KARATE KIDS USA (1979)
Label: Shoreline Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: TVPG
Duration: 89 Minutes 16 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD (1.33:1)
Director: Curtis Hanson
Cast: Charles Lane, Ann Sothern, Chris Petersen, Pat Petersen, Sly Boyden
Cast: Charles Lane, Ann Sothern, Chris Petersen, Pat Petersen, Sly Boyden
Directed by Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, Evil Town) from a script by Alan Ormsby (Deathdream) and co-starring Joe Spinell (Maniac)... okay, just based on those three names this has to be an at least somewhat interesting movie, right? Karate Kids USA (1979) was originally titled The Little Dragons and was not re-titled and released as Karate Kids USA until after Karate Kid was a huge box office hit in 1984. I admire the pure exploitation shamelessness of it, but little else.
Grandfather J.J. (veteran character actor Charles Lane) takes his two young grandsons Zack and Woody (real-life brothers Chris (The Swarm) and Pat Petersen, Alligator) on a camping trip while travelling for their karate tournament. The boys befriend a sweet girl named Carol Forbinger (Sally Boyden, Smuggler's Cove), the daughter of the wealthy parents Dick (Rick Lenz, The Shootist) and Carol (Sharon Weber, Lisa). When hillbilly, backwoods bothers Yancey (Joe Spinell, Maniac) and Carl (John Davis Chandler, Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead) get wise to how rich Dick is they hatch a scheme along with their mother Angel (Ann Sothern, The Manitou) to kidnap the girl and hold her for a ransom.
Eventually, and it's a good long while before we get to it, the brothers utilize their wacky martial arts "skills" to rescue the Forbinger girl from the backwoods clan with a little help from their sweet old grandpa, their karate class buddies, and some friendly bikers.
A pretty horrendous kids-flick that I found quite dull, the best stuff here is just watching and noting the veteran character actors who pop up, and wondering where their careers might have gone wrong prior to ending up in The Little Dragons aka Karate Kid USA. Other than the aforementioned cast you can also spot Clifford A. Pellow (The Frisco Kid) as Sheriff, Stephen Young (Who's Harry Crumb?) as Lunsford, Pat E. Johnson (who actually wne tonto appear in two Karate Kid flicks) as Karate Instructor, and Bong Soo Han (The Kentucky Fried Movie) as Karate Master.
It's also interesting to note that this was only the second film directed by Curtis Hanson's, who made a couple of genre flicks early on in his career with Sweet Kill (1972) and Evil Town (1985) before hitting it big in Hiollywood with bonafide hits like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, L.A. Confidential, Wonder Boys and 8 Mile. It's quite a career with some very humble beginnings indeed, this should give any amatuer filmmaker hope for the future.
Audio/Video: Katie Kids USA (1979) arrives on MOD non-pressed Blu-ray from Shoreline Entertainment. Advertices as 1.78:1 on the backside of the wrap this is actually 1.37:1 fullscreen. It looks like it sourced from an SD 2" master or other tape-based source. Clarity and depth are non-existent, what we get is a murky, macroblocked, desaturayed mess. Truly one of the worst looking Blu-ray releases I've ever seen this side of SOV (Shot-on-Video) stuff. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0, it won't win any awards but it's serviceable.
There are no extras, just a static menu. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork, that actually looks quite nice.
Special Features:
- None
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Screenshots from the Shoreline Entertainment Blu-ray:
