Review Roundup: OLDBOY, The Newest, Hottest, Spike Lee Joint?

Oldboy is a provocative, visceral thriller that follows the story of Joe Doucette, a man who is abruptly kidnapped and held hostage for 20 years in solitary confinement, for no apparent reason. When he is suddenly released without explanation, he begins an obsessive mission to find out who imprisoned him, only to discover that the real mystery is why he was set free. Co-starring Elizabeth Olsen and Sharlto Copley, Oldboy was directed by Spike Lee, from a script by Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend, The Cell, Thor). The film was produced by Roy Lee, Doug Davison and Nathan Kahane. (c) FilmDistrict

Let's see what the critics have to say...

A.O. Scott, New York Times: "Vengeance - as a dramatic device, an excuse for mayhem and an emotional catalyst - has always been his particular obsession. But it has not figured prominently in Mr. Lee's work. His heroes tend to be proud and purposeful, but also ambivalent. What makes characters like Mookie in Do The Right Thing and Monty Brogan in 25th Hour interesting is their capacity for hesitant reflection in the midst of action. Joe Doucett is simply confused."

David Ehrlich, Film.com: "A lot of remakes use their source material as a crutch, but Lee's film commits the far greater sin of transforming the original's greatest strengths into his movie's most glaring weaknesses. A slumming Spike Lee is still better than most directors at the top of their game, but Oldboy isn't just Lee's worst movie, it's practically his Wicker Man."

Soren Andersen, Seattle Times: "With Brolin excellent as the anguished man in black, Oldboy is also an intriguing study of a terribly flawed individual - booze-soaked, egomaniacal - whose flaws hold the key to the picture's central mysteries. With the help of a sympathetic young woman played by Elizabeth Olsen, he tries to tease apart the tangled skeins of his past misdeeds and somehow redeem himself. And as he does so, he learns that revenge is a two-way street and that his tormentor's long-term abuse has a perversely logical rationale. Be warned: Redemption, or what passes for it in this picture, comes at a horrifyingly high price."

Justin Chang, Variety: "Even Oldboy virgins caught off-guard by the closing twists may get the sense that they're not following a story so much as a template, and a creaky one at that, absent the stylistic verve that made Park's film, gratuitous and self-satisfied as it was, something more than the sum of its contrivances. With the exception of one early sight gag embedded in Sharon Seymour's otherwise nondescript production design, Lee's directorial signature here could scarcely feel less pronounced, his attention less engaged. This time, it's impersonal."

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: "Unlike his predecessor, who took his character to some truly terrifying places, Brolin remains recognizably human (albeit desperate, fierce and scarred) throughout the story. The performance suits Lee and Protosevich's vision well -- particularly in the end, a resolution which likely will strike many of the first film's partisans as too gentle, but achieves an impressive bleak irony without betraying the story's complicated emotional motivations."

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: "All of this is watchable and even sometimes gripping, but it's also awkward and artificial, and it's impossible for me to say how viewers coming to this material for the first time will understand these seemingly unmotivated characters, their antiquated-feeling situation and the overall mood of paranoia. There are a few middling-good fight scenes and one distressing sequence of torture, but Lee really doesn't have a Tarantino-style appetite for that stuff and this Oldboy comes nowhere near the shock value of the first one."

David Edelstein, Vulture: "Perhaps my jaded response to Lee's Oldboy comes from over-immersion in the sick, sick world of Park Chan-wook. By American multiplex standards, Oldboy is dark and savage, and those who don't know the original will be stunned by the bleakness of the ending. Those who do (the Oldboy network) will be upset by how sentimental and tidy it is in comparison. Tarantino will probably hate it. Vengeance will remain elusive - till next time."

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: "Much of Oldboy is gruesomely violent. Joe bashes men with hammers and tortures a video surveillance expert (Samuel L. Jackson, done up like a sci-fi peacock) by plucking bits of flesh out of his neck. Yet the puzzle Joe pieces together unfolds with an arresting logic, even as it's bathed in blood. Elizabeth Olsen is sensual and urgent as the medical worker who falls under Joe's desperate spell, and Sharlto Copley, as an enigmatic billionaire, hypnotizes you with his wounded malevolence. (Please cast him as a Bond villain.) In the end, the most impressive performance may be Spike Lee's. He uses skill without gimmickry, flash without fuss, to tap the mesmerizing soul of this pulp."

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