hey so I watched the U.S. remake of Oldboy for some reason. I really dont have anything against remakes in principle (except insofar as it rankles that most of the time they exist because folks refuse to read subtitles) and I dont go in wanting these things to fail at all. But I have to take a moment and push my nonexistent glasses up my nose before saying that yes, of course, the original Korean film is the far superior one. Big surprise. I think if youre someone who cant or wont watch a foreign film, the remake does a serviceable job of getting the plot across and will probably be plenty effective. But for folks who have seen the original, there isnt really much youre going to get out of Spike Lees version. The villains are sillier, and some stuff about the ending has been switched around, arguably for the better (just details, not... the main thing.) By and large, though, this is a bizarrely slavish by-the-numbers recreation of the original, without any of that films energy or intelligence. Its not awful, but it feels like Lee really didnt care or understand what made Oldboy special in the first place. Hes taken a legitimately great thing and made it just ok. So... I dunno, If you come across this on Netflix Instant and are thinking about giving it a shot, I urge you to tab over to the Park Chan-Wook original instead (also streaming on Netflix) to see the exact same story as told by an engaged, intelligent filmmaker at the height of his craft. PS: the remakes equivalent of the hammer fight is awful, and the problems with the scene kind of perfectly encapsulate the problems with the film in a way thats almost-but-not-quite fascinating.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 20:40:27 +0000
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