“Oldboy” is the second remake in as many months (following Kimberly Peirce’s new take on “Carrie”) to claim more fealty to its source material than to its cinematic predecessor, and the second to cower in the shadow of both. Based on the same comic book as Park Chan-Wook’s 2005 film of the same name, Spike Lee‘s version offers no extra dimensions to its perfectly effed-up revenge story, instead reducing a brilliant examination of pain inflicted and repaid to the stuff of a slightly twisted star vehicle.
Josh Brolin plays Joe Doucett, a boozy ad executive who scuttles a make-or-break deal after propositioning his client’s wife.