Oldboy

                                                                         

                                                                   

          They say imitation is the best form of flattery. Now while it can be in some cases, where does reimagining fall? For some reason reimagining is ok for movies, so why isn't ok for everything else. Can you imagine someone doing that to a Rembrandt or a great novel? Now I am not trying to be broad, not at all, I think sometimes you can reimagining a movie, but I think you can only do that with movies not many people saw. You cannot do that to a classic, I mean that is just wrong.

     Well Spike Lee and Mark Protosevich have done just that, as they do a “reimagining “of Chan-wook Park’s 2003 classic “Oldboy”. Joe Doucett (Josh Brolin) is not a good guy. He drinks way too much and neglects his wife and his three year old daughter. Joe is one of those guys who had it all in High School and is still living life like he is unbreakable. Well someone does not like Joe very much, in fact the dislike him so much they imprison him for twenty years. Joe is in a room that looks like a motel room, except in this motel you check in, but you don’t check out. While locked away he learns for the TV that his wife has been killed and that he is the chief suspect, and that his daughter was there as well. Time passes and Joe is clueless to why he is locked away, then one day he awakens outside, with money and a clean shave and haircut. All Joe wants to do is find out who put him away. Along the way he meets a social worker named Marie (Elizabeth Olsen), who helps him in his journey to find his captives. What follows is a true tale of revenge and a twist that will leave you talking about it afterwards.

    I like Spike Lee; in fact Lee has been one of the great filmmakers for the last thirty years, so I guess he was due for a mistake. If “Oldboy” was an original Spike Lee film based on the magna stories that both the original film and this film were based off of, and then it wouldn’t be bad. Where the problem lies is that this “reimagining” is nowhere near as good as the original, but I do not blame Lee completely. I just think that the story is culturally specific tale of redemption and revenge that does not cross over well. Brolin gives a strong performance as does Olsen; they just can’t save a story that does not translate well. Lee has said that this was not a remake of the 2003 film, but with so many key elements staying the same, how can you say that. You cannot make something better if it is already great. This is like if someone decided to do the same to the “Godfather” or “Goodfellas”, it is just not possible. Don’t waste your money on this, instead go out and buy the 2003 film, because greatness cannot be duplicated; only imitated.

Brian Taylor