On the Saturday October 3, 2026 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet First let’s meet Robert Mark Kamen, screenwriter of 23 movies, including The Karate Kid, Taken and many others. Yup, he’s the mind behind lines like Wax On Wax Off and Liam Neeson’s famous, “a very particular set of skills” speech.
His latest project is The Karate Kid: The Musical, which will be playing on Toronto at the Princess of Wales Theatre until November 1. See Mirvish.com for more details.
Then, Canadian blues-rock legend Colin James, eight-time Juno winner, multi-platinum artist, and one of the most electrifying guitarists this country has ever produced, joins the show. From the prairies of Saskatchewan to stages around the world, he’s earned a devoted following and collaborations with some of music’s greatest names. Now he shares a whole new side of the story with Playing the Changes: A Musician’s Memoir—a funny, open-hearted, and deeply moving account of his early years, the road that led him to open for Stevie Ray Vaughan at eighteen, and the making of a lifelong musician, all the way up to the release of his debut album.
Finally, Duncan Fremlin, musician, banjo player, singer, and frontman of the country-folk group Whiskey Jack stops by. Today we talk about his new book “Stories Not Fit for the Stage – An Anthology,” a collection of tall tales, confrontations, anecdotes and encounters—some accidental, some not—with music and entertainment figures.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
As the aspiring martial artist in the new “Karate Kid” Jaden Smith is a big screen natural like his old man. Whether he’ll have a career like Will’s or one like Ralph Macchio remains to be seen, but for now, his charismatic presence is the best thing about this big summer reboot.
He plays Dre Parker, a reimagined version of the character Macchio turned into a 1980s icon. This time around he’s a cocky 12-year-old victim of the recession. “There’s nothing left for us in Detroit,” says his mother (Taraji P. Henson) as she packs him up and moves to Beijing to take a job at a car factory. There he is a fish out of water, experiencing both cultural and personality clashes. Falling for a pretty classmate () he runs afoul of class bully Cheng who opens up a forty ounce can of Bruce Lee on Dre. Alone and bruised Dre befriendsmaintenance man and kung fu master–“It’s China,” he says, “everybody knows kung fu.”–Mr. Han (Jackie Chan). The Yoda to Dre’s Jedi, Han teaches his pupil the discipline of kung fu and prepares him for the final showdown with the bullies, while Dre educates his master a thing or two about courage.
To anyone alive in the 1980s the “Karate Kid” story—although really the movie should be called “Kung Fu Kid,” as there’s no actual karate anywhere to be found—is a familiar one. The story has been freshened by a move to Beijing, but the filmmakers have wisely kept the heart and soul of the original. The underdog coming-of-age tale remains as heart tugging now as it was in 1984 hit movie but it doesn’t feel like a run-of-the-mill summer blockbuster and that’s a good thing. Director Harald Zwart takes his time with the narrative—although at 2 plus hours the simple story begins to feel slightly bloated—allowing the characters and not the action to take center stage. Add to that the beautiful Beijing backdrop and some nice performances and you have the anti-“Prince of Persia,” a movie that relies on wits and personality rather than brawn for entertainment value.
Smith is the centerpiece of the film. He’s clearly still a novice, but has inherited the best bits of both his mother (Jada Pinklett Smith) and father’s collective gene pools (he got his mother’s ears! Yay!) and has charisma to burn. He’s not going to win an Academy Award for this one, but he capably carries a great deal of the movie on his 12-year-old back.
Another surprise is Jackie Chan. Last time we saw him he was mugging his way through the truly awful “The Spy Next Door,” but here he shows his lion in winter side. For the most part he leaves his trademarked high kicking martial arts behind to focus on character and arcane sayings—“When fighting angry blind man it’s best to stay out of the way.”—but when he does fly into action somehow his trick of tying someone up with their own jacket in mid battle never gets old.
“The Karate Kid” is long, and it feels like it, with its tiresome and unfortunate catch phrase “jacket on, jacket off” (say it fast), an update of “wax on, wax off” from the first movie, but the payoff is a crowd pleaser and Jaden Smith is a superstar in the making.
Producers of this weekend’s 1980s reboot, The Karate Kid with Jaden Smith, must be hoping for a little of the Ralph Macchio “wax on” magic to rub off on their film. The original movie, a 1984 crowd pleaser that made Macchio an underdog icon, grossed $90.8 million and spawned three sequels, all of which made money until the last one, sans Macchio, made only a tenth of the first.
The original series made Macchio and Pat Morita superstars but what happened to them and their Karate Kid alumni once the final tournament was over?
Macchio’s years as a box office draw extended past Karate Kid III, but just barely. After parts in Crossroads and My Cousin Vinny, he couldn’t make the transition into adult roles. Luckily, he avoided the post-fame pitfalls of other ’80s kid actors like the Coreys, but despite steady gigs in low budget film and episodic television he hasn’t been able to shake the spectre of his most famous character.
“‘Wax on, wax off,’” he says. “Every week someone yells out the phrase as if they’d just come up with the idea, thinking, ‘Whoa, isn’t that genius? Hey Ralph, wax on, wax off!’”
Macchio’s replacement in the franchise fared slightly better — like two Oscars better. In an attempt to inject some new blood into the series — “Who says the good guy has to be a guy?” read the advertising tagline — the 20-year-old Hilary Swank beat out hundreds of other girls to don Macchio’s gi in The Next Karate Kid. It was a flop critically —“The franchise is still kicking, but not very high,” wrote Variety — and commercially but only slowed her career momentum momentarily. By 1996 she was working regularly and by 1999 it was Oscar time.
The only actor to appear in all four of the original movies was Pat Morita, who became the first American-born Asian actor nominated for an Oscar for his performance as sensei Miyagi in the first film.
It’s impossible to imagine the films without him but he nearly didn’t get the part. Producer Jerry Weintraub initially rejected Morita, claiming he was too well known as Arnold on Happy Days.
Determined to win the role, Morita grew a beard, mimicked his uncle’s Japanese accent and screen tested.
“When Jerry saw it, he said, ‘That’s what I want — a goddamn actor,’ not realizing it was Pat,” said the late actor’s wife Evelyn.
