Review of Oldboy (2013) by Grimm K — 19 Mar 2014

Hard to rate, you could add a star or take off a star depending on whether you've seen the original and what you thought of the changes. I saw the original years ago and to be fair forgot a lot of the details.

In this sense this remake was a good watch to refresh and get a new take. However it has the usual dumbing down syndrome that Hollywood does and takes a few liberties with the baddies (over the top to the point of being forced camp).

It also shys away from wider themes of psychology and loss that the original had, merely reducing the tone to borderline popcorn fodder. If you know nothing about the original you will probably really like this, especially the great twist, but the credit for that goes to the original film for the cinematic template and to a comic for the storyline so before you praise this version make sure you know where it is due.