49
Metascore
41 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 83IndieWireEric KohnIndieWireEric KohnIt's been so long since Lee made such a thoroughly amusing work that fans should have no problem excusing its messiness. But make no mistake... Oldboy is all over the place, sometimes playing like a subdued melodrama and elsewhere erupting into flamboyance and gore.
- 70Arizona RepublicKerry LengelArizona RepublicKerry LengelSurprisingly, the movie doesn’t bear much of the stylistic stamp we’ve come to expect of Lee, who’s in his generic journeyman mode here. But aside from a satisfyingly clever new direction in the denouement, what distinguishes the remake from the original is its cartoonishness.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeWhile Lee leaves some of Park's more memorable outrages behind, he and screenwriter Mark Protosevich find one or two ways to up the taboo-testing ante, small surprises that retain the tale's edge without pushing into the realm of exploitation.
- 60New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierLeave it to Spike Lee to deliver one of the strangest, most off-putting movies for the Thanksgiving holiday.
- 58Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallTampa Bay TimesSteve PersallSpike Lee's remake of 2003's Oldboy is as brutally perplexing as the South Korean original, and needless for both its repetition and tweaks. Nothing is really lost in translation, or gained.
- 42The PlaylistCharlie SchmidlinThe PlaylistCharlie SchmidlinWhile Lee edges in enough unique elements to argue a second look at the brutal revenge tale, his lean, blackly comic result is transcendent only in fits and starts, stripping away much of its thematic and emotional heft into one of the most frustratingly accomplished disappointments this year.
- 39Film.comDavid EhrlichFilm.comDavid EhrlichA slumming Spike Lee is still better than most directors at the top of their game, but Oldboy isn’t just Lee’s worst movie, it’s practically his “Wicker Man”.
- 38Slant MagazineJesse CataldoSlant MagazineJesse CataldoSpike Lee's version loses the one thing that really worked in the original, the sense of moral complication emerging out of the intertwined action of two men hell-bent on retribution.
- 38Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsChicago TribuneMichael PhillipsThe revenge in Oldboy is neither sweet nor sour; it's just drab.
- 30VarietyJustin ChangVarietyJustin ChangLee and Protosevich have made a picture that, although several shades edgier than the average Hollywood thriller, feels content to shadow its predecessor’s every move while falling short of its unhinged, balls-out delirium.