Oldboy

In the end, the most impressive performance may be Spike Lee's. He uses skill without gimmickry, flash without fuss, to tap the mesmerizing soul of this pulp.

Surprisingly, the movie doesn’t bear much of the stylistic stamp we’ve come to expect of Lee, who’s in his generic journeyman mode here. But aside from a satisfyingly clever new direction in the denouement, what distinguishes the remake from the original is its cartoonishness.

Most normal people will not see this as a "pleasant" film -- I hope that's the case, anyway -- but it certain makes you feel something.

Spike Lee's remake of 2003's Oldboy is as brutally perplexing as the South Korean original, and needless for both its repetition and tweaks. Nothing is really lost in translation, or gained.

This one has its technical virtues, but it’s frankly kind of a muddle, and may have been doomed from the outset. I would divide the potential audience for Oldboy into two groups: Those who will be disappointed and those who will be bewildered.

The feel-bad movie of the holiday season, Spike Lee’s often-repellent Americanized reimagining of Korean director Chan-Wook Park’s twisty 2004 revenge thriller Oldboy is relentlessly gruesome, self-consciously shocking and pretty much pointless.

The longer it drags on, the sillier it gets. A preposterous narrative, illogical red herrings, trick endings, bad acting and—shazam! — Spike Lee turns into M. Night Shyamalan!

Incredible performance by Josh Brolin. Starts out as a despicable, disgusting drunkard, becomes a driven fighter searching for vengeance. The film does not try to really be believable, and yet it traps you in a vortex of pain and loss, until the very end, which does not disappoint. Now i must watch the Korean original!

One of my all time favorite world cinema is the Korean version of this movie. Remakes are okay, but some movies won't suit for recreation because of its masterpiece value, believing that won't come close for the second time. Just like Mona Lisa, Starry Night, Birth of Venus, The Last Supper and other arts, it should have left alone untouched. Like Japanese did, because it was their story after all. This American version was good, but very much commercialized with the fast pace approach kind of ruined. If I had not seen the original, probably I would have liked it. I knew the twist so I did not get the excitements in those parts. So those who are not familiar with the 2003 movie can definitely have a good time. It was not a copycat from frame to frame, many things were altered in this movie. The most laughable was to see gangsters fighting with knives, hammers and bare-hand like the Korean style. What I know in American gangster theme is that they take a gun and bang bang. The first poster where Josh Brolin comes out of the large wooden box was kind of funny, gives the impression of a comedy movie. I liked Josh Brolin in 'Labor Day' and yet again he was not bad in this film except if you compare him with his counterpart from the Korean movie, Choi Min Shik. It is one of the best role he has ever played, sadly the movie was not recieved well due to many other reasons than him.

It was more curious that other thing what made me watch it. It was interesting given the necessary changes that had to be made for occidental audience, that is accepted in oriental movies. Good remake, but it won´t be never as good as the original.

Even for those who are able to stomach the various degrees of nastiness in Oldboy there is little to find but an underwhelming and pointless revenge thriller.

The script and dialogue are terrible, this is easily Spike Lee's worst movie. If you want to waste your time, you will watch this movie, but if you really want to entertain yourself watch the original, this was without a doubt such an unnecessary remake. Like always Hollywood, spoiling everything.