An everyday man has only three and a half days and limited resources to discover why he was imprisoned in a nondescript room for 20 years without any explanation.
Sometimes I don't understand the Hollywood mindset. Who thought remaking Park Chan-wook's 2003 cult classic, Oldboy, was a good idea?
– James Berardinelli,
ReelViews,
28 Nov 2013
rotten:
A vivid yet academic remake, this Oldboy is shorter, leaner and lesser.
– Richard Corliss,
TIME Magazine,
29 Nov 2013
fresh:
Hollywood's wildest cinematic freakout since "Shutter Island" is a remake of-and an improvement on-the Korean original, from 2003.
– Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
2 Dec 2013
rotten:
Why would we want to watch a chronicle of Joe's agonies, and the agonies he gets to inflict on others? Passing it up would be the best revenge.
– Joe Morgenstern,
Wall Street Journal,
2 Dec 2013
rotten:
Everything is wrong with [Spike] Lee's version of Park Chan-wook's notorious, super-violent super-action-thriller. For one thing, it's far from super. Not the quality, per se (although, for Lee, that's off, too), but the energy.