A DOUBLE FEATURE EVENING

I recalled when I was much younger that I used to go to the movies twice on the same day. I have to say that there were not multiplexes theaters, so we have to run to the other theater to enjoy a differente movie, or on weekends, we could see two or even three different movies in the same place. I did it several times, and then multiplexes came.
But even though we have the advantage of reserving tickets of a particular show of a movie, I have never thought of going to two or even three different movies in the same place. Not until the monday before last, that I made a proposal to my nephews to see the new version of KARATE KID and the adaptation of the well known video game PRINCE OF PERSIA into a motion picture.
I wasn't expecting anything but a normal afternoon of movies with my youngest of nephews with some popcorn and sodas, nothing else was on my mind. And it happened that way with the PRINCE OF PERSIA.

This video game turn into movie happens to be a very nice movie with a story that is attractive and well done stunmanship and special effects which even though are the main attraction of the film, share its attractiveness with the performers. Jake Gyllenhaal is perfect as Dastan, Ben Kingsley is equally perfect as the villain and the story is well written and in a way suitable for the movie. The other performers are as well as the actors mentioned before, but we can highlight the job of Alfred Molina who has the most of the ppunch lines of the humour content in the movie.

It's a great aventure movie with good performances and a good adaptation from the video game, well done and pretty entertaining and enjoyable, a good one for a Sunday afternoon in front of the TV with a bunch of snacks.
But the afternoon (well, it was already evening when we entered into the room) changed a lot when we saw the next flick in the list: THE KARATE KID. I must confess that I didn't have any expectations about this film, even though I heard some good comments about it, and a few bad ones but the first was the common thread about this production. Produced in part by Will Smith and a group of movie producing company of China, this movie has nothing to see with karate (although they are few scenes at the very beginning about this martial art) but kung fu, and the name - we all know - was given just for commercial reasons. My enthusiasm about this movie was the participation of Jackie Chan in the role of the young martial arts student's mentor - a part that made Noriyuki Pat Morita famous.
Jaden Smith is an actor with great charisma, so is Jackie Chan, and when both share the screen is a magical, they have that chemistry of most of the famous comedian couples in cinema, spice with the dramatic situations of each characters. But my surprise is not that Jaden Smith could be as good in the dramatic parts as in the comedic ones, my surprise - I repeat - was to see Jackie Chan performing a dramatic sequence and proving to me that is capable of perform it very well.
The underdog story is well handled here, and the defect it could have is the long shots of the scenery of China - sometimes it seems more like a Travel and Adventure TV special; but the beauty of those places is such that in a few minutes you forget the gratiutious publicity of China and its touristic places. Some critics and people has complained about the length of the film, I went with my nephews and if they could stand the almost two hours and a half of the film so there's nothing wrong with the length, I confess I didn't feel it at all.
So I would recommend that you do not miss the new version of KARATE KID for anything, it's well performed and the story, similar to the original, grabs you from the very beginning. About PRINCE OF PERSIA, well you can take your time, it is not at the same level of the first one, but it would give a piece of escapism that we need to take from time to time.