The scenes with Joe eating at various Chinese restaurants, which all happen to be named "Dragon" something, hoping to locate the particular flavor of food that was served during his captivity, is a nice balance of dark humor and mild suspense. Admittedly, it does make for an entertaining-enough picture that adequately gives rise and reason to Joe's revenge-fueled fury, and Brolin's stoic, reserved demeanor adds poignant weight to when the character lets loose his rage. Reportedly, Lee wanted a 140-minute version, which was already edited from a rumored 185-minute cut that was more methodical and character-driven, but producers envisioned a faster paced, more action-packed film.īy all accounts, the studio is at least successful in this respect, as the narrative rapidly moves from portraying Joe Doucett (Josh Brolin doing a marvelous job in the role) as the world's biggest jerk, the worst father and the sole ruin of his own life to his twenty-year incarceration. In one scene, the claw end of a hammer is savagely thrust into the top of a man's skull, and in another, a man's head explodes from a self-inflicted shotgun blast.
#Old boy spike lee movie
From what we see - and far as I can tell - this was not done in an effort to appease the ratings board because the movie is fairly brutal, graphic and violent.
According to some news reports and interviews, the version seen in theaters, which runs at 104 minutes and the only one offered for home video, is the result of heavy editing by producers. Those coming into this blind might be satisfied, but fans of the original will sit on the fence, wondering the point of remaking it at all.Īnother likely reason for Lee's production being somewhat of a disappointment goes to that familiar behind-the-scenes drama that rarely proves a benefit to any movie: studio interference.
This version is so similar to Chan-wook's that it largely plays like a carbon copy, except that it's spoken in English, making a comparison between the two inevitable, if not nearly necessary. Then again, perhaps that is the first mistake made by the filmmaker. Even the opening credits favor the South Korean production for inspiration over the graphic comic series. We can't entirely blame the script by Mark Protosevich ('The Cell,' ' Thor'), which follows the original film's storyline very closely with only a few minor alterations. It's difficult to pin-point exactly where Spike Lee went wrong with 'Oldboy,' an American reimaging of Park Chan-wook 2003's action cult favorite, which was itself based on a Japanese manga from the mid-90s.
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