I'd go with the 2nd one. I thought the score was better. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/g9uvEAYtBGA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Sweep the leg! No Mercy! <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/4kr24G8jQpM?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
KK1 was the better movie but I enjoyed KK2 more. As a kid I thought Daniel-san was going to die in KK2.
It would have been a better poll had you eliminated the first one. I don't see a debate. I prefer KK3 to the remaining choices. That Silver guy was pretty cool/creepy and I like how they brought back the Kobra Kai sensai.
1 ... ... ... ... ... 2 Next ... ... ... 3 Although the third movie does have the below bit, at least. Doesn't redeem the film, but it was funny as hell. <iframe width="640" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2Clwoyl28sk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Karate Kid 1 and 2 were a wash for me. I loved both of those movies for different reasons. For Karate Kid 1, I loved the concept and the story (it was great), however Elisabeth Shue was not nearly as endearing as Tamlyn Tomita. However, in Karate Kid 2, while I LOVED the love story and personal redemption of Pat Morita's student over Sota's student. I thought the ending was corny (the fight scene). Basically Tamlyn made Karate Kid 2 special. She was great.
Gonna have to go with Karate Kid 1 just slightly over 2. Music, story, fight scenes and final act were all just a bit more memorable to me. But both are good and are really the only worthwhile movies in the franchise. By 3 Daniel was in full blown dork mode. And parts of the story didn't make any sense. Re-watching 2 again I started thinking that 3 should have been more about Daniel finding his place in the world without Mr. Miyagi by his side. Why would Miyagi even want to leave Okinawa after the second film? He's back with his first love, mended his friendship with Sato, so there's no reason to go back to the US and stay. So they come back only for Daniel to discover than Miyagi is selling his home and belongings and heading back home for good. Daniel struggles with that decision and is unsure where life should take him now. All the while Kreese, with his buddy, are plotting vengeance. Daniel has to fight Kreese at the end, shoot maybe Terry then Kreese. He has to learn to fight his battles on his own. So Next was pointless and the remake should have been called Kung Fu Kid and been a complete re-imagining. That might have been worthwhile.
But Mr. Myagi was the best thing about the karate kid movies... better character than LaRusso the loser, who truly was nothing without him (and would have gotten his ass beaten again and again in your version of the 3rd movie). Daniel should have gone to college (hell, wasn't he 35 in real life by the time the 3rd movie was made?), Myagi gets pressured to take over the cobra kai franchise as they make him an offer ($$$) he can't refuse, he discovers he's becoming more and more like the drill sergeant sense and karate is no longer about self-defense... he decides to quit the business, but in his brief time he's already trained a bunch of talented kids who dominate the circuit/tournaments... thus Myagi spends countless hours training/learning new techniques to beat his old techniques (including "defense for the crane kick!"), he then decides to tutor one of the kids who couldn't afford to be in his dojo (and was pretty crappy anyways, LaRusso 2.0), and personally trains him to beat the army of Myagi-students at the tournament, using his new techniques (and basically being able to predict exactly what the students would do). The movie is more about the actual Karate than simply helping a loser kid make it through life... but its also about how Myagi is also human and can lose his way, and then re-discover himself. Wow, do I want the last 5 min. of my life back...
