OLDBOY...a dark, unrelenting piece full of twists. This is a remake and altered adaptation of the original Korean movie by the same name. Josh Brolin is Joe Doucett, a heavy drunkard who doesnt even care about his three-year-old daughter. He ends up imprisoned...and thats all Im going to say. Spike Lee manages to create nail-biting tension through Josh Brolin’s character, a brooding victim of a foul prank he cannot possibly begin to understand until he is set free, or rather appears to have been set free. Doucett is intent on exacting revenge, but in the process gets a lot more than he bargained for. As in the Korean version, the gory scenes are part and parcel of the story. Spike Lee takes his time telling the story and thus adds intensity to each scene. In the Korean version the intensity is in the movement. While this is unquestionably a Josh Brolin vehicle, Samuel L. Jackson (Chaney) plays a small but dark part as well. Elisabeth Olsen (Marie Sebastien) is the only female in the piece. As an adaptation, I prefer the Spike Lee version to the Korean one simply because the former appeals to our American consciousness more. Having said that, the Korean one has subtleties and twists which lead to a strange happy end, which is more than I can say for the American version. Both have some over-the-top scenes, which are totally acceptable for the story. This is a mature movie youll talk about after you’ve watched it, and that will stay with you for a while. Its definitely worth seeing for the story and Josh Brolin’s performance.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 02:23:59 +0000
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