Cast: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Sharlto Copley, Samuel L Jackson, Michael Imperioli, Lance Reddick, Max Casella, Hannah Simone, Grey Damon
Directed By: Spike Lee
I’m reviewing this film knowing full well I still need to watch the original Oldboy. So, I’m the odd critic that is reviewing the remake without having knowledge of how the first film plays out. The remake was largely ignored when it opened last year, due to the fact that Josh Brolin isn’t a bankable movie star, and Oldboy is an absurdly violent movie. It’s violent beyond the reason for being violent. For example, when Brolin’s Joe is released, he encounters some football jocks who think he’s trying to harass a woman, so they intervene. He beats the crap out of them, and one of them breaks their neck… so he’s probably dead. He outright killed a guy because he was standing up for a woman. Your hero… is not a hero.
More importantly, the film decides to go for full on gore in the kills whenever possible… I suppose to highlight the “brutality” of it all. If the film had a better script, you wouldn’t need to fill it with ultra-violence. In fact, if the true villain didn’t reveal himself to Joe, and basically lead him around with clues like a puppy dog, Joe isn’t smart enough to figure this out on his own. Of course, that all plays into the third act twist, which is so “oh my god is this really happening”, yet you saw coming. Secretly, that voice in the back of your head that has been looking for every random twist ending since Haley Joel Osment saw dead people, was looking at that twist, but it was so bizarre that you ignored it.
I suppose just for that twist alone, I can’t completely hate the film. As perverse as it is, it’s a great twist, and it ultimately sacrifices any shot of redemption for Joe. It’s the only way to turn Joe into any kind of even an anti-hero. He’s so incredibly unlikable, that he would need to suffer greatly to become the good guy in this tale. Ultimately, the villain does that, and it is the only true redemption Joe gets as a character. The hour and a half leading up to it is all just paint-by-numbers revenge and torture, usually done by Liam Neeson searching for a missing family member.
I have to say… this didn’t feel like a Spike Lee joint. I don’t know if Spike Lee wanted to prove he could direct something so incredibly different, but this was like when Woody Allen made Match Point… except that movie was brilliant. You spend the whole movie baffled at how this movie could have been made by a director with such signature skills, who doesn’t use any of them in this movie. In the case of Match Point, it paid off. For Oldboy? Lee should have realized he was directing a shlock fest, and not an Oscar bait remake he apparently was led to believe this was.
Having not seen the original, Oldboy is at least interesting. It’s a failed effort, definitely, but at least you’ll remember how this movie ends. If you remember nothing else about it, including the bloody details, you’ll be able to tell all your friends to wait for the end. If you’re a fan of movies with bizarre twists, and love trying to figure out what they are before they hit you… then this is the movie for you. Also, if you just like watching violence for the sake of violence, then this is also the movie for you. Though… they also have counselors for that.
FINAL GRADE: C-
