American Hustle Review

Wacky hair, crazy wardrobes and an even crazier cadre of performances. Writer-director David O. Russell strikes gold once again with what is definitely his most ambitious film to date:  American Hustle. Centered on the very real Abscam scandal of the 70s and 80s, pretty much everything else in this movie is most definitely fiction, but what entertaining and glorious fiction it is.

American Hustle simply has the best cast you’re going to see in a single film all year; even the actors in minor supporting roles are great. Actors Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and Amy Adams are all returning Russell collaborators and you can clearly see why with this film. Russell is definitely an actor’s director who values characters over narrative and the strength of the former and weakness of the latter encapsulate the strengths and weaknesses of this film. This film is at its best when those characters take center stage in numerous unpredictable and emotionally charged scenes and at its worst when some rather uninteresting and drawn out plotlines are delivered.

Unlike Irving Rosenfeld’s (Bale) very elaborate and intricate comb-over (glue is an integral part of the process), the set up here is pretty simple and straightforward. It’s the 1970s and it’s a time of flashy excess and big characters with big dreams. Irving and Sydney (Adams) are con artists and lovers who get caught in their scam by ambitious and slightly unhinged FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Cooper). Richie sees them as his meal ticket to success and fame and starts using them as bait to catch some bigger and much more dangerous fish. This soon implicates politicians, mobsters, and congressmen but none of it is enough for Richie. Irving and Richie immediately clash in almost every way possible as Sydney also becomes a bone of contention between the two men. And just to complicate matters further, we find out that Irving has a secret family life with an exceedingly unstable wife (Lawrence) and adopted son to deal with. It soon becomes clear that these are all very self-destructive people descending further and further into chaos and situations that are way above their heads. Aside from that, the details aren’t that very important; throw in a corrupt mayor (Jeremy Renner with a ridiculous pompadour) and a Hispanic guy posing as an Emirati Sheikh and you get the picture. There’s lots going on here and it’s better to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

American Hustle is a surprisingly hilarious film with a plot that meanders up and down along with the characters’ machinations and manipulations. But the thing that this film does well is establish all of the characters’ varied and often contradicting motivations. These are people that are as unscrupulous as you can get and they all live in a moral grey area where the main imperative is to take care of yourself and your own bottom line. Different things torment them. Crushed expectations and unpleasant surroundings envelop and suffocate them; life has taken a sizable toll. They all want to be someone else and aspire to be something else. When Irving becomes enamored with Sydney, he sees a beautiful and sophisticated woman who understands him and poses an opportunity to escape his unhappy married life. She sees a confidence and largesse that is appealing but ultimately illusory. Ambitious to a fault and lacking the intelligence or the patience to pursue those ambitions successfully, Bradley Cooper has a lot of fun with Richie and his manic misplaced energy is the source of lots of the humor. As for Jennifer Lawrence, she is the stay at home mom of your worst nightmares. Whether she’s getting drunk or accidentally starting fires, Lawrence isn’t one of the primary players but gets some of the biggest laughs. Comedian Louis CK also shows up as Richie’s long suffering supervisor and the handful of scenes between the two of them are comedy gold. 

But the star of the show here is undoubtedly Christian Bale (who goes through yet another one of his trademark physical transformations). Although he takes a backseat every now and then, we’re mainly following Irving’s story and his attempts to find some semblance of happiness in his crazy messed up life. The overweight and perennially stooping Irving clings to one thing that he cares about most of all: his relationship with his adopted son Danny. Things do get muddled and confused at times to the extent where you aren’t even sure what some of the characters want anymore but that’s exactly the point. One of the subtexts this film addresses is the lies you tell yourself and their power in controlling your life. Lies to get you up in the morning, lies told to get the right thing done, and lies to make you feel better about yourself. But these characters lie to themselves and each other so frequently the line between truth and fiction becomes totally blurred. And it is ultimately through finally finding some truth in their lives and truly caring about someone besides themselves that the characters who do get happy endings find their redemption.

Verdict: American Hustle is an entertaining and well-acted film that contains more laughs in one scene than the entirety (cough...The Hangover III...cough) of certain other “comedy” releases of 2013. Continuing to build on David O. Russell’s success with Silver Linings Playbook and The Fighter with yet another winner, this latest film might just be the best of the bunch.  

