Escape to the Movies: Oldboy

[Ne1butme]

Oldboy

MovieBob gives us a great look at the remake of the classic Oldboy.

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According to the internets, Spike Lee's original version is 35 minutes longer than the released cut. Perhaps a lot of that 'Spike Lee originalism' is in the cut material.

 

[MB202]

So yeah, I'll just skip over this movie and go watch Frozen again... This time in 3D, because I feel like I missed something the first time around!

 

[Scarim Coral]

While I do agreed now all remakes are bad (like The Departed is the remake of the Chinese smash hit Internal Affair) but yeah I was so unimpressed from the remke trailer.
So wait they kept the octopus scene and aswell that big twist in the end?

 

[Inuprince]

Oldboy didn't need a remake, so we can add this new film to the pointless remake bin and also the bad remake bin.
Why don't they remake movies which had potential but failed for some reason? There are a ton of movies out there with good ideas behind them that didn't succeed in the end and left audiences disappointed ... how about fixing the broken products and leaving great movies (like Oldboy and Let the Right One In ) alone - you know the old saying don't fix what isn't broke ...

On to the Spider-Man issue - I feel like they are going to start off with Rhino as just a smaller villain in the beginning, it's been said Peter will save Jamie Foxx from Rhino's attack and only later will he become Electro.
Electro will be the main villain fought through most of the film and will probably be defeated in the end. Meanwhile it seems Harry Osborn will emerge as the new (Green?)Goblin , and probably carry out one of his most famous acts of
Spoiler upcoming, but nothing special if you know Spider-Man history !!!! SPOILER !!!! kills Gwen Stacy (maybe at the end) !!! SPOILER OVER !! ... leaving it an open ending so it can be continued directly by the third film.

The third movie will probably have the main showdown with "Harry Goblin and some other famous enemy" and they probably left out Mary Jane's character from the second film so they could introduce her in the third film after the above mentioned spoilerish event ...

If they did it like this I think it could work out, and the enemies wouldn't be/or feel too crammed together ...

However I wasn't pleased very much with the first movie and the way they handled the Lizard ... so I have my doubts.

 

[Weaver]

My problem with oldboy is I figured out the twist like 5 minutes after they introduced the female lead, making the movie not as good for me.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

You would think Amazing Spider-Man would learn from it's predecessor: Too many villains on screen means that none of them have any particular weight.

Did you know they originally wanted to have multiple villians in Spiderman 2? They also wanted to introduce Black Cat, but Sam Raimi, Avi Arad, and co. realized that they just couldn't feasibly do it and still make Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus a well rounded and feasible character the audience could empathize with. As such, they scrapped that concept entirely, choosing to focus exclusively on Doctor Octopus, and allowing Alfred Molina a chance to deliver one of the greatest comic book villian performances of all time. I think the guys making this movie could learn a lot from that.

No, I've never heard that before. I really liked the personal plot of that movie, and putting in Black Cat would be tricky (because you know they would have set her up as an opposing love interest, a la Gwen Stacy); still, two villains can work, because then you have them playing off each other and the hero. With three competing evildoers, you start to wonder why they aren't all just locked in a cage and left to fight out their differences.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Old boy was an interesting experience. That makes a film worthy enough for me. Especially wallowing in Korean culture, is always fascinating. However, this remake is giving me vibes of all those american remakes of The grudge and other horrors. Why bother? Are there so many people out there that cant deal with subtitles and foreign culture? Actually i know the answer to that question. Ah well. I'll keep the memory of the original held within my heart.

 

[Eetinam]

I'm honestly Ready for Bob to stop talking about Spider-man. His clear ditko era bias is getting old. Spent 5 minutes complaining about an adaptation doing nothing new. Makes sure to complain about at the end about Sony doing something new with Spider-man. Bob we get it please just stop.

If you recall Spiderman 3, using 3 villains at once in a film is not new. And it's a terrible idea when you're not some kind of team-up film.

