Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein direct Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Rya Kihlstedt in this legacy sequel to the horror accidental death franchise.

The teens at my library told me they snuck in to see this through the fire exit and I look like the guy who got his brains eaten up by a lawnmower! Not exactly a compliment but I’ll take it. Awesome prolonged Sixties-set opening at a doomed skytower restaurant. Some franchise high kills and teases. Likeable final girl. Tony Todd’s lovely final monologue of his career. Probably the best one yet.

Jonathan Entwistle directs Ben Wang, Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio in this intertwining of all the iterations of the Karate Kid series… “Two Branches, One Tree.”

Miyagi-Do is back and now… well… Now my wife wants to learn kung-fu. Super colourful. They make the sensible decision to give the kid the first half to himself before Jackie and Ralph can dominate the limelight. At one point he is training Pacey Witter. It can’t get cooler than that. Just a lot of good hearted fun. The tournament resembles an arcade game and there’s an alley fight sequence where Wang recreates all of Jackie’s energy and moves. What more could you want in a Sunday morning multiplex trip?

Two pleasant surprises that weren’t even on my radar a few months ago. Feeding nostalgia hunger pangs that I didn’t know I even had.

6/6