B+

Trailer:

Movie info:

Runtime: 138 minutes

MPAA Rating: R

Cast: Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence

Director: David O. Russell

Screenplay: David O. Russell, Eric Singer

Cinematography: Linus Sandgren

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Review

SPOILERS: 

One year after the massive billion dollar box office hit that was The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Jackson’s visionary tale continues with The Desolation of Smaug. And lost somewhere in there amongst elf-dwarf love triangles, unnecessary subplots, and overzealous CGI, the tale of Bilbo the hobbit continues as well. 

Picking up the story where the last one left off, Bilbo and his companions must make their way through the dangerous forest of Mirkwood as they continue their trek towards the Lonely Mountain. They make this journey without Gandalf however as he separates from their company to deal with the menacing looming threat at Dol Godur that can escape his attention no further. Once through Mirkwood after an encounter with the fickle wood elves that dwell there, Bilbo and the dwarves head towards Lake-town, the last remnant of a once great and prosperous city of men. These are ominous times. Evil creatures are multiplying in Middle Earth and orcs are rampant in the countryside. Darkness is growing and all of it portends to what Gandalf has long suspected: The Dark Lord Sauron has returned. 

A brief look at positives before getting bogged down in the drawbacks: the world building here is great as always and the CGI is astonishingly seamless (although an occasional CGI overload does occur). Lake-town is something we haven’t seen before in Middle Earth and a refreshing change in environs from the endless callbacks and revisits to locations and visuals from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. A mention should also be made about the great performance of Martin Freeman. Perfectly cast as Bilbo, he doesn’t have many moments to shine here but he seizes them when they do arrive (his scenes with Smaug are particularly entertaining)

Now to the drawbacks. As is often the problem in the second chapter of a movie trilogy, The Desolation of Smaug isn’t very effective as a standalone film and feels like just an overlong teaser, much as the first one did. Too many of its working parts are too dependent on resolution in the finale. The objective here is simply to get bums into seats and give you just enough of a tease to compel you to come back for another go around next holiday season. And while we do finally get introduced to the dragon Smaug and Bard the Bowman, much of this film makes for an unsatisfying experience as all we get are those introductions and bits and pieces of the overall story. The storyline is crushed by the headier weight of the looming events of the Lord of the Rings; The Hobbit isn’t given much room to breathe as its own separate story and it shows. While The Two Towers had the strong driving narrative of the last stand at Helm’s deep and the downfall of Sauron’s puppet Saruman to propel events and give the film a compelling structure, no such events push the story in The Desolation of Smaug. It doesn’t have a villain that is subdued and defeated or a single subplot that is resolved; Azog the Defiler and his mysterious master are still hanging out in the periphery and the obvious fate of Smaug is set up for the trilogy closer. Bilbo is simply lost in the shuffle of all these events and perhaps the best character in the Lord of the Rings arsenal, Gandalf, is grossly underused. Gandalf’s screentime is minimal in this film and his storyline is woefully simplistic. All he basically does is go to Dol Godur and promptly and inevitably get captured. Perhaps another one of those eagles will pop up and rescue him from his confinement in the final installment; I guess we’ll have to wait another year to find out. 

Forced dramatic moments abound aplenty in this film. The point that Bard the Bowman carries the heavy burden and legacy of an ancestor who failed to kill Smaug is bluntly hammered in for the audience. And a particularly bizarre moment occurs when the dwarves bafflingly easily give up on finding the entrance to the Lonely Mountain (just to have that scene where Bilbo heroically refuses to give up on his friends). A perilous months long journey that the dwarves have waited to embark on all their lives is dropped with the swiftness of someone going to a restaurant and finding out that it unfortunately happened to be closed that night. And finally, we come to the Elf-dwarf love triangle. While the return of Legolas and the creation of the character of Tauriel don’t really make sense in terms of the story being told, they do make sense in financial terms. Although the book version of the Hobbit lacks a strong female character or a compelling romance angle, both are forced in here with a confounding and surprising lack of subtlety. You can blatantly see the cynical machinations at work here and you can easily envision the board room meeting where these decisions took place: “Oh, well we NEED a female character to appeal to the women demographic and we MUST have a love triangle to keep people interested. A love triangle with whom, you ask? Umm, well just pick the best looking least make-up wearing dwarf I guess. And people love Legolas, don’t they?” Don’t get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with artistic license, but when it comes for the wrong reasons at the expense of the story being told, it is truly a shame. 

