Oldboy (2013)

December 18, 2022 10:36 AM

Obsessed with vengeance, a man sets out to find the person who kidnapped him and kept him in solitary confinement for twenty years.

39%/37% on Rotten Tomatoes.

JustWatch listing.

posted by johnofjack (12 comments total)

I liked this remake much more than the critics did, even though I thought it paled in comparison to the original.
posted by johnofjack at 10:37 AM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

Man, I love Spike but I couldn't bring myself to watch this.
posted by octothorpe at 1:17 PM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

I watched it and found it deeply meh.
posted by miss-lapin at 3:53 PM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

It is my sincerest hope that the increasing acceptance of subtitles means that we are approaching an age where "English language remake" is a thing of the past. There are isolated examples that can be interesting, but generally speaking, they just feel so damned... unnecessary.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:50 AM on December 19, 2022 [5 favorites]

Well the remake of "A Man Call Ove" with Tom Hanks is coming out soon and they're working on a Train to Busan remake so no, I don't think think they're done with English remakes.
posted by octothorpe at 5:58 AM on December 20, 2022

The Train to Busan remake I am open-minded about, as moving it to the US will change a lot about it.

But mostly, I am down for it because Timo Tjahjanto is directing. He's an Indonesian director who makes intense horror as well as action movies that are so bloody they're nearly horror. If an English language remake is what finally gets Hollywood to back up a truck of money for him, so be it.

The Man Called Ove remake seems unnecessary. The original is already great. I can't imagine what would be worth changing.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:01 AM on December 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

Even without comparing this to the original, this film is a giant turd. Hated every second of it.

Can you imagine the film we would have got if this had starred Will Smith and was directed by Spielberg? (Both names were orginally attched to the project.)

Speilberg and Will Smith!!! Did the execs even watch the original? Talk about setting yourself up to fail.
posted by hoodrich at 10:55 AM on December 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

DirtyOldTown: The Man Called Ove remake will be… interesting if only because I cannot imagine anyone feeling the same way about a Chevy Cruze the way Ove did about his Saabs…
posted by MarchHare at 8:15 PM on December 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

I don't see how Spielberg and will smith would save this lol, this is the exact opposite of the sorta thing they do. Old Boy didn't need Will Smith quips thrown in, look what happened to AI when they threw in Will Smith and tried swapping to a bigger director!
posted by GoblinHoney at 10:25 AM on December 21, 2022

That's what I'm talking sbout Goblinhoney, it wouldn't have been good. The very idea of it is as ridiculous as getting Spike Lee and Josh Brolin to remake Old Boy. They set themselves up to fail straight from the get go.
posted by hoodrich at 12:22 PM on December 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

Oh whoops, misread the comment! Such bizarre choices for something that didn't need new choices to be made, but I guess the entire thing didn't need to be made so where's the standard.
posted by GoblinHoney at 12:47 PM on December 21, 2022

There's a part of me that's morbidly curious to see this, just to see how badly they fuck it up. I also wonder if Lee's original cut of the film (35 minutes longer!) does a better job. Since there's not an army of incels demanding to "release the Lee cut!" I doubt we'll ever find out.
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:28 AM on December 22, 2022