John Avildsen

Lemmon turns in showy, theatrical work that's appropriate to the not-terribly subtle film around him, but the whole enterprise is one that's best avoided...

For everything else that's come down the road, nothing has been better to Stallone than his baby, Rocky.

There's a TV-movie quality to The Karate Kid Part II, which too often plays like "a very special episode"...

The Karate Kid brought something fresh to the table and proved exceptionally skilled at reaching its adolescent audience.

It's all here: the famous Bill Conti fanfare, the 'Gonna Fly Now' training montage, the inevitable 'David and Goliath' climax.