Verdict: What will the legacy of the Hobbit Trilogy be when all is said and done? Of course, they still are competently made and visually imaginative films that are nowhere near as bad as the shoddily put together Star Wars prequels were. With all that being said however, you still can’t help but feel like there was a lost opportunity here somewhere. Perhaps The Hobbit: There and Back Again will redeem this venture slightly when it hits theatres in December 2014. This writer isn’t counting on it. 

B-

Trailer:

Movie info:

Runtime: 161 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Luke Evans

Director: Peter Jackson

Screenplay: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo Del Toro

Cinematography: Andrew Lesnie

Blue Is The Warmest Color Review

SPOILERS:

As uncompromising as it is unapologetically non-mainstream, Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Color is truly a unique and rare experience. For roughly three hours, we are immersed in the tumultuous journey of a young girl’s experience of first love in all its raw passion and wonder.

Beginning with her story as a precocious teen, Adele (Exarchopoulos) negotiates her way through the awkward and rocky waters of discovering herself and her sexuality as she slowly realizes that she may be more attracted to women than men. And when she catches a glimpse of a striking blue haired girl in the streets of her town, she feels an undeniable attraction that entrances something deep inside her. So after much anxiety and an ill-fated romance with a boy at her school, she takes the plunge and finds herself clueless and alone in a women’s’ gay bar. While there, she is approached by Emma (Seydoux), that very same blue haired girl. An older college student who is brazenly non-conformist and completely comfortable in her own skin (both things which Adele clearly is not), Emma is everything that Adele desires and the attraction between them is instantaneous. After facing scrutiny and persecution from some of her classmates for her sexuality despite her self-deluding denials of their accusations, Adele leaves that world behind and loses herself in Emma completely. They soon begin a passionate and torrid relationship and from then on, we watch as Adele matures into a woman as she pursues her own path in life, a path which may or may not include Emma in the end.

As explosive and powerful as that first love truly seems, where you feel as if nothing of you could possibly exist outside of it, this film is more interested in exploring Adele’s journey to discover herself beyond its confines. Adele goes through all of the relationships in her life, but deep down, she always senses that something isn’t right. While the first half or chapter could be classified as Adele’s journey of meeting and falling in love with Emma, the second half is the slow and steady exposure of the cracks in their relationship. And although it ends in chaotic and dramatic fashion, the fault lines that are at the root of their problems deceivingly has very little to do with affairs or infidelity; there is another level that is the divide between the two characters. They each value different things and are focused on embarking on starkly different avenues in their lives. Emma is the creative one willing to expose herself completely for her art, while Adele is much more practical and self-effacing. This difference can especially be noticed in the differing life philosophies of their parents when they meet each pair of them for the first time. Everything is free and out in the open with Emma, whether it’s her relationship with her parents, her physical appearance, or her attitude and disposition towards life. As for Adele, she reflects her parents’ more conservative and practical life adages and is nowhere near as comfortable at exhibiting herself or her inner sexuality as Emma is.

The most interesting thing about this film is the captivating and magnetizing effect it produces on you. While there’s nothing that particularly stands out in the dialogue, set direction or cinematography, it is a sheer masterpiece of directing, simply because of the fact that you forget that there is in fact someone directing it. Well known French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche has had a prosperous  and award-winning career in the avant-garde French film scene and his most recognizable work prior to Blue is the Warmest Color is most likely 2007’s Couscous.  But with this new mature work, Kechiche has elevated the simple story of a girl falling in love to stunning heights. Actually based on a graphic novel (even here yet another adaptation), Blue is the Warmest Color won the major awards at this year’s Palme d’Or and it’s easy to see why.

The filmmaking here is some of the most natural you’ll ever witness; you quite simply forget the fact that these are actors playing pretend because it just doesn’t feel like they are. With a rumoured 800 hours of footage being shot in total, a number of the shots in the final cut were taken while the actors were unaware that they were being filmed. To further blur the line between reality and fiction, Adele’s character name was changed from Clementine to the actress’s actual name over the course of filming. In what is also definitely a standout aspect, this film spends time on moments and dialogue that other films would cut or choose not to show. And it is these moments and these bits of dialogue that are some of the greatest strengths of the storytelling. We witness these characters’ interactions and feel the tangible realness of it on screen. The camera unabashedly closes in to near claustrophobic levels to the point where we can see every minuscule feature of Adele and Emma’s face. We become close observers of every subtle and intimate moment; we see the glints of happiness in their eyes and the bliss in their smiles. This level of intimacy may give you the impression that all this could make for some uncomfortable viewing but one of the talents of this film is that it easily expunges such notions; we never feel like foreigners impinging on Adele’s world.

