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Posted By: horrorking95 at 12:41pm, October 24, 2009
This is a really fantastic film don't get me wrong but it really isn't as amazing as people make out it to be. The plot is fantastically original and really gripping, you don't want to miss a single frame because your hooked from the moment it starts. The twist really is sick and twisted, you won't believe it when it's revealed. My complaint would be that sometimes it got a bit discombobulating and in the middle of one scene another scene would suddenly appear and you'd think, OH! Where are we now? But watch it, it's fantastic you won't regret it! I love having a poo
Once again the best ideas come from the East and Europe.
I consider myself quite a big fan of Park Chan Wook movies, but I still preferr this one over all the others.
Catching, surprising, confusing before getting real clear.
In a word: AMAZING
This is the sort of movie that you don't to be hyped up. That being said, writing a review is essentially impossible cause I don't want to higher anyone's expectations beyond what they'll ultimately experience.
If you watch this movie simply cause you're a fan of Korean cinema, or thrillers in general, you'll have a fucking blast. Guaranteed. But if you let the hype get to you, you'll just come out the other end feeling like you just saw any other "good" movie.
That being said, I love this movie. One of my favorites. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
I really like the movie and the seens with him going after the people was great....the plot was great.....it had the sickest twist his own daughter man that is so fucked up....its worth seeing.
I LOVED this movie, and I HATE asain films. Anyone who could watch audition and oldboy and claim that audition is anywhere close is full of shit. In my opinion this movie shouldn't be reviewed on this sight because its not really (nor does it try to be) a horror movie. Wonderfully directed and acted this is a classic. Please Spielberg and The Fresh Prince don't touch this one.
I'll have to agree with most everyone else who's posted on Oldboy that this film is a grand piece of work. Indeed, it is heartfelt and genuine, as well as incredibly acted by our three main performers. Unfortunately for a gore hound like me, this has not met the expectation everyone else had set for me. This is definately something I do not regret seeing as the cinematography and direction where beautifully done. But please, don't believe the hype that this film is overly disturbing or gruesome... this is just a falsity.
i like this movie alot bit it isn't as good as the other vengeance movies
Posted By: gorehound62 at 6:23pm, November 18, 2008
im asianed out. but this was great. good revenge story. i found myself really caring about the main character. the ending is one of the most shocking ones youll ever witness. outstanding.
fuck the haters!!! this is a brilliant film. I bought the three disk version and I have the other two movies in the vengence trilogy. do yourself a favor and get a copy and give it a look, you wont be sorry.
Posted By: StayPuft138 at 4:33pm, October 22, 2008
The first time that I watched this movie I was amazed and I still am to this day at how Epic it is. Although, I heard that there was a Manga series that this film is based on and I thought, "COOL!" because I'm into that kinda thing. I expected relevance and I delved into the 8-part series with no review or insight on it. A thought now is that the film butchered the concept it's like the first volume was the only thing that was read. It's a disappointment to the manga but if you're evaluating the film and the film alone then it's pretty remarkable but don't bother comparing it to the manga series.
Posted By: turtlenipple at 5:43pm, September 26, 2008
Jacques probably had sex with one of his relatives on accident and this movie hit a certain nerve with him.
Oldboy is an amazing movie that I hold high above any greek play or modern melodrama and is one of my favorite modern 'films' to come out overseas in quite some time.
Posted By: turtlenipple at 5:33pm, September 26, 2008
Jacques probably had sex with one of his relatives on accident and this movie hit a certain nerve with him.
Oldboy is an amazing movie that I hold high above any greek play or modern melodrama and is one of my favorite modern 'films' to come out overseas in quite some time.
jacque is a dummy. i don't think he saw the same movie i did. i saw oldboy once, three years ago and i still remember it vividly. i love the action sequences and the humor. i highly recomend it
Let me get this out of the way before I trash this film: I love Park Chan-Wook’s work as a director. While I disagree with the masses saying he’s is the best director working in our time, I can’t deny that he understands how to use a camera very effectively. I really liked one of his other films, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. Also, Min-sik Choi’s acting was the only thing that allowed me to take this film seriously . . . for 1/5 of the runtime, that is.
Now the bad:
The plot is simply the oldest cliché used in cinema/literature. I’ll never understand how critics can trash a Hollywood blockbuster for being cliché, then hail movies like Oldboy which are just as unoriginal and clichéd if not even more so. Regardless, Oldboy is flat-out one of the most generic, unoriginal movies ever conceived. *Spoilers* Man is held captive, man seeks revenge, man finds out he had sex with a family member, man’s life is over. *End spoilers* Simply put, this plotline has been used in everything from Greek plays to modern melodramatic soap operas and countless movies/books in between. It is so melodramatic and unoriginal when the major reveal happens, I laughed out loud. Does that mean I’m a desensitized freak without emotions as some reviews of this film say about people like me? No. What it means overdone plots make people laugh. The Scary Movie franchise proved that, and Oldboy proved it as well. Why can’t people think of something that is truly disturbing instead of just spewing out tried clichés masked with fancy camerawork and classical music?
That brings up the issue of blood/gore. Simply put, it isn’t there. The director is too timid to even point the camera at the screen when something “gory” happens, as if we’re watching a children’s movie or something. Maybe we were. Anyway, I’ve heard Oldboy called the “most brutal movie of all time” and “the most disturbing movie ever” but when I watched it I failed to see ANYTHING even remotely gory or disturbing. All the “gore” is off-screen, and even then the violence level is nothing you haven’t seen in PG-13 movies like The Dark Knight or Casino Royale before. Why this even got an R-rating confuses me, much less “the most brutal movie of all time”. Seriously, I’ve seen movies that just make Oldboy look cute on every level when it comes to violence/gore.
The other huge glaring, cheesy flaw is the main villain. The majority of his screen time he’s showing his bare butt off for the audience in comedic American Pie-style, but I’m supposed to think he’s oh-so-evil? When he’s wearing clothes, his hair is slicked back like a bad Asian mix of the cheesiest James Bond villain mixed with something out of Austin Powers. He talks like a brain-dead teenager recovering from an acid overdose, and his dialogue is so bad it had me laughing yet again. Seriously, Oldboy had me laughing more than any comedy this year . . .
In the end, Oldboy is for those of you who sip fine wine, have no sense of humor, and talk about how boring your lives are at dinner parties. It’s for those people who are so stuck up in their own ego they forgot how unoriginal they are, and consequently forgot how unoriginal and boring the “films” (never “movies”) they enjoy are.
To those people all I can say is this: I like “films” and also like “movies”. I like thoughtful dramas that actually say something about the human condition, and I also like pointless action movies that thrill me into a coma. But the thing is, for me to like both “films” and “movies”, they have to be original. They have to be something I haven’t seen so many times I lost count of the number of times the plot has been used. When something isn’t original, it’s expendable. If it does exactly what everyone else does, it’s forgettable and boring. Before you give Oldboy yet another perfect rating because it “touched” you, maybe you should think about something: wouldn’t a movie equally as touching, but at the same time original make you think more?
I just wish someone other than me would understand this.
when i first got this movie with some birthday money i had and me and two other friends first watched this movie we all were blown away. this is the movie that got me hooked on asian cinema and foriegn films. if you like movies that turn your stomach and wrench your heart this is it. Oldboy is the best out of the vengeance trilogy.
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