Oldboy

OLDBOY

Director : Spike Lee

Year : 2013

Genre : Thriller

Rating : *1/2

Over the past few years, Hollywood has got into the unpleasant habit of remaking popular and influential foreign films purely based on the dumb and completely unfounded ideology that English speaking audiences can't or don't want to read subtitles; a practice that has never seemed to bother the rest of the world. Movies such as 'Let Me In', 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' and 'Bangkok Dangerous' have continually proved that despite a slightly higher quality of film grain and more impressive special effects, English language remakes (usually) fail to capture any of the majesty or importance of their foreign originals. Spike Lee's 'Oldboy' is no exception. 

Based on  Chan-Wook Park's South Korean cult classic of the same name which in turn was based on a popular manga series, 'Oldboy' tells the story of a man's quest for relentless revenge after being imprisoned for 20 years by an unknown assailant. Starring Josh Brolin, Sharlito Copley and Elizabeth Olson, 'Oldboy' is a well put together and beautifully shot picture (as you would expect from Lee) but as is the case with many English language remakes, it fails to capture of the emotionality and underlying threat that made it's original such an indelible experience. Upping the violence but toning down the character development, Lee changes the text from a tale of underlying guilt, responsibility and poetic justice to a rather conventional story about vengeance and these changes completely detract rather than enhance the narrative.

 

Brolin is perfectly fine in the lead role but he doesn't have any of the power or integrity of Min - sik Choi's South Korean counterpart, 'Martha Marcy May Marlene's Elizabeth Olson is completely underused as the central love interest and 'District 9's Sharlito Copley is way too over the top as the moustache twizzling antagonist. The only stand out performance is given by the always reliable Samuel L. Jackson and even he is not enough to save this picture from being nothing more than a run of the mill action film; something Chan-Wook Park's opus certainly wasn't.

As a stand alone film, 'Oldboy' serves as a standard blood laced thriller but it completely pales in comparison to it's 2003 original. There are individual moments that work very well but this is purely due to their similarity to it's predecessor and the abysmal final act completely destroys any of the power and emotion that made Park's iconic work such a strange and unforgettable viewing experience. 'Oldboy' isn't a particularly bad film, rather a completely unnecessary one and in many ways, that is so much worse.