But for all the praise that this film is receiving, it is not without its fair share of problems. Perhaps not too surprising a fact for a three hour film, it does tend to drag at times, especially towards the end. And even though some of the scenes kept in may have some justification in remaining, a more effective viewing experience would have excised certain redundant and thematically repetitive scenes.  And disappointingly, a very pivotal scene that occurs in a cafe towards the end is the one scene that doesn’t ring true. Possessing an almost dreamlike unrealistic quality to it, it is perhaps the only scene that feels forced and contrived at times. Aside from that however, much of what we witness doesn’t have to be spectacular; its sheer simplicity is very intimate and completely beguiling. As for the ending, it will probably leave some people reeling when it briefly brings up a potential uplifting note of optimism and then snatches it (almost cruelly) away. But it isn’t until we witness that ending that we understand the purpose of this film. This isn’t the story of a woman finding true love and living happily ever after. Rather, it captures the journey we all must traverse as we awkwardly, enthusiastically, and brazenly traipse and stumble our way in the hopes of one day getting to that happy ending.

B+

Trailer:

Movie info:

Runtime: 179 minutes

MPAA Rating: NC-17

Cast: Adele Exarchopoulos, Lea Seydoux

Director: Abdellatif Kechiche

Screenplay: Abdellatif Kechiche, Ghalia Lacroix

Cinematography: Sofian El Fani

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Review

With a best-selling book trilogy and an Oscar winning star in Jennifer Lawrence backing it up, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was always guaranteed to do well but after the muddled mess that was the original, there was no guarantee that Hunger Games 2.0 would be much better. And while a quick summary of the plot may convince some that this story is just a rehash, such fears ultimately prove to be unfounded. Catching Fire is a satisfying experience that lives up to much of the hype.

Not exactly the most original of movie universes, the first Hunger Games come off as very derivative of its various inspirations (there’s a little bit of Twilight and Harry Potter and lots of Battle Royale) but the sequel succeeds in giving more depth and heft to that universe.  Finding ourselves in the dreary locale of District 12, we rejoin Katniss (Lawrence) approximately a year after the events of the original Hunger Games. Residing in the district’s Victors’ Village with her family, Katniss has rekindled her friendship/relationship/whatever with childhood friend Gale (Hemsworth) while also keeping up the pretense of her fairytale romance with Peeta (Hutcherson). Or is it pretense after all?? And more to the point, who really cares? As was the case with the first film, the romance aspect isn’t exactly the highlight here and the acting of both Josh Hutcherson and (especially) Liam Hemsworth is cringeworthy at times (Gale’s occasional use of the pet name of “Katnip” for Katniss is especially forced and awkward). Anyways, back to the actual story. Finding Katniss dangerous and unruly, Snow is desperate for the opportunity to destroy her.  And with the fast approaching 75^th anniversary of the Hunger Games providing Snow the perfect opportunity to dispose of her, Katniss’s worst fears quickly become a terrible reality.

And this is where the movie becomes truly engaging. Pitched as a cat and mouse battle between tyrannical President Snow (Sutherland) and the masses represented by Katniss’s resilience and smouldering defiance, this battle is the clear strong point of Catching Fire. With the districts long abused and downtrodden by the Capitol’s sadistic regime, trouble has been fermenting and Snow can see signs of discontent everywhere. Throw in the Capitol’s totalitarian police force and excess-indulging elites and you have the ingredients of a sure-fire revolution in the making. Where life was once a miserable and meagre existence for many of Panem’s citizens, hope has sprung back to life and Katniss, “The Girl on Fire”, is the symbol of that hope.  But every revolution requires a spark to finally set it off and the feeling of inevitability that the unwilling Katniss will be that first spark hangs heavy over proceedings.

