid: Legends ignores essentially all the events of Cobra Kai… Fans hoping Karate Kid: Legends will continue its storyline in some way should adjust their expectations accordingly. — Matt Singer, Screen Crush
How is the story?
The plot is a “paint by the numbers,” generic story…It is also a stereotypical, “feel good” movie where one roots for the underdog and isn’t disappointed in the end. — Allison Rose, FlickDirect
So simple, so unironic, so cheesy-sincere, so analog that you may feel it transporting you right back to the “innocence” of the ’80s. And that’s the best thing about Karate Kid: Legends. — Owen Gleiberman, Variety
This is a surprisingly self-contained story all about Li, and a darn good one at that. — Aidan Kelley, Collider
Turning the formula on its head where the young person will train an older person is a nice twist that still adheres to the standard beats of learning martial arts as material necessity and personal growth. — Matt Goldberg, The Wrap
Karate Kid: Legends is like the IKEA instruction booklet for making a Karate Kid movie: a marvel of abbreviated, gestural storytelling that should be taught in schools as an example of what a perfectly structured script looks like. — Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
This latest installment goes way beyond recycling the basic premise… They might as well have called it Karate Kid: Déjà Vu. — Matt Singer, Screen Crush
The plot is just awful, crammed with so many cliches that you’re barely done chuckling at one before another kicks you in the head. — Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
Does it play better for older fans or newer audiences?
Older audiences will reminisce about watching Macchio play the Karate Kid. In comparison, younger audiences will enjoy the story and Ben Wang’s skills as an actor and martial artist. — Allison Rose, FlickDirect
It’s certainly a crowd-pleasing film that will make you feel good all the way through, no matter how long you’ve been with the franchise. — Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant
Setting the movie years after Cobra Kai certainly helps sell the movie to casual fans, allowing them to get into the story without having to cram six seasons of television into their heads in advance. — Ben Wasserman, CBR
The movie ultimately chooses to work for its young audience more than its potentially nostalgic (or puzzled) parents. — Jesse Hassenger, Paste Magazine
Karate Kid: Legends [is] a movie that understands its identity but still feels forced to cater to older fans in a way that neglects how well the film works for its target audience of younger viewers. — Matt Goldberg, The Wrap
Starting off with a clip from 1986’s The Karate Kid Part II… there are numerous callbacks to past installments, and the end credits feature a cameo by one more franchise veteran. — Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
How is the pacing?
Karate Kid: Legends is a movie that, for better and worse, doesn’t let up, offering you no chance to catch a breath. — Jack Shepherd, Total Film
At a cool hour and 34 minutes, the film understands what it means to keep a story tight and moving. — Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant
Working in Karate Kid: Legends‘ favor is how it’s cut and paced a lot like Jeff Rowe’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. It’s jaunty and light. — Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
The moment Daniel LaRusso is introduced, Karate Kid: Legends begins sprinting towards its closing moments at a jarring, breakneck pace. — Aidan Kelley, Collider
Legends barely lasts 90 minutes, and it often feels like it’s been severely truncated in the editing room until all that remained were the training montages and fight scenes. — Matt Singer, Screen Crush
The fight scenes are well-choreographed and entertaining. — Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant
For those who are fans of action sequences and especially Karate and Kung Fu, they should especially be pleased with what first-time feature film director Jonathan Entwistle has done to showcase the art form. — Allison Rose, FlickDirect
[The movie is] designed to give you that “This is not your father’s Ralph Macchio fairy tale!” feeling. — Owen Gleiberman, Variety
There’s some brilliant choreography on display, especially during one back-alley brawl that sees Li take on a bunch of ruffians. Yet, other fights are cut too fast, and some fancy camera work stops certain hits from having the impact they should. — Jack Shepherd, Total Film
The fight sequences in Karate Kid: Legends can occasionally feel over-edited with one too many cuts and some creatively distracting animated additions, but on the whole, the fight choreography and stunt-work on display feels more elaborate than any of the prior films. — Aidan Kelley, Collider
The fights are well-done, but nowhere near as crazy as what people saw on the Netflix series. — Ben Wasserman, CBR
The fight choreography is passable but never impressive, and an over-reliance on shaky quick cuts drains out some much needed physicality. It doesn’t help that there’s surprisingly few of them. — Wilson Chapman, IndieWire
Does it work as a comedy?
