The Karate Kid (2010)

Skippable, and considerably better than a remake with that title had any business being. It is not connected to anything else here until 2025, so slot it in wherever you like or leave it out entirely.

The first thing to say is that the title is wrong and everybody knew it. The film is set in Beijing and the art being taught is kung fu, which is why it was released in some territories as The Kung Fu Dream. What the relocation buys is a genuine reason for the protagonist to be isolated: a twelve-year-old moved from Detroit because of his mother's job, who cannot read a sign, order food or understand what is being said about him in a playground, is a much sharper version of the original's outsider premise.

Jackie Chan is the surprise. Mr. Han is a withdrawn, depressive maintenance man, played almost entirely without charm and with none of the physical comedy he was known for, and the scene in which he destroys a car in his apartment on the anniversary of an accident is as good as anything in his English-language career. It is the film's equivalent of Miyagi's birthday scene and it is played completely straight.

Against it: at a hundred and forty minutes it is far too long, the bullying is more brutal than the 1984 film in a way that sits oddly in a family picture, and the final tournament leans on slow motion to generate what the original got from stillness. Jaden Smith was eleven and is better than his reviews suggested. If you only want the Miyagi line, nothing here is required.