As reluctant a hero as one could possibly be, Katniss is overwhelmed in every aspect of her life. Unsure of her feelings for either Gale or Peeta and uncertain about whether she has the capability or desire to lead a revolution, she is also plagued by nightmares from the traumatic experience of her first games. Expected to lie and deceive and play the part as Snow’s propaganda puppet for the rest of her life, Katniss finds herself in an untenable situation when the safety of her loved ones becomes dependent on her compliance. But the fact that her strength emerges through all of this nonetheless is what makes her character so appealing. Katniss is truly a great character in this series and in what is a rarity in Hollywood, a great female character to boot. Lawrence gives Katniss a depth, maturity and believability that is actually very lacking in the character’s counterpart from the source material.

Continuing a trend witnessed in recent years in major blockbusters such as The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel, Catching Fire is remarkably bleak and depressing for a massive Hollywood mainstream film. Even with a PG-13 rating, the violence on display is frequent and intermittently shocking. And because it takes so long to get into the arena of the Games, it’s easy to think that Catching Fire would be a boring dud but that’s where one would be mistaken. While wholesale killing and mayhem excites this writer as much as the next person, the Games aren’t simply about pitting a group of youngsters against each other in a battle to the death anymore. This time, it’s an arena of political manipulation that is just one piece in the puzzle of the brewing battle for control of Panem. We get a good glimpse at what’s at stake and the first hour and a half builds up well to a final act that brings some much needed action and excitement.

Not everything works as well, however. The movie is at its worst when it forces dialogue and awkward characterization depending on the needs of the screenplay. Cinna, Katniss’s stylist and pseudo-personal life coach, is a perfect example of this but is mercifully not in the movie very much. But while some of the dialogue and acting is generally bad and unnatural, at least there are some slightly more interesting characters at this go around. Respected actors such as Jeffrey Wright and Philip Seymour Hoffman also pop up and lend the film credibility in the supporting character department that was previously sorely lacking.

Verdict: While this second installment of the Hunger Games series isn’t the greatest cinematic achievement, the fact remains that this film delivers as an entertaining blockbuster. The film manages to meld many interesting themes with lots of explosive action and despite the lengthy runtime, it leaves you begging for more once it’s over.

B

Trailer:

Movie info:

Runtime: 146 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson

Director: Francis Lawrence

Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Michael Arndt

Cinematography: Jo Willems

Ultimate 2013 Movie Mashup

Celebrating another year of movie trailers that give away pretty much everything is this awesome mashup of every major film trailer in 2013. Enjoy:

Oldboy Review

Fans of Korean director Chan-wook Park’s 2003 cult classic “Oldboy" were outraged to hear of plans to remake their beloved film for American audiences and even more fans were probably baffled by the announcement that Spike Lee would be directing. Best known for his Malcolm X biopic and his breakout hit Do The Right Thing, it's hard to see thematic parallels between this film's subject matter and the rest of Lee’s filmography and it is also odd to see him remake another director's material. This isn't a Spike Lee joint. Rather, it is simply a Spike Lee film. But the most confusing thing about doing this remake is that is guaranteed to have zero to minimal mainstream appeal to a North American audience that will find many of its more deviously perverted elements less than palatable. Best described as a loony and bonkers mad detective story, the stakes are high and the clues and answers are shocking and fantastically preposterous. A strong suspension of disbelief is required to properly enjoy Oldboy. Otherwise, you'll be in for a very bad time.

A difficult movie to talk about without venturing into spoiler territory, Oldboy is definitely an experience where the less you know the better so consider that a warning before you proceed any further. To begin from the beginning, we are introduced to Joe (Brolin), an instantly unlikeable sleazy slimeball of a guy who also happens to be a raging alcoholic. With a toxic relationship with his ex-wife and a non-existent relationship with his 3 year old daughter Mia, we watch Joe’s dealings with the people in his life and quickly realize this isn't a man many people are going to miss if he should suddenly disappear. And sure enough, Joe encounters an attractive stranger in the middle of one of his nightly booze binges and and he wakes up the next day to quickly realize he’s trapped inside an unfamiliar bedroom. More importantly, he also quickly realizes that someone is intentionally trapping him and ignoring his pleas for help. 