It is incredibly funny with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments that land at the right place and at the right time. — Allison Rose, FlickDirect
Karate Kid: Legends had me laughing. — Kristy Puchko, Mashable
Ben Wang is a great new lead for this series, not just for some stellar martial arts skills, but also for his almost effortless charisma and lovable personality. — Aidan Kelley, Collider
He’s lithe and captivating. — Owen Gleiberman, Variety
The young actor exudes an electric, everyman appeal. — Ben Truitt, USA Today
Wang is excellent not only as an actor but as a student of martial arts. — Allison Rose, FlickDirect
Wang carries on Chan’s legacy by performing action skillfully while being funny. — Kristy Puchko, Mashable
An early fight sequence positions Wang to be an able inheritor of Chan’s prop-heavy, comedic, hero-who-gets-hurt style, and he himself is a charming, effortless sort with a touch of ineffable star power. — Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
There’s a natural charisma and vulnerability to Wang that lends itself well to Li’s journey… He’s also got a bit of an edge that, like Daniel in the original Karate Kid, defies the usual tropes of a picked-on teenage protagonist. — Ben Wasserman, CBR
What about the Ralph Macchio-Jackie Chan team-up?
Watching them spar with Wang and each other is a treat to behold. There is a joy in watching them on screen together that audiences, young and old, will love. — Allison Rose, FlickDirect
This tag-team of combat gurus turns out to be an ace comedy team. — Owen Gleiberman, Variety
The few moments where Han and LaRusso bicker over how to teach Li are highlights, albeit underutilized ones. — Aidan Kelley, Collider
When Chan and Macchio share the screen, it is an absolute joy… It’s such a fun dynamic that you cannot help but partly begrudge the writers for not giving Chan and Macchio more to do. — Jack Shepherd, Total Film
Sadie Stanley… acts with an eagerly ingenuous personality that feels entirely pre-social media, to the point that she evokes the Ally Sheedy of WarGames. (Yes, that’s a high compliment; keep an eye out for Sadie Stanley.) — Owen Gleiberman, Variety
Though he’s in a minor role, Wyatt Oleff is a scene-stealer as Alan, Li’s tutor. — Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant
Does the movie have a villain problem?
Like William Zabka back in the day, Knight nicely inhabits the unstoppable karate villain role, though the movie begs to spend a little more time with him. — Ben Truitt, USA Today
The film’s villains are a bit of a low point… one-dimensional even by Karate Kid standards. — Aidan Kelley, Collider
Connor and O’Shea feel like afterthoughts in a way other Karate Kid antagonists didn’t, albeit for more over-the-top reasons pre-Cobra Kai. — Ben Wasserman, CBR
Karate Kid: Legends opens in theaters on May 30, 2025.
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Actress Helena Howard stars in Find Your Friends as Amber, a disillusioned college student who goes on a girls’ trip in Joshua Tree. Partying with her friends (Chloe Cherry, Sophia Ali, Zión Moreno, Bella Thorne) should have been a blast, but tragedy and violence land at their doorstep. Directed and written by Izabel Pazkad, this 93-minute feature is now streaming on Shudder. Was it worth the watch? I review Find Your Friends with CinemAddicts co-host Eric Holmes, and we are in relative agreement. Check out our review below!
Read more: ‘Find Your Friends’ Movie Review: Helena Howard Standout Performance Nearly Saves Shudder MisfireChloe Cherry, Bella Throne, Sophia Ali, Zión Moreno,and Helena Howard in Izabel Pakzad’s FIND YOUR FRIENDS. Courtesy of Shudder. A Shudder Release
The narrative begins at a yacht party where the girls are taking shots and looking for a bit of fun. Amber makes out with a stranger to get her ex-boyfriend jealous, but that encounter turns into a sexual assault. After understandably attacking the rapist in front of his friends, Amber and her crew are kicked off the yacht and head to Joshua Tree.
Zión Moreno and Bella Thorne in “Find Your Friends” – Shudder
Partying at the AirBnb with loud music, drugs and liquour is not all fun and games. An angry neighbor (Chris Bauer) tells them to turn their music down, and an evening out to see a band leads to an even more nightmarish encounter with three men.
Helena Howard is terrific as Amber, as she delivers a layered performance as a young woman experiencing a ton of mental and physical anguish. On top of the misogynists who tragically alter her life, she is also experiencing a growing distance from her best friends. For most of the movie we are locked into Amber’s psyche and behavior, and Howard effectively captures these often stomach churning moments.
Helena Howard in “Find Your Friends” – Shudder
Unfortunately, the rest of the characters in Find Your Friends are, at best, paper thin. Although filmmaker Izabel Pakzad and cinematographer Tim Curtin capture the tension and frenetic behavior of these women and their eventual antagonists, it exists on a superficial level. Even a modicum of character exploration would have been welcome.
For horror-thriller enthusiasts, the inevitable confrontation does not occur until well into the third act. By that time, co-host Eric Holmes was checked out from the story. Thanks to Howard’s performance, I was still hanging on for dear life, but overall the movie was a disappointment.
Check out our full review:
Let us know your thoughts on Find Your Friends, now streaming on Shudder, in the comments!
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Long before ChatGPT was a household name, Hollywood had been making AI the villain for decades — from HAL 9000 to Skynet to Agent Smith.
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Yet the most emotionally involving spin on the terrors of tech in ages arrives not from groundbreaking sci-fi, but the smart, wonderful and tremendously funny fifth “Toy Story” movie.
