Why, hello there. This week looks really good on you. Have you been working out?
This week, there’s no news but the old news: that is, the old duke is banished by his younger brother the new duke; and three or four loving lords have put themselves into voluntary exile with him The Karate Kid and the A-Team. It’s 1984 all over again! Or rather, the Karate Kid remake starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, and the A-Team adaptation starring Liam Neeson, “Rampage” Jackson, Bradley Cooper and Sharlto Copley.
With these new releases, what better time to revisit some classic Overthinking It material? None. There is no better time.
Keep your ugly f**in' goldbrickin' ass out of my beach community.
First off, let’s turn the pages back to December 2008 and Karate Kid Week:
- Stokes compared Karate Kid to Never Back Down, an MMA pic that you would have forgotten if I hadn’t just mentioned it;
- Belinkie makes a case to disqualify Daniel Larusso. Every video embedded in that article has been taken down, sadly, but the kick in question should be embedded IN YOUR MIND.
- Wrather had a brief but savage argument for why moving the film from the San Fernando Valley to China makes the Karate Kid remake a travesty.
- Fenzel makes the case for reclaiming Mr. Miyagi from the ghetto of ethnic stereotypes.
- And then Lee insists that no, Mr. Miyagi is still pretty offensive.
I feel there's an 'Atlas Shrugged' reference here but I'm struggling.
Second, let’s reflect on how a man called “Rampage” can fill the shoes of a man called “T” by revisiting the Mr. T Party.
- There was Fenzel’s original invocation to join the Mr. T Party.
- And there was Lee’s histori-cultural analysis of the origins of the phrase ‘I Pity The Fool’.
Should Daniel-san train from a crazy old black man who speaks jibber-jabber? Will Jaden Smith learn the secrets of karate kung fu from Sharlto Copley? Or is there something we missed? Sound off in the comments, for this is your … open thread.