Karate Kid with an 'issue'

Rating: 4/10 (26 September 2005)

Following the template set by Mystic River, Clint Eastwood turns in another overlong, murky, shallow film concocted more for the dulled palates of Academy voters than with any intention of entertaining or stimulating its audience. For the first two thirds, it's just Karate Kid all over again - hopeless young wannabe persuades elderly pro to train them, wax on/wax off, becomes champion fighter. Then we get the euthanasia bit tacked on to the end, without any genuine attempt to tackle the complexity of the issue. Not least of which is the legal position - at the end, would Eastwood's character really have been allowed to just slink away without any repercussions? Morgan Freeman is the same character he has been in every film since Shawshank, there is a desperately flat, 'humorous' subplot involving a Cletus-like cretin in the gym ... the movie needed putting out of its misery long before it got the greenlight.