All 5 Karate Kid Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

All 5 Karate Kid Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

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The Karate Kid movie franchise spans 3 sequels and a 2010 remake. Cobra Kai is continuing the story but here’s which of the movies is the best around.

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All 5 Karate Kid Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

The Karate Kid movie franchise spans five films, including sequels and a remake, and here are all of them ranked from worst to best. Starting with the original film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by Robert Mark Kamen, The Karate Kid has gone from being a 1980s classic to the basis for a complex and ever-expanding generational story that continues in Netflix’s Cobra Kai series, which is going to enter its third season with a fourth also on the way.

1984’s original The Karate Kid introduced the characters of Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and his karate sensei/best friend Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Morita), who are now among the most beloved movie heroes in pop culture, and their dynamic continued for two more films, 1986’s The Karate Kid Part II and 1989’s The Karate Kid Part III. Morita then headlined 1994’s The Next Karate Kid without Macchio but alongside a new co-star, Hilary Swank, who played Julie Pierce, Mr. Miyagi’s second student. 16 years later, The Karate Kid brand was resurrected for a 2010 remake that starred Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, which marked the end of The Karate Kid movies (for now).

However, just as crucial to The Karate Kid’s enduring success was Cobra Kai, Daniel’s enemy dojo, which returned — along with LaRusso’s teenage rivalry with Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) — in a highly successful and critically acclaimed TV series that began on YouTube Red and continues on Netflix. Cobra Kai cemented The Karate Kid’s lasting popularity and has inspired a new generation to rediscover the films. What they ultimately find is that the Karate Kid movies aren’t always of the highest-caliber and offer diminishing returns. However, The Karate Kid movies continue to stand the test of time, and one of the films is unequivocally the best around.

5. The Next Karate Kid (1994)

All 5 Karate Kid Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

The Next Karate Kid was the final film to star Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi, but without Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso. Also known as The Karate Kid Part IV, future Academy Award-winner Hillary Swank was introduced in her breakout role as Julie Pierce, a troubled Boston teenager who Mr. Miyagi takes responsibility for. It’s also the first Karate Kid movie not directed by John G. Avildsen or written by Robert Mark Kamen. The plot involves Miyagi learning that Julie, the granddaughter of his late World War II Army comrade, already knew some Miyagi-Do karate, so the sensei decides to continue her training and teach her important life lessons. The Next Karate Kid also stars Michael Ironside as the villain, Col. Paul Duga, and Walton Goggins has a small role as one of the Alpha Elite, the film’s stand-ins for Cobra Kai as bad guys.

Despite the charm of Miyagi and Julie’s relationship and the athletic gusto Swank brought to her role, The Next Karate Kid is a cookie-cutter movie with bland characters, a standard, boilerplate plot and increasingly absurd stakes. The film culminates in a predictable and tepid night-time brawl between the Alpha Elite, Julie, and her boyfriend, Eric McGowen (Chris Conrad) that mimes the beginning of The Karate Kid Part II; the defeated Alpha Elite turn their backs on Col. Dugan, just like the Cobra Kai did to John Kreese (Martin Kove), and Dugan is humiliated by Miyagi the same way Kreese was. The Next Karate Kid does introduce an interesting new element of Buddhist monks whose monastery Miyagi takes Julie to for training, but the monks are played for comedy instead of deepening the audiences’ philosophical understanding of Miyagi-Do karate. The Next Karate Kid was a critical and financial failure upon its release in 1994, but there is still enjoyment to be found watching Mr. Miyagi train Julie-san while lamenting that “boys are easier.”

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4. The Karate Kid Part III (1989)

All 5 Karate Kid Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

The Karate Kid Part III was released in 1989 and it was the final and, easily, the worst chapter of Daniel LaRusso’s movie saga. Fresh from a summer in Okinawa with Mr. Miyagi, Daniel returns to Los Angeles and finds himself embroiled in a diabolically ridiculous plot by John Kreese and his best friend, multimillionaire Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), to ruin LaRusso’s life and force him to defend his karate championship in order to bring the Cobra Kai dojo back to prominence. Daniel-san’s relationship with Mr. Miyagi is tested like never before and he even abandons his sensei as LaRusso even briefly joins Cobra Kai before he comes to his senses. The Karate Kid Part III has a similar ending to the original film, but this time, Daniel’s predictable triumph lacks the same impact or exhilaration.

The mustache-twirling villainy of Terry Silver is entertainingly over-the-top, but his scheme against LaRusso is non-sensical. Equally cartoonish is Daniel’s new rival, “Karate’s Bad Boy” Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan), who engages in a level of harassment against Daniel and his new (platonic) female friend Jessica Andrews (Robyn Lively) that should have called for police intervention. But the biggest issue with The Karate Kid Part III is Daniel-san himself; LaRusso has never been more temperamental, irrational, and unlikeable, and Macchio (who was 28) was obviously too old to still be playing 18-year-old Daniel. However, Pat Morita reliably brings the goods as Miyagi, who silently mourns how far Daniel-san has fallen before he saves his pupil once more. The audience’s goodwill towards Daniel LaRusso petered out with The Karate Kid Part III, which grossed a meager $38.9-million. It took 30 years for Daniel to make his comeback thanks to Cobra Kai.

