Review of Oldboy (2013) by Uncleearl — 01 Dec 2013

I came into the movie with open arms and I tried to embrace it but it just fell flat. Yes, I am comparing it to the original. Is that unfair? No, every remake has the opportunity to learn from its predecessor and fix mistakes but Lee's Oldboy doesn't do that.

There are a few enjoyable sequences in the beginning but after Brolin goes to meet with the antagonist, the movie is almost worthless to continue watching. It doesn't match the pacing, suspense, or acting from '03.

It's so poorly directed that I laughed at inappropriate moments. And there's this soap opera behind-the-shoulder zoom-out around the finale that feels like a megaton bomb of garbage thrown in for good measure; to assure that no one would walk away satisfied from the theater.

There's no contest between this and the original. In it's own right, I give the movie a 5. 5 for the first half of the movie and 0 for the other half. On a side note, Josh Brolin was not the right choice for this project.

He can't match the dynamic emotional acting that we saw Choi give in 2003. That was so critical to the sympathy the main character is supposed to draw.