Serious Case of Deja View

Rating: 3/10 (14 March 2008)

If you weren't old enough to see movies and understand them back in 1984, this may seem like a pretty good movie. If, on the other hand, you were old enough, then you will see this movie for what it is: an updated version of "Karate Kid", a much better film. Before seeing this, I looked up the movie and read the plot, and that was the first thought that ran through my head; seeing it only proved it. By the time the movie was over, I counted over 15 similarities between the two films, and yet nowhere did I see any credit given to the original writers. Shouldn't they be suing for plagiarism?
1 Poor kid is star
2 Moves out to a coastal city
3 Meets pretty girl
4 Pretty girl has jerk boyfriend
5 Jerk boyfriend is local fighting champ (2 years running no less)
6 Poor kid knows a little about fighting
7 Gets into fight with jerk boyfriend and gets beat
8 Meets up with a teacher in the same style as jerk boyfriend
9 Teacher is foreign born
10 Teacher has experienced great personal loss
11 Poor kid and girl have tiff
12 They get back together after he apologizes for being a jerk
13 While jerk boyfriend is good fighter, has bad focus
14 Poor kid and jerk boyfriend face off in tournament he is champion of
15 In the tournament, poor kid suffers a serious injury
16 Poor kid wins anyway and earns jerk boyfriend's respect
There are some other plot holes which stretch the credibility of this movie even further. The main villain is in good shape, as he walks around half the movie with no shirt on, revealing some well-defined abs. I find it awfully hard to believe that a high school kid could achieve something like that.
The other plot hole which also made me scratch my head was the death of the lead character's father. He got drunk at a bar, got behind the wheel and wrapped his car around the tree. The lead was with him and I was wondering, "What is a high school kid doing at a bar? Do they check IDs any more?"
And another thing: what are high school kids doing participating in full-contact fighting tournaments? Isn't there some kind of law against that?
The one good thing I did like about the movie was the villain. He had a whole smug attitude which came off as highly believable. But still, that isn't nearly enough to make up for this rip-off. I'm just glad this was a sneak preview so I didn't have to pay to see this.