Bullet Points: Karate Rock
When you think of the icons of the Golden Era of Action, you think of names like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. The name Ralph Macchio is probably not a name that immediately comes to mind when thinking about action icons, but maybe it should be…
Macchio is not as physically imposing as Sly or Arnie, but he connected with audiences the world over as Daniel LaRusso in The Karate Kid. And there is no denying that The Karate Kid is an iconic movie… it spawned multiple sequels, a reboot and is experiencing a revival thanks to the critically acclaimed YouTube Red series Cobra Kai.
And much like Die Hard, The Karate Kid inspired imitators… from a recent example like The Martial Arts Kid to movies like A Dangerous Place or Showdown from the Direct to Video era of the 1990’s. Another in the long line of Karate Kid imitators is the subject of this edition of Bullet Points, Karate Rock starring Antonio Sabato Jr. in his motion picture debut…
- New Kid on the Block: Kevin Johnson (Antonio Sabato Jr.) has fallen in with a bad crowd at his high school in Oakland and his police officer father John Johnson (David Warbeck) has had enough of the grass, the liquor and the contraceptives! So Officer Johnson loads up Kevin in the back of his squad car and makes arrangements for Kevin to transfer to a high school in Bend, Oregon and live with Billy (Robert Chan), an old cop buddy who now calls Bend home. It isn’t long before Kevin meets Connie, one of his classmates who happens to live next door to Billy. Connie gives Kevin the 411 on a dance competition taking place at the local discotheque.
- A Rivalry is Born: Kevin ends up checking out the dance competition and unknowingly puts himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Kevin gets caught in the middle of a lover’s squabble between Bend’s high school alpha male Jeff Hunter and Jeff’s hot girlfriend Kim. Jeff and Kim get into an argument in the parking lot outside of the disco after Kim objects to Jeff’s sexual advances. Kim then runs back into the club just as the dance competition is about to begin… looking to make Jeff jealous she asks Kevin to be her dance partner and before you know it, Kim and Kevin win the competition much to the dismay of Jeff. Jeff gets in Kevin’s face and tells him to meet him at the gym the next morning. When Kevin shows up, he finds out the hard way that Jeff is quite an accomplished martial artist. Kevin gets his ass whooped and a rivalry is born.
- The Race to Settle the Score: Kevin took his ass whooping like a man but when he sees a flier for a Fall Race and finds out that Jeff is the reigning and defending Fall Race champion, Kevin ends up convincing Mortimer, a classmate he barely knows, to let him borrow his Jeep so he can enter the race and beat Jeff at his own game. The race goes down and the whole school is there to witness it… and what they witness is a race the ends in a tie between Jeff and Kevin. Jeff is not about to share the spotlight with Kevin, so he challenges Kevin to a more high stakes race in the “Tunnel of Death” which felt like it was Karate Rock’s answer to Iron Eagle’s “Flying the Snake”… you know an extremely dangerous activity that can result in the death of a teenager… anyway Kevin wins and the school rejoices, with the exception of Jeff and his boys.
- The Happy Ending: Sore loser Jeff (with some help from his boys) takes out his frustration on Mortimer’s jeep, then Mortimer and even Mortimer’s glasses. Last but not least Jeff (AGAIN with some help from his boys) whoops Kevin’s ass! If only Kevin knew somebody who could teach him some karate so he could whoop Jeff’s ass! As it turns out, Billy spent a portion of his police career teaching karate to his fellow officers so he would be the perfect man to teach Kevin the martial arts skills needed to stop Jeff, the classic blonde bully. Since the movie wasted so much time on racing, Kevin learns everything he needs to defeat Jeff in a single montage. The final fight ends as you might expect, but my favorite part of the finale was when Kevin blew off front runner Kim, who to me was the biggest villain in the movie, and hooks up with the girl next door Connie.
Karate Rock does not have an overabundance of karate or rock making the title a bit misleading. Where Karate Kid imitators are concerned, Karate Rock leaves a lot to be desired. Still there is a simple charm to the movie that makes it worth checking out once, especially if you are a fan of The Karate Kid franchise.
These Bullet Bonus Points are also worth checking out once…
- AKA: Karate Rock is also known as The Kid with Iron Hands.
- Disturbing Quote #1: “If you disappear again, I’ll drown you.” – Connie to her pet dog.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see an old man ride a horse from Bend, Oregon to Oakland, California in order to deliver a bill for $300 worth of property damage, then this is the movie for you.
- Hypothesis: The same old man who thought it was a good idea to travel from Bend to Oakland via horseback hypothesized that any 20 year old who would destroy another person’s property would be hijacking a plane and destroying the White House by the age of 25.
- One Question: If Kevin is 20 years old as the old man on the horse stated, why is he still in high school?
- Disturbing Quote #2: “Shut up or put out!” – Jeff to Kim
- If You Ever: …wanted to see a cop drive from Oakland, California to Bend, Oregon with his siren on the entire time, then this is the movie for you.
