Oldboy, 2013.
Directed by Spike Lee.
Starring Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Samuel L. Jackson, Sharlto Copley, Michael Imperioli, and Pom Klementieff.
SYNOPSIS:
Obsessed with vengeance, a man sets out to find out why he was kidnapped and locked into solitary confinement for 20 years without reason.
Oldboy is an incredibly difficult film to review. In a similar manner to many American remakes, it must be studied in two ways: in comparison to the original and as a standalone feature. The fundamental problem with Spike Lee’s Oldboy lies in its inability to distinguish himself from its predecessor. In place of Min-sik Choi is Josh Brolin, starring as anti-hero Joe Doucett in search of vengeance and answers to why he was kidnapped and locked into solitary confinement for 20 years.
The viewer would be forgiven for not realising that Oldboy is a Spike Lee film. Any of the visual flairs of his early work – Do the Right Thing, Malcom X – are almost non-existent with Lee instead using ideas apparent in the basic meat and potatoes, run of the mill thriller. Lee attempts to use his “man on a skateboard” iconography but the moment protrudes outwards, almost forcing himself upon the film.
Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Olsen are the only things that bring the film back to Earth. Sharlto Copley, thrust into the limelight following his star-turn in District 9 seems to have walked in from a different film. A forced English accent, terrible facial hair and incredibly flamboyant clothing creates the illusion of Copley being written out of The Hunger Games.
Any of the visual gleam and almost nightmarish ideals of the original are shamefully absent. As I’m writing this review I release that one can’t simply review it as a remake but in a similar manner to the needless Let Me In, Oldboy almost relies on the context of the original. At no point does Lee show his independence, plot points may be absent (most famously the octopus), but scene by scene, beat by beat, the viewer can’t but remind themselves of the shocking, dreamlike state of the original.
The point of Oldboy is still up in the air. Less of a remake and more of a rehash, Spike Lee attempts to force the iconography of the original upon the audience. Any of the almost oneiric ideals of the original are abandoned with a meat and potatoes, slot A into slot B thriller replacing the intricacies of Park Chan-wook’s quite brilliant Oldboy.
Oldboy fails as a gritty, incestuous thriller and a remake. Exactly why this was made is still a mystery. The original is on Netflix, give it a watch and remember how shockingly brilliant it is.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Thomas Harris
Originally published December 10, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
