In a week where all three films hitting the big screen in Canada have their own merits I'm making the surprising choice here and going with The Karate Kid as the cream of the crop. Stop laughing. No, really. Stop laughing. Not only is this film not the absolute train wreck that a vanity project propelled by the parents of the child star should have been but the Karate Kid remake is a very, very good film on whatever level you choose to judge it and significantly better than the original on many points. Yeah, the name is completely inappropriate and is clung to purely for marketing reasons - the sum total of the karate in this film is about ten seconds on a 'teach yourself' TV show - but once you put that particular issue aside it's all good.

Jaden Smith - son to Will and Jada Pinkett, who both serve as producers -  stars as Dre, a thirteen year old Detroit kid forced to uproot and move to China when when his mom is transferred there for work. It's just the two of them, and Dre is woefully unprepared. He doesn't speak the language, he doesn't know the culture, he doesn't even know how to use chopsticks. And he certainly doesn't understand Chinese gender politics, a factor that gets him into immediate trouble when he begins flirting with a cute - and receptive - classmate on his first day, drawing the ire of the local boys determined to keep the foreigner away.

Like most thirteen-year-olds, Dre's a bit cocky. Unlike his peers at home, though, his classmates know kung fu. Lots of it. And on his very first day in China, Dre goes home with a black eye and a great big target on his back. And as it turns out, the only one who can help him stand up and defend himself is Mr. Han, his apartment's caretaker.

That pretty much covers the basic difference between the two versions of the film. This time out the titular kid is the fish out of water, dropped into the middle of a foreign culture and forced to learn that the world is a whole lot bigger than he knew and that he must adapt if he is going to survive. Other than that - and some technological updating - things are basically the same. Cocky kid gets targeted by the students of a ruthless martial arts master and is taught the arts himself by an otherwise peaceful and unassuming man so that he can defend himself while also demonstrating the proper use of martial arts. You know how this is going to go, basically, but it's how it goes there that makes the film good.

First, full marks to director Harald Zwart and writer Christopher Murphy. Don't let the long run time fool you, this is a smartly crafted, very well paced bit of work with remarkably well fleshed out characters and scarcely any waste. Zwart balances the character and action work well - definitely focusing more on characters - and gives the big moments of triumph a little added punch by making us care about the characters in the first place.

And the characters themselves? Though Jaden Smith never quite reaches the big emotional high notes when the script calls for them, he comes pretty damn close and gives it a solid try. And the rest of the time he's more than serviceable, proving himself a perfectly capable performer. There are a lot of people out there hating on this kid purely because of who his parents are - often doing so in incredibly crude terms - and I hereby call these people what they are: asshats. Smith isn't perfect as a dramatic performer but he's more than capable, gifted with a lot of natural talent and - more importantly - he obviously takes the craft seriously and isn't afraid of putting in the hard work to get it right. Nowhere is that more obvious than in the training and fight sequences. He does a ton of it himself, including an awful lot of stuff that requires a LOT of hard training that cannot be faked. He is a completely believable physical performer and significantly better than original star Ralph Macchio both dramatically and on the martial arts front.

And Jackie Chan? The aging clown whose shtick ran thin about a decade ago? Well, Zwart and Murphy add a significant layer of complexity to his character and Chan rises to the occasion by delivering what may be the best dramatic performance of his career. It's certainly the best role he's ever played in English. Chan - thank god - is finally allowed to play his age and leave the goofy slapstick behind and what do you know? After hanging around on film sets for longer than most of his fans have been alive he's picked up a thing or two about acting. Those looking for a vintage Chan fight are going to be disappointed - he has only one significant action sequence in the entire film - but those looking for a new layer to the performer are going to be hugely pleased. Chan plays Mr. Han with just the right amount of gravity and pathos, and while Smith doesn't quite hit his big emotional moment Chan absolutely kills his. He's bang on.

Well written, well performed, well directed, The Karate Kid is one of those rare remakes that actually significantly improves upon the original.