The Karate Kid

Pat Morita makes an engaging old sage, and Macchio is a hero likeable enough to get you on side and barracking.

John G. Avildsen, who directed Rocky, has directed it again, only this time the sport is karate and the hero and his girlfriend are high school students.

The Karate Kid is even paced like a TV show.

Where The Karate Kid goes right is incorporating the contributions of the actors who play teacher and pupil.

The scenes between Macchio and Morita become increasingly moving as Miyagi emerges as a much-needed father-figure in Daniel's life.

A karate film wise enough to teach that trust, patience and hard work eventually do pay off, that things are rarely what they seem, and that karate teaches more than self-defense.

The Karate Kid is a film for kids, a Don Quixote comic book of a movie that takes a few sly punches at the martial arts without blocking hope for heroism that karate often brings.

With an admirable moral posture based on its spine of universal good will, The Karate Kid should be accepted on various terms by both mainstream Saturday night audiences and the serious film crowd.

It has values we can all cheer, and two performances that deserve to be remembered. In a word, it's a kick.

Its moral contest may be oversimplified, and its sentiments perhaps overstated -- but Avildsen has still crated a fine alternative to mindless teenage fodder at the movies.