I didn't see the original and am not likely to either so this review is just about this film on its own merits. The story is so illogical, convoluted and lame I couldn't believe I'd sat through the whole nonsense to get to the ending it got to. I imagine this was a problem with the original: it just didn't know what kind of story it wanted to be. Even up to the big martial arts fight I thought to myself "Ok, this can still go someplace." butÂ… This had to have one of the lamest villains of all time with the dumbest motivation of all time planning the most useless revenge of all time! "She's an actress I've had in my employ for 20 yearsÂ…" is a line even the corniest Bond villain would be embarrassed to utter when explaining his evil plan in the last scene. The A-list director and actors clearly got paid well for this mess and it shows. There's no love here . Don't waste your money or time.

I will first say that I love the lore of Oldboy and I have seen the original multiple times and I just ordered the manga books to read for the series. I love the backstory and graphic nature of it and it is def in my Top 3 favorite movies of all time with that said I'll start my review. The remake starring Josh Brolin was a very good film. I thought he was very convincing as the main protagonist. I will say that if you have seen the original it follows the film lore of that film fairly close but with a few changes here and there. The fight scenes were EPIC and the overall arc of the remake was well done I thought. I would recommend fans of the series to go and watch it but too have an open mind. I will say that I still prefer the Korean version because I thought it was just that bad*** but def go check this film out!!!!!

The original was such a masterpiece I wondered how they could pull off a remake. Well the answer is, they couldn't. I guess without seeing the original its an interesting darkly twisted movie, but the performances are uneven and its just no where near as good as the Korean version. But whatever, I like Josh Brolin.

Sam Jackson brought some comic relief to a very dark story. The real star here is the story. It's so bizarre and messed up that it leaves you gasping in surprise. Spike Lee's direction style with the odd camera angles and foci is muted here, which I think is good and when he does use them, he uses them well. I should also warn that this is a very violent film. At times it was so brutal it bordered on fantastical. The worst violence here though is psychological. It's not just what's done to Joe the character, but what the movie does to the audience. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.