As Jason Zingale points out in his upbeat review of “The Karate Kid,” Jaden Smith, who’ll be 12 next month, was 11 year’s younger when he filmed his starring role in the new version than the original star, Ralph Macchio. And if, like me, you have to scratch your head when you wonder where Macchio has been since “My Cousin Vinny,” well there’s an explanation.
Well, at least there’s an explanation for why he still looks like he’s just about ready to get out of college despite being three years older than his “Vinny” costar (Marisa Tomei, I mean). It’s possibly related to the fact, against all good Hollywood tradition, he’s been married to the same woman for 23 years, has raised two kids without public incident, and has an apparently clean criminal record. It’s a clear conscience. A very clear conscience. An extremely clear conscience…
But I still like this second trailer for the China-set remake/update of 1984’s “The Karate Kid,” featuring tiny-but-tough 12 year-old Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, that’s making the rounds today at places like Screencrave and Cinemablend. Aside from a gruffer Chan, director Harald Zwart shows some visual chops I wouldn’t necessarily expect from a guy with his resume.
Though I loved Pat Morita, I never got around to seeing the original film. I make no promises on this one, but it’s got my attention.
Fun fact: Jaden Smith is eleven years younger than Ralph Macchio was in 1984. This “kid” is actually a kid.
You can see the earlier trailer (and some rather similar comments, I must admit) here.
We here at Bullz-Eye always knew that we wanted to run a piece in conjunction with the release of “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,” but what we didn’t know was what kind of piece it would be. We considered the matter, and we came to the conclusion that it would’ve been a little too easy to whip up a list of our favorite Hollywood wizards. In the midst of the discussion, however, an observation was raised about the film itself: what’s going to happen to these kids – Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson – after the last of the “Harry Potter” books has been adapted for the silver screen? Will they be able to rise above their roles and find work elsewhere, or are they destined to be remembered solely as Harry, Ron and Hermione? From there, we quickly began to bandy about the names of other folks who have and haven’t been able to score success in other cinematic identities, and the piece began to write itself. Ultimately, only one of our selections seemed impossible to pigeonhole as either “Forever Typecast” or “Escaped Typecasting,” and when you see that actor’s name, we think you’ll nod your head knowingly and understand exactly why we had that problem.
Here’s a sample of the piece, to hopefully tempt you into checking out the whole thing:
Mark Hamill, AKA Luke Skywalker:
Mark Hamill may not have had much in the way of cinematic credits when he was introduced to the world as Luke Skywalker, future Jedi, in “Star Wars,” but he’d sure as heck done his time on the TV circuit, appearing on everything from “The Partridge Family” to “The Streets of San Francisco,” even playing a guy named Doobie Wheeler on “The Texas Wheelers.” But when you’re the star of the greatest space opera of all time ,you’ve got to expect a certain amount of blowback, and Hamill got it in spades. Despite starring in the fondly remembered “Corvette Summer” with Annie Potts and being directed by Samuel Fuller in the critically acclaimed “The Big Red One,” things just weren’t happening for the guy outside of the “Star Wars” universe…well, unless you consider being third-billed to Kristy McNichol and Dennis Quaid in “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” to be happening, that is. Post- “Return of the Jedi,” Hamill did a few straight-to-video features before realizing that he might well find more luck off the camera and in the recording booth. Having already worked for Hanna-Barbera in the early ’70s, it was a quick transition for Hamill to return to the world of voiceover acting, and it was a move that paid off in a big way. Whether you’ve known it or not, you’ve heard his dulcet tones providing voices for “The Adventures of Batman & Robin” (The Joker), “Spider-Man” (Hobgoblin), “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (Ozai), and “Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!” (The Skeleton King), among dozens of others. Good for him, we say. But the truth of the matter remains: when you see his face, Mark Hamill is still Luke Skywalker.
Got the idea? Great! To see the rest of the feature, either click right here or on the big ol’ image below:
You can’t look at the New Releases rack of your local video store these days without happening upon four or five dozen flicks (at least) that have bypassed theatrical release and gone straight to video. This is a particular annoyance for horror aficionados, who’ve seen their genre of choice end up as a sad collection of remakes, quick-turnaround franchises, or sometimes both. Thank goodness, then, for Lionsgate and their After Dark Horrorfest series, which provides brief theatrical releases and high-profile DVD releases for both up-and-coming and established filmmakers. Director Craig Singer found sufficient success with his first After Dark venture, “Dark Ride,” to find his way back into the fold for the latest round of Horrorfest films. But Singer’s “Perkins’ 13” is a bit more adventurous than the usual motion picture, as he explained to Premium Hollywood in a discussion which also tackled some of his other works, including “Animal Room,” with Neil Patrick Harris, and “A Good Night To Die,” with Michael Rapaport.
