Excellent, smart action film.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

This is not a new adaptation of the same story, this is a bad copy of an existing movie. Most of it is literally copied from "Oldeuboi" (2003), and what was altered was changed to the worse. I suppose there would be no changes at all if there was no American puritanism. Only the sickest things were changed to adjust the movie for the western market, which is best seen in the way they mutilated ending. Spike Lee made a remake so lousy that I don't understand why Samuel L. Jackson had agreed to play in it. The only positive impression on me was left by the sweetness of Elizabeth Olsen, but no matter how much I enjoyed watching her, she failed to make me overlook how much everything else in the film was bad. I have a feeling that today too many movies rely on seduction of the male audience's by beautiful / cute / sexy girls, as well as the female part of it with the handsome actors, and on megalomaniac special effects, while the true values of the seventh art are neglected. This brings fast profits at the cinema box office, but there are fewer and fewer movies that can withstand test of time and not be forgotten as soon as something new comes out. If I had not seen the Korean version, I might have rated this bit higher, but the impression left by the original is too strong to be able to avoid comparing them throughout the whole duration of the remake. And compared to the original, the remake is really poor.5/10

This one is a mixed bag. First things first, Old Boy (2013) is an American adaptation from a Korean homonimous movie and, from what I can gather, it gives it a fresh tone, erasing all sorts of Eastern fantasy stuves the Korean flick had; but don't get me wrong, it's all fantasy.It's a movie you just watch. You have no sympathy for the main character, since he's a douche at first. You pretty much just want to know what is going on and why. And if you've watched the original, you'll be in for a surprise.All in all, good flick, entertaining, kinda nonsense, but nice.

This is my first movie review and I felt this must be wrote after just finishing the movie. I find myself still in an odd state that's hard to describe, a bit of disbelief mixed with a touch of what-the-hell followed by silence. I was curious what others thought so I looked up the movie on here and was astounded by the number of 1-3 star ratings. The number one critique seems to be that it was not on par with the original.Being honest, going into this movie I never heard of this movie nor the original. I watched it because it had Elizabeth Olsen and my expectations really weren't that high going in.I enjoy movies that take you on a roller coaster of emotions which I definitely found true in this movie. I felt both Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Olsen delivered great performances. Maybe I don't have the developed palate, to say, to find this movie as horrendous as the other reviewers, most of whom I assume highly praise and review Sundance Film Festival movies as "Graceful style with complex earthy tones of sage, a flutter of tobacco and the faintest soupcon of pencil lead flavors, which focus and gain intensity on the finish."I strongly suggest giving this movie a chance, and apparently, make sure to watch this one before you watch the original or you're sure to be let down.

Park Chan-wook directed "Oldboy" in 2003, a sleazy thriller dressed up in up-market cinematography and portentous music. Director Spike Lee would remake the film in 2013, replacing its kitschy aesthetic with something more appropriately tawdry.But treating trash as trash doesn't make a particularly interesting film. This is still the tale of a man being abducted, confined for years and then tricked into sleeping with a relative. The only major difference is Lee's unwillingness to titillate with violence, a deliberately low-brow aesthetic and the insertion of various ethnic minorities. The film's narrative arc, in which irresponsible white people incestuously damage one another, mirror's Lee's "Red Hook Summer", a little masterpiece in which black, urban communities do the same.Done for the money, "Oldboy" was a box-office bomb. Actress Elizabeth Olsen outshines its entire cast.4/10 – Worth no viewings.