With a camera trained on him 24/7 and sleeping gas released whenever he has to be incapacitated, his mysterious unnamed jailers control every aspect of his life. Allowed only a television and a complete set of the Encyclopedia Britannica to entertain him, Joe slowly begins to lose his mind. He witnesses major world events such as the 9/11 attacks and the inauguration of presidents and also discovers that his ex-wife has been murdered and that he is the chief suspect. His subsequent deterioration is difficult to watch.  He draws a face on his pillowcase with his own blood just to have some semblance of intimacy with something, anything. He attempts suicide by violently slashing his wrist but is prevented from succeeding. He is deprived of any human contact whatsoever and all the while he wonders why him and more importantly, he wonders who is tormenting him? Clinging on to the hope of seeing his daughter again, Joe eventually turns a corner and vows to become a better man for her. And when he is suddenly released after 20 years with only a phone and a bag stuffed with dollar bills in his possession, he follows a trail of evidence that someone has left for him to follow for reasons that he and the audience must discover.

What should be very apparent at this point is that this premise is clearly not a product of the Hollywood conveyor belt system. And it’s pretty obvious to see that the singular strength of both versions of Oldboy is that very unique premise. Unfortunately though, the downfall of both films is the steady unravelling of the strength of that premise when the plot relentlessly stumbles forward into ludicrous and overly absurd territory. Riveting and stylish, the first half of Oldboy makes for some great cinema. The audience is just as much in the dark as the protagonist is and the process of unveiling and discovering the answers and truths behind his mysterious confinement is definitely the most effective aspect of the film. 

And although it obviously owes a huge debt to the original, Oldboy is actually an improvement in certain ways. While most of the major plot points survive and stay the same, the storytelling is much more clear and straightforward in Spike Lee's version. An occasional tip or nod to the Korean original surfaces every now and then and the infamous hammer fight scene is also recreated (but is much less effective). But Lee also adds a couple of new deft touches and visually arresting shot choices throughout and many of the more fanciful and farfetched elements are excised for the benefit of the narrative. However, it could be argued that this comes at the cost of the Korean version's appeal. The original Oldboy is a bonkers mad film that doesn't exist anywhere near anything resembling reality and the film possesses an almost mythical quality of sorts. And therein lies the problem with this new version of Oldboy. It is a pretty faithful remake but it lacks the emotional gut punch quality that makes the original so haunting. A tale steeped in tragedy, the original grapples with our concepts of memory, identity, love and family and twists them on their head. Most of this fails to translate properly in the Spike Lee version. The simple way to describe this new Oldboy would be to call it a redemption and revenge story that acts as an overly elaborate actioner/whodunnit.

As for the cast, Josh Brolin is great at capturing the overall sleaziness of pre-incarceration Joe and is also adept at portraying the lethal and unstable Joe caught in the midst of his madcap pursuit for answers. He doesn't go as full on batshit crazy as Joe's Korean counterpart does but his performance is solid and serves the film well. Sadly, Elizabeth Olsen is shortchanged in her role as Marie, a kindly young social worker who decides to help an unstable Joe in his quest. Despite the fact that she is a pivotal character in the events to come, she has very little work to do here; Brolin is the centerpiece of this film. Old Spike Lee favorites Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Imperioli also pop up in supporting roles. 

Verdict: Although it sticks very close to the original and lacks some of its bite and depth, the American version of Oldboy is still eminently watchable and exceedingly entertaining, especially in the first forty minutes or so as the audience struggles along with Joe to figure things out. Go along for the ride with an open state of mind and you will most likely leave confounded, yet oddly satisfied.

B-

Notes (SPOILERS):

-As Joe’s revenge seeking tormentor, Sharlto Copley somehow manages to be even more ridiculous and over the top than he was with his villainous performance in last summer’s Elysium. It is a campy performance that you would normally find in a bad B action movie but it fits oddly well within Oldboy's bizarre fantasy world. 

-Watch out for some great unintentionally hilarious moments that show up when Copley’s character’s unbelievably implausible motive and methods are finally revealed.

-Some of the more shocking elements are toned down for the Hollywoodized version but not by as much as many film critics will have you believe. The only significant toning down to be found is in the ending. To avoid major spoilers, it suffices to say that the Hollywood version’s ending is pretty much exactly that: a Hollywood ending that, although still shocking, plays it much safer than the Korean version (the Korean film's ending, on the other hand, is pretty much a diabolical perversion of the stereotypical Hollywood ending). 

Trailer:

Movie info:

Runtime: 104 minutes

MPAA Rating: R

Cast: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Sharlto Copley, Samuel L. Jackson

Director: Spike Lee

Screenplay: Mark Protosevich

Cinematography: Sean Bobbitt