franchise continues to grow. Soon, fans will be treated to Karate Kid: Legends, the sixth installment, set three years after the events of Cobra Kai. Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio reprise their roles from previous films, while Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson, Ming-Na Wen, and Sadie Stanley are also set to appear in key roles. This is the first installment not to be made by the great Jerry Weintraub, who died in 2015.

The premise of people learning how to fight and becoming great at it is an incredible one, hence it has been ripped off several times ever since the first movie premiered in 1984. The ‘80s and ‘90s were especially awash with movies that were just bootleg versions of The Karate Kid. However, some of them are as entertaining as the gem that they imitate. Here are the most notable examples.

In Ken (Kenn Scott) Noticing his predicament, so he can defend himself.

The Karate Kid has the same premise of a former serviceman (who now does odd jobs) mentoring a younger person after realizing he is being bullied because of a girl. Despite being a studio lab clone, . Both Blanks and Scott give heartfelt portrayals. You’ll also be moved by the opening scene that explains how Billy lost his job and became a janitor.

is the story of PK (Stephen Dorff), an Anglo-South African boy growing up during the Apartheid Era. He , but things begin to look up when .

Mentor-guided transformation? Fighting for a reason? The Power of One is . As unoriginal as it seems, it remains a biting drama of the first order. Though it seems most characters in the story are guilty of something, the slow-paced gem maintains a visible tone of frothy entertainment throughout. Watch out for Daniel Craig in his first-ever movie role.

stars Olympic gymnast Kurt Thomas as Jonathan Cabot, an… well… Olympic gymnast... who . The prize? America gets to construct a satellite monitoring station there.

Cabot is the fish-out-of-water kind of protagonist, but he learns the ropes quickly. And he gets to be trained by a Japanese guru/ Sounds familiar? With director Robert Clouse at his most subtle and creative, this captivating nail-biter seems only to get better with each viewing. Though Thomas wasn’t used to acting, . Don't miss the finale, which is nothing less than untainted, understated genius.

After playing the fighter Kurt Sloane in the first Kickboxer movie, Jean-Claude Van Damme switched roles in , playing the skilled trainer, Master Durand. In the non-legacy sequel, an imprisoned Sloane (now played by Alain Moussi) is .

A 6'8" 400-lb. fighter? The odds are truly against the protagonist, just like they are in Karate Kid. That's why he needs something of a “software update” on his skills. And that’s where Durand comes in. Forget the early Van Damme movies with sketchy storylines. . Be on the lookout for Mike Tyson. He’s present, too.

Kevin Ryan (Stephen Furst), an 11-year-old karate champion from Kalamazoo, Michigan,. There, he learns that the man. Will the boy do something before things get ugly in ?

Sentimental and hilariously soapy at times, Magic Kid tugs mightily at your heartstrings for its entire running time.. But it’s always fun to watch kids running circles around adults (when they aren’t your kids). Home Alone proved it years earlier, and we bet the director of this film was partly inspired by it, too.

Teenager Jake Tyler makes difficult, often painful adjustments when his parents force him to move to a new school in Orlando because the relocation will further his younger brother’s tennis career. During his early days,. Luckily, , resulting in a change of fortunes in .

Getting beaten first before getting the right training? Never Back Down is . It’s just about fighting, as it is about a teenager’s painful displacement and the subsequent perseverance in adapting to an unfamiliar territory. , the film is an unforgettable, stunning achievement.

In , Leroy Green, a Bruce Lee-worshipping martial arts student, He thus . But first, he has to get through Sho'nuff, aka, "The Shogun of Harlem", who sees Leroy as the only obstacle to being acknowledged as the true guru.

A wacky cross between Karate Kid and Bruceploitation movies, this stylized musical martial arts film is . At some point, Leroy even begins referring to himself as Bruce Lee’roy. Well, slow down, tiger. You’ll love the superbly offbeat cast and the comical lengths to which some of the characters go to do some of the simplest tasks.

opens with . He is then . This sparks sibling rivalry, prompting the envious Caine-like bro to join the Yakuza. As adults, they cross paths again.

Isn’t Mark Dacascos the most underrated martial arts movie star of all time? Younger audiences know him better as the assassin Zero from John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, or perhaps they don’t know him at all, but millennials and those born earlier know him better as one of the greatest a** kickers of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Here, he does his magic again in yet another . Weak at first, formidable in the end.

To everyone in , Jeff Sanders (Jeff Speakman) is, training to be a martial arts master. His by the Korean mafia. Will Jeff get justice?

Jeff feels like and he sure is intriguing., as he plays the protagonist as sincerely ambitious, but slowed down by the unfortunate events visited upon him. Beyond the fighting, the film targets greed, classism, and brotherhood.

In Only the Strong, former Green Beret Louis Stevens (Mark Dacascos) is irked by the fact that his alma mater is now plagued by drugs and violence. He thus offers to train a group of unruly students in martial arts, hoping the move will help them find purpose. But the students soon attract the attention of a local drug lord who has a bone to pick with Louis.

You might call this a Karate Kid ripoff, but Only the Strong is somehow unique because it’s the only known (there could be other hidden ones) American movie to showcase Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial arts discipline that includes elements of acrobatics, dance, music, and spirituality. The film might not turn every sentimental-genre convention on its head, but it tells a moving story while emphasizing the power of learning and changing.