This is only the second time I've ever watched The Next Karate Kid and that's only because I bought the DVD Box Set that also had the first 3 Karate Kid installments. I never saw this one in the theater. Both times are by way of the Box Set. It shouldn't come as a complete shock that this one is the worst in the bunch. On the surface, the movie was a rushed job. Just another movie for the studio to get out the door and cash in and make whatever money they thought they could get away with. The film looks, feels and acts like a cheap Afternoon Special. The movie definitely should have been a Direct-To-VHS release. It's not good at all.

I'm a fan of Hilary Swank, and even though she isn't as bad as most people would have you believe, her acting chops were a long ways off. Watching this one, you would never guessed that she would become a 2-time Oscar winner. It's not that she is bad in this one. She's not. She does a decent job with what she has to work with. Sure there are some awkward moments, but the problem was the script. Both the story and especially the dialogue was just downright amateurish. The one thing you expect with the Karate Kid Series in general is that it's grounded in reality. Well, all that goes right out the window when the Security enforcer of the High School that Julie (Hilary Swank) attends is allowed to physically assault his hall monitor minions. I'm talking about punching and kicking them on school grounds and yet there is no repercussions at all. It doesn't help that the "Mentor" in played by Michael Ironside, who has only one acting style: Bad.

On top of that one of the Minions comes off as a Rapist-in-training, without saying as much, always implies that he and his gang of minions will take her down to the docks and have their way with her. This is beyond stupid. Why nothing is said or done about this guy at the start just makes you question everything that comes after the fact. Other things that also attack the credibility of this one is Julie's "karate" technique. It's bad. It actually looks like she is making this stuff up as she goes along. And I'm not going to even go into how bad the 'Dancing Monks' sequence is. Ugh.

Definitely a movie you will want to Skip. It's just not all that good. This movie had no right being made. Walton Goggins gets a pass though. He didn't have much dialogue in this one to really embarrassed himself. Lucky him.

I feel like I remember reading the novelization of this... I feel like I remember the novelizations for more movies than I actually would have read, so maybe it's my mind prose-ifying movies I remember, but all I can recall is someone refusing to kill a bug because they respect all life and that changed Hillary Swank's mentality.  That's what stuck with me.

I still to this day hesitate before I have to kill a bug.  I like to avoid it now if I can.

If Denise Richards wasn't gonna join in on the group shower scene, not interested...