Spin Kick promises a lot, but doesn’t quite live up to those promises. Think The Karate Kid, but with more than one kid, a slightly less than amusing timid coach, and the setting of Korea. I got suckered into watching this, thinking it was a more an adult film; Spin Kick is squarely aimed at the teenage audience.
It’s overdose of melodrama, coupled with Korean humour and pretty dull fighting doesn’t do the film any favours. By this example, you would think that the only thing Koreans do is cry themselves to success. If they beg and plead enough, good things will happen. Hardly a positive attitude.
When the head coach of Taekwando leaves when given a better offer from a rival school, Mehsan (?) school is desperate for a new head coach. Couple with this disaster, their existing team of ruffians is beaten up by another group of trouble makers; so the ludicrous plot is set for these thugs to become the new Taekwando team for the school. The new head coach is rather pathetic, having beaten the coach that left, many years ago in a contest through a fluke, he’s also nervous about competing with his old rival directly. Then of course you have the final cliche of the rebellious member of the group who’s better than the goodie two shoes favourite, who don’t quite hit it off until the end.
This is very much generic garbage. I wanted to be nice about it, but I can’t. I didn’t enjoy this film, except for the Korean humour, I can’t say there was anything particularly enjoyable. I used The Karate Kid as an example, and that’s a fair comparison; however that was in the 80s, yet this Korean film manages to express a similar corny plot which does nothing for your interest. They even have Top Gun-esque music during some scenes, where I expected Tom Cruise to appear and start fighting with Val Kilmer. It’s bad.
With regards to the fight scenes, the only time it’s any good is when it’s not about the underdogs. Rather ironic, perhaps, but when the underdog’s fight, it’s quite embarrassing to watch. These are thugs, and they behave like thugs, keeping to the general character. Their fighting is so bad, even though we see them going through training and seem to be doing well, that you wonder why they bothered training in the first instance. It’s a mix of bad and terrible when the fights happen; they are so cheesy, you just have to cringe and bite your lip, reminding yourself not to tell anyone you saw this.
The inclusion of a ballet dancer in the team is the realism with which you should take this film. It tries hard to mix a touch of humour, action and surreal plot developments, but failing to satisfy any of those remits.
Acting performances are not that bad, but when they start blubbering about how life isn’t fair, you just want to slap them about a bit or have them removed from the room. It’s not convincing, it’s not sentimental or in the least bit melodramatic; it’s just awful to watch.
To say that this film is formulaic, is stating the obvious. It sets out to be that way, and from start to finish you know what will happen, who will happen to and what the outcome will be. This is an 80s teenage buddy film that’s been made in 2004 with nothing radical or original to say or show.
Verdict: The Korean Karate Kids. Predictable rubbish.