3. The Karate Kid Part II (1986)

All 5 Karate Kid Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

Released in the summer of 1986, The Karate Kid Part II admirably wasn’t a clone of the original; instead, the focus shifts to Mr. Miyagi, who is accompanied by Daniel back to his home town in Okinawa to visit his dying father, which also reignites his lifelong rivalry with Miyagi’s former best friend Sato (Danny Kamekona). LaRusso also gets an appealing new love interest in Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita) and an unforgettable new enemy in Sato’s nephew, Chozen (Yuji Okumoto). The Karate Kid Part II revealed the origin of Miyagi-Do karate and increased Daniel-san’s martial arts abilities, which culminates in a brutal fight with Chozen that irreversibly escalated the level of violence of The Karate Kid movies beyond the controlled confines of karate tournaments.

The Karate Kid Part II isn’t the equal of the first movie but it deepens the friendship between Daniel-san and Mr. Miyagi while also introducing crucial new elements to the mythos. The film was shot in Hawaii, which doubled for Okinawa, and yet it’s strange (but convenient for LaRusso and the audience) that despite being back home, Miyagi and Sato exclusively converse with each other in broken English instead of Japanese. The love story between Daniel and Kumiko doesn’t quite live up to the syrupy lyrics of the film’s chart-topping theme song, “Glory of Love” by Peter Cetera, but LaRusso’s animosity with Chozen has palpable danger and life-or-death stakes. The Karate Kid Part II was an even bigger box office success than the original, earning $115-million worldwide, which made it one of the highest-grossing films of 1986.

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2. The Karate Kid (2010)

All 5 Karate Kid Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

2010’s The Karate Kid accomplishes the miraculous feat of being a remake that’s almost as good as the original (and it’s actually even better in certain ways). Starring Jaden Smith as Dre and Jackie Chan as his mentor, Mr. Han, The Karate Kid title is a total misnomer used purely for marketing, since the film was shot almost entirely in China (including the Forbidden City) and is about kung fu, not karate. The Karate Kid 2010’s story is a beat-for-beat echo of the 1984 original, but that turns out to be a positive: In the remake, Dre is a 12-year-old American in China who finds himself bullied by a kung fu gang and is rescued by his building’s handyman, who happens to be a reclusive martial arts master. Mr. Han trains Dre in an unorthodox manner to fight in a tournament he eventually wins and he forms a genuine bond with his pupil. Dre also gets a love interest named Meiying (Wenwen Han).

Against all odds, The Karate Kid 2010 succeeds by being true to the core essence of the original film while creating winning characters in its own right. Jaden Smith is a charismatic and likable lead as Dre, but Jackie Chan delivers a remarkably resonant dramatic performance as Mr. Han, who has his own demons he overcomes through his friendship with the American boy. The kung fu in the film is truly impressive and lightyears beyond anything in the prior Karate Kid movies, and the remake also finds novel ways for Mr. Han and Dre to flip the classic tropes of how Mr. Miyagi trained Daniel. The Karate Kid 2010 received generally favorable reviews and it never got a sequel, but it earned $358-million worldwide, which makes it the highest-grossing film of The Karate Kid franchise. However, it exists outside of the “Miyagi-verse” and it isn’t considered canon by the producers of Cobra Kai.

1. The Karate Kid (1984)

The Karate Kid is one of the most beloved and inspirational sports movies ever made. While it borrows aspects of the Rocky formula, as well as that Oscar-winning film’s director, John G. Avildsen, 1984’s The Karate Kid’s enduring heart and soul is the bond between Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi. The plot is now legendary: Daniel moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles and became rivals with Cobra Kai’s Johnny Lawrence after he began dating Johnny’s ex-girlfriend, Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue). After being ganged-up on repeatedly, Miyagi trains Daniel-san to compete in a karate tournament, which he wins by defeating Johnny. Almost 40 years later, The Karate Kid remains an eternally satisfying story filled with characters who have gone on to become pop culture icons, and their story is being continued and expanded upon in Cobra Kai.

Many of The Karate Kid’s famous tropes have continued to resonate. The film is fondly remembered for Miyagi’s ingenious methods of training Daniel by making him perform household chores like painting a fence and sanding the floor — of course, “wax on, wax off” is eminently quotable — and Daniel’s climactic crane kick that he used to defeat Johnny is iconic. But the performances by Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio remain touching and powerful, while William Zabka was underrated as Johnny, although Cobra Kai has realized his full potential. It’s incredible how three sequels, a remake, and a hit TV series were all built from The Karate Kid, which speaks to the original film as a true classic of the 1980s — one that still connects with generations of fans, new and old, as the springboard for Cobra Kai.

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