OlderBoy

We turn now to the American remake, because god forbid the idea of Hollywood coming up with their own ideas.

The plot is largely the same as the Korean version, except... and this is a big except...

I don't know if this is because the American writers didn't get it, or they thought Americans wouldn't get it / be able to put up with it. The original is two hours, this is one hour forty-five, and the missing section is basically: the emotional core. The characters, in the original, have time to develop the emotional link, and we think there is something there. Here, it's just "they are together, because they are man and woman and this is how movies work". There's nothing. And the villain of the piece doesn't get any real fun, and doesn't get to fully establish himself either. It feels a lot less personal here than in the original, and that just pisses me off.

Josh Brolin is fine, but everyone else is largely one-note, because of this drive of the plot to be about the action and miss the point of the story. And yes, they re-do the corridor sequence, but of course make it longer because this is the remake. I can see that being the one piece of this movie that people will talk about as they do the original.

If this is all you see, fine, but check out the original for the actual movie.

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