Sidekicks (1992)

Chuck Norris and the guy who played Lucas on SeaQuest DSV. Definitely a winning combination, but while I was trying to watch this with my girlfriend, she mentioned a few things to me. First, she said that the dream sequences were a little out there, and I agree with her on that one. Second she said that it followed the plot line of Karate Kid a little too closely. Now I do agree that this is a Karate Kid type movie, where the plot follows this formula: Boy is sad, boy finds bad martial arts expert, good martial arts expert finds boy, boy beats up bad martial arts expert's students. In fact I've seen a dozen Kung Fu and Jackie Chan movies with this same formula. in fact I call all of those Karate Kid type movies, just because that's the most famous one. However I have to say that this is one of my favourites in the whole genre.

It starts off in a dream, so don't let that bother you, and then it progresses so that you find out that this kid Barry (You know, Jonathan Brandis who played Lucas on SeaQuest DSV) is a dreamer with asthma who is picked on because he daydreams about Chuck Norris. Yes that's right Chuck Norris. He was huge in 1992! One of the most famous action heroes of all time, and that was before he became "Walker, Texas Ranger" on TV. In fact I think this movie helped springboard his career from being "Chuck Norris, the action hero" to "Chuck Norris THE Chuck Norris". Actually, that's one of the lines in the movie: "Chuck Norris? THE Chuck Norris? Lady I don't think that Chuck Norris is going to be your fourth teammate just because you wrote down his name on this form." And Chuck Norris says: "Why? Do you have a problem with that, Sonny?" Anyway that's near the end of the movie during the "boy beats students" section of the Karate Kid Type Movie. There's a bunch of stuff in the middle where an older Chinese man (who happens to be Barry's teacher's uncle) tells Barry some profound things, and teaches Barry karate. Also there's a couple love stories thrown in, where Winni from Wonder Years like Barry, and Barry likes Winni from Wonder Years, oh and Barry's dad (Beau Bridges) like Barry's teacher and vice versa.

Ok, third paragraph, you know what that means? It means I tell you whether or not Sidekicks passes or fails. I loved it both now and when I first watched it in 1992, and I think this movie Passed Mustard. It's got Chuck Norris as Chuck Norris, it has to pass, but if I were to rank it though, I'd only give it Prepared Mustard considering that my girlfriend didn't like it, and it's quite predictable.