The first hour or so of Lee's 'Oldboy' is so gripping that it's dispiriting to watch the wheels fall off the wagon so spectacularly in the third act.

| Jun 18, 2016

Everything is wrong with [Spike] Lee's version of Park Chan-wook's notorious, super-violent super-action-thriller. For one thing, it's far from super. Not the quality, per se (although, for Lee, that's off, too), but the energy.

| Dec 10, 2013

Viewers new to Oldboy will appreciate Lee's affecting and entertaining tale of a man unjustly imprisoned. Fans of Park's film-and there are many wildly loyal ones-will likely be far less impressed.

| Dec 9, 2013

Other than catering to an audience unwilling to read subtitles, it's hard to see what Spike Lee has brought to the table ...

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 8, 2013

A misguided, if visually polished, remake of Park Chan-wook's violent revenge thriller.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2013

The facsimile is pointless but dependable until Lee and his screenwriter add increasingly ludicrous embellishments.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 6, 2013

This Oldboy is another pointless remake, and I couldn't swallow it.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 5, 2013

Lee and his cameraman film from the floor, the ceiling, the drainpipes: anywhere to lend novelty, or fresh perspective, to tired, trashy material.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 5, 2013

A garish reproduction that never pretends to know who it's for.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 5, 2013

Why would we want to watch a chronicle of Joe's agonies, and the agonies he gets to inflict on others? Passing it up would be the best revenge.

Full Review | Dec 2, 2013

Hollywood's wildest cinematic freakout since "Shutter Island" is a remake of-and an improvement on-the Korean original, from 2003.

| Dec 2, 2013

A vivid yet academic remake, this Oldboy is shorter, leaner and lesser.

| Nov 29, 2013

Much of the dialogue is stilted (several scene are laughable) and the melodrama feels unmoored without the lurid, baroque atmosphere of Park's film -- which, after all, was kind of the whole point.

| Original Score: C- | Nov 28, 2013

Despite striking visuals and Josh Brolin's all-in performance, the new 'Oldboy' fails to build a riveting, believable mystery strong enough to support its big twist.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 27, 2013

Lee does right by the story, or as right as the MPAA allowed him, but like so many Americanized versions of Asian groundbreakers, I ultimately found myself asking "Why?"

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 27, 2013

Oldboy is lively but numb - checked out, as if Lee were directing it following a period of intense convalescence.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 27, 2013

Viewers who are coming to it cold will, most likely, leave feeling enervated, confused, and queasy.

| Nov 27, 2013

What's onscreen feels squeezed, truncated and curiously embalmed. It's got no kick to it... Oldboy just lies there like old news that's not worth a second thought.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 27, 2013

Joe walks out of his prison cell with a singular sense of focus; Lee's Oldboy never achieves anything like that kind of clarity.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 27, 2013

Lee's is more of a hard-edged, hammer-and-nail noir than Park's existential horror, and it's far less concerned with the internal state of Joe's mind than the external havoc it creates.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 27, 2013