That’s a surprise, since it’s a film that I really hoped would never happen. After middling “4,” which was a giant step down from the heartbreaking third, the world was more than ready for Woody and Buzz to ride off into the sunset. Woody actually did.
Well, it’s good that Tom Hanks and Tim Allen got back behind the mike, because the digital age gives Pixar’s playthings a renewed sense of purpose and atypically high stakes. Usually the gang helps a young person stay in touch with their childhood. This time, they save one in progress.
Jessie, Buzz and Woody are back in “Toy Story 5.” Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection
That’s the formative years of little Bonnie (Scarlett Spears), the girl who inherited the dolls from Andy (who’s now, like, 40) in the last movie. She’s 8 years old, paralyzed by shyness and totally friendless. Desperate, Bonnie begs her parents to buy her a Lilypad, an interactive touchscreen that’s all the rage at school.
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Yes, the baddie that Woody (Hanks), Buzz (Allen) and Jessie (Joan Cusack) must face this time is an alarmingly cute tablet, voiced by Greta Lee.
So, rather than humanity’s fears of artificial intelligence taking control of the nuclear arsenal or replacing us with cyborgs, director Andrew Stanton’s “5” taps into a much more immediate concern: screens rewiring kids’ minds.
The crew must face off with Lilypad, a touchscreen that kids are obsessed with. Pixar
Much like when action figure Buzz arrived, sigh, 31 years ago, the toys are mortified by the mysterious intruder and her luminescent ilk. As they look across their neighborhood, all they can see for blocks are glowing blue windows with zombie youths staring into the 10×10 void.
The end is nigh, they think. How can a cowboy, cowgirl and a space cadet compete against a reactive mini-computer that connects a lonely child to the entire planet?
But these toys aren’t ready for the dark recesses of eBay just yet. They go head to head — or plastic to plastic — with Lilypad, whom Lee gives a voice that’s both bestie and “Mean Girls.”
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One of the best additions to the “Toy Story” family since 1995 is Conan O’Brien’s Smarty Pants. Pixar
You may recall lovebirds Woody and Bo Peep went off on their own at the end of the last chapter. Of course, they find their way back, but Jessie is running things now. That’s a refreshing and appropriate switch-up. Cusack’s maternal performance is better suited to this particular adventure than Hanks’ “old buddy, old pal” delivery.
After a sleepover mishap, Jessie winds up lost at another house — her first one, it turns out — where a girl named Blaze (Mykal-Michelle Harris) lives. And it’s there we meet perhaps the best new character in this franchise since 1995: Smarty Pants.
The real misfit toys aren’t the OG crew, we learn, but obsolete computer devices from the aughts. One is Conan O’Brien’s Smarty Pants, a hysterical, hyperactive box that teaches tykes how to use the toilet. He’s been powered down for years and therefore goes berserk when juiced up.
A phalanx of lost Buzzes is a lot of fun. Disney via AP
O’Brien is — and I’m sure he’d agree — a toy trapped in a man’s body. He’s practically typecasting. And his demented acting is so energetic and untethered, you can picture Disney security guards hauling him out of the recording studio. I mean that in a good way.
There’s also a lot of fun mined from a shipment of misplaced Buzzes. We check in on the look-alikes occasionally as they morph into a phalanx of determined Navy SEALs to eventually join Jessie and Co.
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“Five” is arguably the first new “Toy Story” film to be both watched and understood by the kids of the 1995 original’s millennial audience. That shared experience is very moving all by itself.
But, even more poignantly, who can teach these young parents this vital lesson in 21st-century child-rearing better than their own toys?
The notoriously treacherous hurdles that Hong Kong telecommunications company i-Cable used to put in front of customers looking to unsubscribe from its internet and pay-TV services throughout the 2000s and early 2010s provide the premise of this Kafkaesque comedy-drama – an alternately hilarious and heartbreaking case of raging against the system.
Marking the feature directing debut of Mak Tin-shu, best known as the Hong Kong Film Award-winning screenwriter behind crime thrillers Trivisa and Detective vs Sleuths, Dog Day Evening reveals a flair for deadpan humour that might not be immediately obvious in his past scripts.
Loosely inspired by a 2014 incident in which a knife-wielding student caused a stand-off in i-Cable’s Tsuen Wan office over a cancellation dispute, the narrative sees aspiring filmmaker Tak (Yukki Tai, The Lyricist Wannabe) go berserk inside the customer service office of Happy TV after his demand to terminate his grandmother’s TV plan invites mockery from a jaded desk agent, Ringo (Michael Ning).
《一個部門的誕生 Dog Day Evening》- 正式預告 Regular Trailer
When Tak grabs a gun dropped by an off-duty police officer (Mak Pui-tung of The Sparring Partner) trying to subdue him, the heated argument escalates into a full-blown hostage situation involving several other Happy TV employees and clients, who are all sympathetic to the young man’s contractual plight.