 

[Flatfrog]

So - Oldboy is a movie I'd heard the title of but knew nothing more about, but from your summary it sounds remarkably like a loose adaptation of The Count Of Monte Cristo.

 

[Chaos Marine]

I won't go to see this movie because Lee's ad agency stole the artwork and harassed the original artist when it was leaked online.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/spike-lee-slams-designer-who-660765

Captcha: follow me

 

[Jennacide]

In regards to that last stinger image trashing Amazing Spiderman 2, remember Bob, it could be worse. As goofy as they made Green Goblin I in the first Spiderman, Raimi KILLED Venom in the third movie, the single most iconic villian in Spiderman history.

 

[Quiotu]

I'm honestly Ready for Bob to stop talking about Spider-man. His clear ditko era bias is getting old. Spent 5 minutes complaining about an adaptation doing nothing new. Makes sure to complain about at the end about Sony doing something new with Spider-man. Bob we get it please just stop.

If you recall Spiderman 3, using 3 villains at once in a film is not new. And it's a terrible idea when you're not some kind of team-up film.

You know what I think? I think most of Spiderman's rogues gallery are dumb. That's why this might work... because most of Spiderman's villains are weak, one-dimensional set-pieces that don't deserve a movie of their own. Hell, Lizard didn't deserve his own, so he was mashed in with the origin story. They seem to be going with the fact that Spiderman SHOULD be laughably more powerful than most of these guys at face value, and having multiple villains in the movie (if done well) means you don't need a HALF DOZEN Spiderman movies before you can make one involving the Sinister Six.

Bottom line is they're currently doing Spiderman a service by making it feel more like a superhero film. Spiderman was nerfed in Raimi's trilogy to make things interesting, then shit the bed at the end for making half the characters cry and ruining Venom (who he admits despising). What they did to Mary Jane's character alone should be enough for all comic book nerds to call BS on those. But the new movies get more rage because... he's not nerdy enough, or using the Ultimate backstory, or making his background not 1950's cheese anymore?

Spiderman's story is being changed for the same reason Star Trek was changed, because their original concepts make for absolutely dreadful cinema. Get over it.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Poop. This looked remotely interesting from the trailer. Oh well, I guess I'll just see the original now that this one's out.

I'm starting to think we can make out Bob's opinion of a film entirely on the basis of his accent: if it slips into his Boston affectations, then the movie's bad. End of Story.

 

[Baresark]

It's pretty amusing that most of the comments here are actually about the comment image at the end of the review regarding Spiderman, and not actually about the movie in question. I was only half interested in this anyway. I'm not a huge Spike Lee fan, but it's funny how much credit Bob gives him because his only good movies were some of the one's earlier in his career, and he honestly isn't that iconic, at least not as iconic as Bob makes him out to be. But Spike Lee is one of those directors that Hollywood adores because he is the, "hey, look how progressive we are because we have fully endorsed this afro-centric director and love him for all he is", guy.

 

[Stabby Joe]

I loved the original, was incredibly skeptical about this remake, had those reservation confirmed by critics and expected Bob to agree...

...so why watch this weeks episode on the usual Friday release?

I knew Bob would pass comment on the teaser poster (made before today's trailers no doubt) for the Amazing Spider Man 2. Now while the changes do seem "off" in some capacity, I wonder if hypothetically the film does spectacularly with audiences AND critics, even being viewed as on of the best comic book films to date and for a long time following... Bob would still compare it to Shaquille O'Neal's Steel?

Predictable day so far.

 

[tzimize]

Between this and the new Carrie, I'm really dismissive of remakes. There are exceptions, but for the most part, I usually stick with the original.

Yep.

Surprise factor = 0.0000000000000000001

I dont really see the point about these remakes. Are americans that allergic to other cultures?

 

[anthony87]

Nice to see Bob has his mind made up about Amazing Spider-Man 2 already.

Although after the mess that was Spider-Man 3 I'm a bit worried about the number of villains in this upcoming one.