Francesca Rudkin: Karate Kid: Legends, F1: The Movie

Karate Kid: Legends  

After moving to New York City with his mother, kung fu prodigy Li Fong struggles to let go of the past as he tries to fit in with his new classmates. When a new friend needs his help, Li enters a karate competition -- but his skills alone aren't enough. With help from Mr. Han and Daniel LaRusso, he soon learns to merge two styles into one for the ultimate martial arts showdown. 

  

F1: The Movie  

In the 1990s, Sonny Hayes was Formula 1's most promising driver until an accident on the track nearly ended his career. Thirty years later, the owner of a struggling Formula 1 team convinces Sonny to return to racing and become the best in the world. Driving alongside the team's hotshot rookie, Sonny soon learns that the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks AB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Time to get your film picks for this weekend. Francesca
rad Can, our movie reviewer, is here with us this morning.
Good morning, Good morning. Do you know what when I
saw the trailer for the latest Karate Kid film, I
was like, for goodness sake, I haven't thought about Jackie
Chan for about ten years, Which is not to say
like I don't love Jackie Chan and love a bit

(00:33):
of Jackie Chan in my life, but just feels like,
for a whilely he was doing so many films and
then he just kind of stepped back for a bit.
I'm not crazy emo, no.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
But I think also a lot of people we think
to themselves, gosh, I haven't thought about Karate Kid since
nineteen eighty four when the first songe was released. It
it is still going.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
It is one? Yeah? Is this the six? Okay, let's
have a little bit of a listen. This is Karate
Kid legends.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
You have a foundation of kung fu.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
We're gonna build upont that with kate ancient work.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
May argue where two of our zenz la russo, let's
make a.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Karate Kid Okay, that's Karate Kid Legends. Tell us about it, Franziska.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Okay, so school holidays are here, hence we have an
Ia Kid and legends, I should say kate Kid Legends
and cinemas. I learned recently that these films because I
can't remember this before. It was a while ago, but
I was reminded recently that these films began kind of
as a teen Rocky roof off because they the first

(01:46):
original film was directed by the same director of Rocky
and actually the sort of the same kind of underdog story,
and all the films have had a very similar premise.
You take a main character who moves to a new
place and they meet a lovely local girl and are
quite smitten by her. They get harassed by a bully.
They then get taken under the wing of a men

(02:06):
tour and taught karate or kung fu, and they then
have a fight and at the end of it, we've
all learned lots of life lessons and things like that,
and really.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
We just do you suggest as a formula for these films.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
So that's the formula. But it works right because it's
there that the young guy Ben Wang, who plays Leefong
who was a new character who's in this particular film.
He's great and he's extremely good at his fighting. The
fighting in the film is really fantastic and very exciting.
And he has a very similar story. He's moved from
Beijing to New York with his mother, who is a doctor,

(02:43):
and he's struggling to fit in and he falls for
a local girl at the pizzeria. He starts teaching her father.
He starts training her father and boxing. Then he gets
taken under a wing by you know, mister hand. Jackie
Chan comes to Beijing to our backs. So the story
is really similar in a way. I feel like they're
trying to take all different threads of the previous films

(03:04):
and even the TV series and the spin off Cobra
Kai I think it's called or They're trying to bring
everything into this film. So there's it's very real. There's
lots of these sort of even though new characters, very
recognizable moments and tying up loose sens and things. It's
almost a bit much. There's just almost a few too
many subplots and stories going on, and they're trying to

(03:27):
sort of throw a little bit much at you. When
you will know how it's kind of gonna unfold anyway. Anyway,
it's good fun. I think it's gonna be great family entertainment.
I love family entertainment that is real action, you know,
like we for a while there, all our all the
family films were animated, and we do and look, there
are beautiful animated films. I don't have a problem with that.

(03:49):
But I also think that we relate so much more
to a real person and a real character, and I
like seeing family oriented films, you know, done in sort
of real action. So yeah, no, it's good fun. You
know what you're going to get. There's probably a little
bit too much of it all here. Wouldn't mind if
they just streamlined it all the little but you know,

(04:09):
good quality kids entertainment, well you know between teenage entertainment. Yeah,
a couple of.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Hours, but during the school holidays. Yeah, okay, all right,
so it's Karate Kid Legions. So he's seventy one, Jackie
Chan still a good neck, isn't he? My goodness?

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, you know, I love him. He's just he just
manages that beautiful balance of comedy and action and everything else.
He just brings a heart to everything he does.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
He does yeah, he really does. All right, So that's
showing in cinemas right now. Karate Kids Legends, just in
time for the school holidays. Next up a film I'm
very excited to see. This is if Won the movie.
Some people look at Sonny Hayes, this is your guy

(04:54):
who lives to me, then a gambling junkie who missed
your shot.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
The first thing never was I see possibility.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
That is if One, the movie starring Brad Pitt, of course,
and it's sort of yeah, it's really that the apex
of IF One's giant global push at the moment, just
when you thought there couldn't be more if One, there's
more if One.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
No, you're absolutely right. And Brad Pitt has been wanting
to make a racing film for many years decades even
and Formula One were really keen to make one too,
And the collaboration that they have had throughout the making
of this film does present us with an incredibly authentic experience.
So they had access to the twenty twenty four season,
they were able to set and they were able to

(05:49):
set up on the paddock, They were able to be
in the pit lane if One when went out of
their way to welcome this film crew into their environment
and it shows so you feel like you're there, You
feel like you're in it. You feel like the races
that Brad Patton has fellow teammate played by Damson Idris,
You feel like they are on the race course. And

(06:11):
then of course what director Joseph Kazinski does, who also
did Top Gun Maverick, He puts his actors in the cars,
so they first learned to drive three cars, then they
move them up to F two cars. They made the
F two cars look like F one cars, and then
he films them driving these cars. So they have gone
out of their way to make this feel like as

(06:32):
an authentic IF one experience as they possibly can, and
they do a great job on the big screen. Jack,
go and see this on the bigger screen. You can.
It deserves to be seen like that. It is really thrilling,
like they have done an excellent job where they let
themselves down one with this film as they've just kind
of the script is kind of just a bit mass,

(06:55):
to be honest with you, when you take away, when
you take away this glorious cinematography and the thunderous soundtrack
and the great sort of inventive camera angles, and you
take away the visuals of it and things, actually you're
left with quite a predictable underdog story about the old
you know, the older has been who comes into a

(07:17):
team no one's got any faith in them, but then
they use their experience and their wisdom to kind of
pull the team together, and you know, and just you know,
and overcomes the differences with his fellow young driver and
the two of them get on and off we go
and you know, conquer the world. So, to be honest
with you, the story is actually a pretty typical underdogs

(07:39):
story that we see all the time. And look, Brad Pitt,
he can act, He's absolutely charming, He's got all the
cool swagger, and he is a list in this he
is he is a super star in this film. He
really sort of holds it together. But actually he deserves
more than some of the cheesy lines he gets. We
don't really get to know him as a character. Both
him and and Address's characters are very two dimensional, and

(08:03):
so a.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
Little part of me was a little let down there
two hours and thirty six minutes long, Jack, So just
monitor your beverages when you go into this film, and
you probably do need to be a little bit interested.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
In Formula one because there is quite a lot of
driving to get through, right, But go see on the
big screen. It's worth it. It's a thrill, it's fun,
not perfect, but still a good time.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Very good. Okay, that's If Won the movie that's showing
in cinemas. So too is Karate Kid Legends. Both of
those will be up on the News Talks. He'd be
website for.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
More from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to
news Talks he'd be from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.