Spike Lee’s Oldboy remake starring Josh Brolin is either going to be amazing, or the worst remake idea in recent years. How Lee is going to handle Park Chan-wook’s bizarre revenge narrative without making it simply a carbon copy of the original film or so warping the premise that it becomes a totally different film, I do not know. With a new clip and some promo footage hitting today, I must say that I’m a little concerned.
The first clip features Josh Brolin in the lead role as Joe Doucett, a man imprisoned and tortured for twenty years with no idea why. He’s trying to bring himself to trust Marie (Elizabeth Olsen), but apparently she’s not making it easy for him. Brolin has a good look here – I believe that he’s been locked up for quite a long time – as does Olsen. So why does it bug me a little? Because I just re-watched the original Oldboy from 2003 and the scene not only plays the same, but looks the same. Not shot for shot, but still very similar. I’m not certain how I feel about that.
The second piece of footage comes in the form of a promo and gives us just a bit more to go on. We have our first glimpse of Samuel L. Jackson as Brolin’s imprisoner, then we get to watch Brolin chow down on a lot of dumplings. The promo is apparently encouraging us to eat some dim sum because…we want to be just like Joe?
Again, all the footage we’ve had so far looks like Lee just remade the original Oldboy using the same color palette, the same plot, the same everything, only with English-language actors. I do not really know what the point of that is, but perhaps I’m judging too quickly. Lee is an excellent director and Brolin a good actor; there’s every likelihood that they made a good movie.
You can check out both new Oldboy clips below. Then, let us know what you think. Does it look like it’s worth the price of admission?
Oldboy comes to theatres November 27.
