A few months ago I wrote a post mocking the current Hollywood trend of remaking 80s films. In that post, I proposed they remake The Karate Kid, but have it so the main character ends up training in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) with some Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master. The main character would end up fighting the ‘bully’ character in some MMA tournament.
Well I just got done watching Never Back Down (Blockbuster Online rental) and this was exactly the movie I proposed in my previous blog entry (sans the Street Fighter ‘Blanka’ crossover). Granted, this movie was made before I wrote my idea. But I had never seen anything regarding this film up until I actually popped it into my DVD player.
It’s uncanny how Never Back Down completely copies The Karate Kid. In NBD, the main character moves to a new city/state due to circumstances beyond his control (family issues) and he meets a girl at his new school that ends up being connected with the ‘bully’ that beats him up at the beginning of the film due to the imbalance in skills (MMA in this movie, as opposed to plain Karate in The Karate Kid). The main character then ends up finding a MMA gym and trains with an Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert and eventually gets the skills to fight in some local MMA quasi-tournament. Main character beats the bully, he gets the girl, and all is well.
Amazing.
So, looking back at my facetious blog entry, maybe a Breakin’ remake isn’t beyond the realm of possibilities.
I should write the script and beat the major studios to it…
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