Oldboy

I had never heard of the original manga or film, but when I first saw trailers for this I was fascinated by the concept. This is about an alcoholic mess of a man being kidnapped and imprisoned for 20 years, being framed for the rape and death of his ex wife, and then being able to escape, but strangely let go. The story than follows him as he fights his way to the truth about his incarceration, struggles to find his daughter, and tries to figure out the identity of his captors. I was already hooked, mostly because of the name Spike Lee attached to it.

To this day, I haven't had the time to watch the original. So going off of this film alone, I have to say I liked it a lot. I found myself genuinely excited by everything happening, suspenseful during his fight scenes, and sad at his tragedy and pain. Josh Brolin is such a powerful actor to begin with, he plays such a disturbing alcoholic changed into a completely destroyed man. I have to give major props to Sharlto Copely for his AWESOME performance as the main villain, not unlike the bearded guy from The Hunger Games mixed with a bit of the Joker. It's super cool, he's phenomenal. Then again, after his performances we've seen I'm not surprised.

I think my biggest problem with the film is its tone. It tells its story very darkly, but the violence never really hits a level. It's constantly abrasive. Never really shocking, which is what I feel like the movie was going for. It's pretty badass, but then again the rest of the tone of this movie doesn't really suggest badass, it suggests emotionally destructive man. From that, I'd think that the violence would be disturbing. But it never really crossed that line for me, except for perhaps one scene involving Samuel L Jackson. It all works, but it's not as powerful as I'd imagine. That's not to say the script doesn't try. In fact, the script to me was very successful. But the power of the story never really hits home, until the very end with the reveal that, admittedly, I didn't see coming.

Old Boy is so close to being a huge success of film making. I just wish it took more risks, or maybe took itself less seriously if it wanted to keep the tone of the violence where it was. But even so, it works. I gotta get my hands on the original...

Rank: 3.5/5