The Martial Arts Kid

Awful acting, rip-off story of Karate Kid, poor direction. Your eyes and ears will burn from the crappiness of this "film" Give it a HUGE skip.

This film is very entertaining. It is a story that many people will relate to, not just martial arts fans. Although people who are into martial arts will probably relate best to the moves in the film, there are many different things that everyone will relate to and enjoy.

There is a range of genres in Martial Arts Kid. Of course, since the subject is about martial arts, there are some great action-packed scenes. However that isn't the entire story. There is a bit of romance, which plays out smoothly and there is a sense of comedy in a few scenes - not too much to make the film a joke, but not so little that it is too serious.

The story starts when a troublemaker named Robbie moves to a new town to live with his uncle and aunt because his grandmother refuses to deal with him getting in trouble all the time. In this new town he starts getting bullied. At the same time, he decides to start learning martial arts in his uncle's dojo. He learns to fight - not to beat the bully up (and become a bully himself), but to defend and stand up to the bully.

At the beginning, the acting seem a bit fake. The emotions feel forced and, a few times, the dialogue also feels forced. However, later in the film it becomes very natural and smooths out. The film is labeled as a bully film, which I think is a wrong label. It is a nice action- packed film with lots of good messages and morals. But, I don't think it is a bullying film. The story addresses bullying but doesn't really concentrate on it enough to make it a bullying film. Some of the shots are just spot on and perfect.

My favorite scene is when he first learns that his uncle and aunt are martial arts black belts. They are at the beach getting something from the car when a man with a knife comes up to them. Robbie tries to be brave and stand up to him but, when his aunt sees the knife, she does some amazing martial arts moves and takes him down. Robbie just stands there in awe.

This film has a little bit of mature content, mostly when they are fighting. So I recommend it for ages 11 to 18. I give it 4 out of 5 stars because, in the beginning, the acting feels a little fake. However the story is entertaining the whole time and the direction is perfect too.

Reviewed by Gerry O., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, age 13

I've been a fan of Don "The Dragon" Wilson and Cynthia Rothrock for a long time and when I heard about this film, I was quite excited. They were perfectly cast as Glen and Cindy, a couple who take in troubled nephew Robbie and soon become his mentors in the martial arts when he is bullied.

The film does convey its anti-bullying message, but in a way, the film also changes the way people may perceive martial arts as a whole and that is what also stands out between Wilson's Glen and T.J. Storm's Coach Kaine. Their differences of opinions as to how martial arts should be conveyed is truly personified not only by them but by Robbie and Kaine's student Bo, who is the one who bullies Robbie.

Jansen Panettiere and Matthew Ziff really break out in the film as they did great jobs in their roles of Robbie and Bo respectively. Plus if you are a martial arts fan, you will see most of the cast is comprised of martial artists with some legends of the field and world champions playing themselves as mentors.

This truly is marketed towards the family and speaking not only as a film fan, but as a parent as well, this is one that is suitable for families and is a break away from your generalization of martial arts films. Definitely worth checking out!

This movie was bad even at made for TV standards. The acting is atrocious, the story line predictable and every single character lacks substance.

Well, I have to say that I wasn't really harboring much of any expectations to this 2015 movie "The Martial Arts Kid", as I happened to stumble upon it here in 2023. In fact, I had never actually heard about the movie prior to getting the chance to watch it. And with it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to watch it.

I have to be honest that I was figuring "The Martial Arts Kid" to be a knock-off of the 1984 movie "Karate Kid". And it definitely is in the same league as "Karate Kid" no doubt about it, and yeah it is heavily influenced by it, I would say. And there was even a nice nod towards the 'wax on, wax off' sequence in "Karate Kid" as well, which brought me to laughing.

The storyline in "The Martial Arts Kid", as written by writers Michael Baumgarten and Adam W. Marsh, is pretty straight forward, which makes for an easy viewing experience. This wasn't exactly rocket science, nor was I expecting it to be. The storyline is straight forward, but rather similar to the 1984 movie "Karate Kid".

The acting performances in the movie were for the majority adequate. There were some rather toe-curling performances throughout the course of the movie. But I will say that most of the cast did perform well enough. The movie has Don Wilson and Cynthia Rothrock on the cast list, so there is something for us that grew up watching martial arts movies in the 1980s and 1990s.

With "The Martial Arts Kid" being a martial arts movie, of course you will have lots of martial arts fight scenes, duh. And most of these scenes and sequences were actually nicely performed and looked good on the screen. But then there was that cringeworthy fight scene between the two dojos. Ugh, that was just painful to watch.

All in all, then director Michael Baumgarten delivered a watchable enough movie, though it is lacking in originality. If you enjoy martial arts movies, especially those from the 1980s and 1990s, then give "The Martial Arts Kid" a chance.

My rating of "The Martial Arts Kid" lands on a five out of ten stars.