John G. Avildsen's sports movies - Rocky, The Karate Kid - succeed because he understands the great truism about the sub-genre: Sports movies contain sports, but they're not about sports.

Look at The Karate Kid; Ralph Macchio moves to a new neighborhood, becomes a social outcast, and deals with his lack of a father figure, all an hour before he even attends his first karate match. Avildsen uses Macchio's attraction to this martial art as a dramatically viable conduit, allowing each kick and slam he learns and performs to transmit the empty pathos within Macchio's mind.

And once Pat Morita shows up, things just get more interesting. He instantly becomes Macchio's father of sorts as he shows him the ways of this ancient art, but he's not your typical aw-shucks daddy figure that usually shows up in movies like this one. He's a drunk, first of all, and he has the same trouble as Macchio (if not more so) figuring out how people can live in a world where there is so much suffering and unhappiness.

So by the time Macchio does that awesome kick at the end of the first Karate Kid movie, Avildsen has engaged his audience not just in the "will he win or won't he?" athletic unpredictability - he turns Macchio's striving to be the master of his person into a veritable quest for spiritual fire.

Yeah, it gets cheesy sometimes and the "did we really think those clothes looked cool?" shivers that come with the film's undeniable 80s-ness doesn't go down easily, but The Karate Kid remains a top-notch flick.

However, its three younger siblings don't fare as well.

The Karate Kid Part II follows the same rubric as its predecessor, and it has moments of greatness within it, but it's a shell of the first movie. Ditto for The Karate Kid Part III;by 1989, Avildsen's strange filmmaking instincts are still apparent, but there's no fire. And The Next Karate Kid is a desperate, one-off pseudo-sequel that, with the exception of Hilary Swank's capable performance (and that might actually be giving it too much credit), is neither here nor there.

But it appears that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has no intention of releasing the first film as a stand-alone release - probably a good business idea (the rest of these wouldn't sell very well) - so if you want the cinematic sheen that comes with Ralph Macchio's march toward victory in The Karate Kid, you're going to have to let its three sequels sit on your shelf alongside it.

Eh - it could be worse.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The first Karate Kid movie looks fine here - a real upgrade from the pan-and-scan version that was available a few years ago. There's a bit of overlying grain over the entire print that makes distinctive line quality difficult to maintain, but color contrast is respectably controlled, and black levels are consistent (if perhaps erring a bit toward gray). Not definitive, but good enough.

The Karate Kid Part II doesn't look anywhere as good. Grain is still a problem, but the attention to color maintenance and contrast on the transfer of the first film in this collection is all but nonexistent here, leaving this poor sequel looking like a muddy, hazy rip-off of the real thing.

Ironically, The Karate Kid Part III's transfer is the most suspect; black levels are shockingly pale, line quality is mediocre at best, and the color palette of the entire film is unfortunately quite muddy. The Next Karate Kid looks better; the grain that partly comes with the age of the first films is not as vividly apparent here, and black levels and color contrast are given much more visual pop. Again, not a kick-ass transfer, but probably the best of the bunch.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The 2.0 Surround track on The Karate Kid is defiantly average. Dialogue has been cleaned up, but not overwhelmingly so, the film's music cues are still pretty damn loud and come close to peaking the ends of this mix's truncated dynamic range, and atmospheres and effects are subjugated to supporting roles - to say the least. It's a shame - this one would actually wear a 5.1 mix really well.

Also included are a French 2.0 Surround track, English, French, Spanish, Chinese and Thai subtitles, and English closed captions.

Part II's 2.0 Surround track is similar in value. While it doesn't have the aural punch it should, it's not heinously under-mixed.

Also included are French, Portuguese, and Spanish 2.0 Surround mixes, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean and Thai subtitles, and English closed captions.

Ditto for both The Karate Kid Part III's and The Next Karate Kid's mixes. Everything is fine; maybe there's a bit more dynamic range utilized on these transfers since they're the youngest of the bunch, but it's not enough to merit calling them great mixes.

Also included on both The Karate Kid Part III and The Next Karate Kid are French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai 2.0 Surround tracks, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean and Thai subtitles, and English closed captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The first Karate Kid flick houses a screen-specific audio commentary, and it's good enough of an extra to recommend the purchase of the disc set. Director John G. Avildsen, writer Robert Kamen, Ralph Macchio, and Pat Norita all contribute to this track, and it's a riot. All four of them are completely enamored with the work they did on this picture, but - more important than that - they're perfectly willing to tear the thing to shreds. And Kamen and Avildsen just go on and on - it's hilarious. Pat is definitely the quietest of the bunch, but even so, this is a killer commentary that's at the very least worth hearing on a rental.

We then get five featurettes: The Way of the Karate Kid (Parts 1 and 2); Beyond the Form: East Meets West; A Composer's Notebook; and, Life of Bonsai. They all add to the mythology of The Karate Kid (there is a "Play All" feature, as well, and everything runs 24 minutes). Nothing here is exceedingly marvelous, but it'll definitely provide a treat for fans, nonetheless. Rounding out this first disc are previews for the first Karate Kid movies and 3 Ninjas High Noon at Mega Mountain (which I hear is getting a Criterion Collection release...).

The Karate Kid Part II houses a EPK-grade short featurette (6:15) on the making of the film, as well as some text filmographies and previews for: the first two Karate Kid movies; Roughnecks: Starship Trooper Chronicles - the Pluto Campaign; and, Godzilla 2000.

Both The Karate Kid Part III and The Next Karate Kid have previews for: the first two Karate Kid movies (where are the previews for the second pair?); Godzilla 2000; Beverly Hills Ninja; and, Roughnecks: Starship Trooper Chronicles - the Pluto Campaign (all previews appear on both sides). We also get some brief filmographies on each film's side of the disc (Hilary Swank: Who knew?).

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

We get a group of games here (it says on the box that it's found on The Karate Kid Part II, but this review copy had the DVD-ROM content on the b-side of Disc III (The Next Karate Kid). You can catch flies with chopsticks with one, try to outmaneuver the bad guys on the open road on another, and do your best to catch falling bonsais on yet another. They're cute enough to check out once, but it's doubtful you'll return to them all that often afterward. We also get a weblink to Sony Picture's website.

Final Thoughts

While not a knockout, this 3-disc Karate Kid Collection box set definitely has its moments. And the first disc here comes with one of the better commentary tracks this writer has heard in months. The other three pictures have very few goodies and all the transfers are just so-so, so $36.95 is a little steep for an instant recommendation, but if you have to have it, you have to have it.