Old Boy (2013)

Old Boy (R) - Review

"Tooth or Consequences"

A man with a disordered life comes to in a strange hotel room, one that he will not leave for another 20 years.  Imprisoned with no clue as to why or where, he finds out he has been framed for his ex-wife's murder and has daughter has been adopted by another couple.  Year after year pass (told through his TV as he watches 9/11, Iraq, Hurricane Katrina etc) and the man suffers leagues of loneliness, neglect and conditioning which turns him into a violent psychopath hellbent for vengeance on those that have tortured him and taken his life and daughter from him, even if those same men seem to be goading him onward.

Director Spike Lee (Do The Right Thing) has painted himself into a true Hollywood corner lately, extending his meh streak yet further with this remake of Korea's Cultural Cult hit OldBoy (2003).  There is much talk of the Producers taking away final cut and trimming the film in half and it shows.  Plot points fall by the wayside along with characterization and pace.  What is left is a bare boned retread of the Korean language original with Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men) now fulfilling the lead role.  He is joined by Sam Jackson (in his first collaboration with Lee since Jungle Fever) as the jailer and Elizabeth Olsen as an agent of mercy and tenderness.  The stuttering adjustment from the shores of Korea to the United States bemoans attendance expectations, especially when the misery and weird self loathing so rampant in the old version has mostly been lifted and lightened.

The easiest comparison between the two can be made with the hallway fight which made the original so famous.  It also exists in the new version, with Brolin beating back an entire Martial Arts fight team for a good five minutes in one continuous shot (though why a company of big tough badguys shrink to acrobatic-sized stuntmen is left unanswered).  In a rare decision to try and one up the original, the fight here is now one long steady cam shot that follows the action down levels  instead of just laterally.  According to rumor this scene was longer than 2003s, but shortened by the producers much to Lee and Brolin's loud chagrin, leaving the fight bloody yet a mere exercise in shadow boxing the original.  Whether the entire film's lack of depth and clanging plot holes can be laid at the feet of scene chopping producers will never be known without seeing this supposed 3 hour Director's cut.  What can be determined is whether this remake ever needed to be made at all.  Spike Lee, who brings his own controversial luggage to any mainstream release, still seems a much better choice than originators Steven Spielberg and Will Smith.  Translating the film to english and removing the Asian cinema je ne sais quoi has left the dialogue creaky and unmanageable, the cliches and conveniences glaring, the villain reduced to insufferable mustachio twirling (seriously dragging the entire ending into Vincent Price ham and cheese territory), and for some odd reason the ending changed from its gut-wrenching ambiguity to some unreasonable slice of American machismo that just does not fit the film's tableaux of the taboo.

So what is left on the grill?  Brolin's performance is worthy (Sam Jackson's however is debatable, his role feel contractually expanded and overblown), Lee's direction is sharp and professional and his intentions are obviously good, showing the original true love and honor by keeping its bloody fist balled tight.  And yet the entire production feels like toys you are now too old to play with, simply going through the motions of play without a real passion, biding until you can put them back on their dusty shelf where you know they belong.  The real Oldboy is now a decade older, and it will still be the one you most likely will remember fondly another decade from now, its luster hopefully untarnished by Hollywood's sticky fingers.

5.5 Where Is My Tooth Scene? out of 10 (MEDICORE)